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Really only 300 Spartans

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  Quote Adalwolf Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Really only 300 Spartans
    Posted: 26-Oct-2007 at 13:21
well if you've seen 300, you know it probably only took 30 spartans to hold hte persians.... LOL

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
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  Quote opuslola Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-Jul-2011 at 21:36
If I might well opine, most of the above responses were composed of garbage!

Of course it is far easier to state now since all but one of the respondents are now dead!

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  Quote red clay Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26-Jul-2011 at 09:24
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.
If I didn't know better, I'd say you were trolling, but you never do anything like that.Wink
 
 
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  Quote TheAlaniDragonRising Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08-Jan-2012 at 13:42
Is it possible that such a small number of fighting men could hold off a huge number for a while before being wiped out? The answer is yes. If you are fighting in a bottle neck, only a few of the enemy can get at you at a time. In fact the large numbed force can be a danger to itself. At the actual battle of Stirling Bridge, and not the one on Braveheart, the English Knights had to cross a bridge where only two of them could ride side by side, and were easily killed when they got to the other end. It was a total blood bath. Though in that case the Scots won, and their enemy didn't out number them by the same proportions as in this case. In the end the "300" were still killed.
What a handsome figure of a dragon. No wonder I fall madly in love with the Alani Dragon now, the avatar, it's a gorgeous dragon picture.
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  Quote opuslola Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16-Nov-2013 at 21:35
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
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  Quote TheAlaniDragonRising Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16-Nov-2013 at 23:43
Not sure that that a figure of 50,000 cavalry is that impossible, opuslola, as long as we assume they were rolling and not static for too long. If we look at Mongol forces, they come across problems moving great numbers of mounted men. It is thought how they could not sustain more than four Tumen(forty thousand) men in one fighting force at a time when in India. Of course the Mongol mounts were considerably smaller than our modern mounts, say 600lbs in contrast to 1000lbs. This said the Mongol warrior tended to take three or four extra mounts with them too. 

Edited by TheAlaniDragonRising - 16-Nov-2013 at 23:43
What a handsome figure of a dragon. No wonder I fall madly in love with the Alani Dragon now, the avatar, it's a gorgeous dragon picture.
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  Quote Yugoslav Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19-Nov-2013 at 06:08
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.

Even that is far too much. Unless, of course, you include all of the supporting personnel together and not just the fighters. 
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