Really only 300 Spartans

Originally posted by Emperor Barbarossa I agree with Spartan about the Persians. 250,000 men could never have been assembled, their army was probably around 40-80,000.

This is my first message to this site in a few years. I have been in suspended animation for this time period. Smile

But, even with the best sources, the majority of respondents to this site, use figures like 250,000 men with impunity. Even using the lower figures we see the so called Persian army at a strength of 40.000 to 80,000 fighting men. But I find numbers like that impossible to imagine, there was even one post where the number of horses used by the Persian cavalry amounted to 50,000. Well in WW-I and WW-II there were probably more than 50,000 equines in use, and perhaps 100,000. But in ancient times and even in Medieval times such numbers are impossible to believe. Even the transport and feeding and care of 5,000 horses/mules are impossible for me to believe in those times. 500 to 700 horses I conclude would just about be the limit. Just getting them water would present a great chore, unless every battle was conducted along a good water way. And even then, herds of horses are very easily spooked and scared away, by just a few men.

Just as a note, it does seem that these armies did their best to advance alongside of just such water ways. You must realize that the human body cannon exist for long on the same water that horses and cattle drink, at least not today. Without clean or alcohol purified water, like wine and Ale or Beer, an army will quickly shit itself to death.

I thus promote a Liberal figure of 10,000 to 20,000 people in the so called Persian army and that included all of the forces, and 5,000 to 8,000 defenders. A field army of 5,000 men at arms including horse mounted troops, would be a good figure for the Persians and an army of 1,200 to 2,500 for the defenders.

Glad to be back in the fold.

Regards, Ron

You make a statement dismissing all before you as Garbage, you had better have a very good line of reasoning of your own.  And dismissing the former members as "dead" doesn't validate your claims.

well if you've seen 300, you know it probably only took 30 spartans to hold hte persians.... 

nah, it was about 7500 greeks in the first day/days of fighting, then the 300 spartans (probably with a few helots[taking an edu-macated guess]) and what...700? thespians fought to the death to hold the Persians back.


Edited by Adalwolf - 26-Oct-2007 at 13:22

A massive Persian army invades - and only a tiny handful of Greeks fight ...?

Herodotus says most of the Greeks were participating at the Olympic Games at the time of the battle.

and only a tiny handful of Greeks fight ...?

 

It only appears that way by looking at Thermopylae in isolation. The position at Thermopylae was just a holding action and anchor for the Greek fleet fighting at Artemisium. Given that size of the Greek fleet over 330 ships and an average crew size of 200 (a low estimate) the total number of soldier and sailors and Thermopylae/ Artemisium was likely close to 70,000.

Edited by Darius of Parsa - 16-Oct-2007 at 04:51

Originally posted by sirius99 History documentary?! Hoow.

Actually I put it there for history genuises like yourself to disprove and prove wrong with accurate sources. Since the three historians in that documentary, Steven Pressfield(Gates of Fire), Paul Cartledge(Professor of greek history, U of Cambridge) and Richard Billows(Ancient Greek Proffesor U of columbia, BA from oxford university) obviously know nothing. However you present us with 3 words of dribble..... Disappointing


Edited by Gundamor - 11-Apr-2007 at 00:17

Originally posted by Gundamor http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6BDHGa4CEYhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2IaHcshiwA&mode=related&search=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mzmzxpsabU&mode=related&search=

Lol @ History Channel

If you were looking for a Historical movie Kashmiri, then you went to watch the wrong movie. It was based on a comic and the Director said that when he went to choose whether to follow history or the comic, he chose the comic first.