The Battle of Gaugamela

30,000 to 31,000 isnt much of a difference. In fact, in all actuality, there is no difference.

Actually, each of my post are exactly the same, with the exception of deciding to bring the army down from 200,000 to 100,000. And yes, the Macedonian army was more than likely 30-31,000 strong.

I am not saying Alexander was not a great tactician, or that the Macedonian was not a great commander, he was. The logistics of fielding an army over 80,000 in 331 B.C would have been very difficult. You have to feed your army, you have to provide water, there must be forms of entertainment, there must be shelter, and there must be serivces, such as medical services. A waste-cleaning service would have to be present as well(at least 35,000 people going to the john each day at one location, without a john). On top of the original 80,000 there would be thousands more to fill in the elements of fielding an army.

The Persian army, or in this case every army needs food/water, entertainment/services, and shelter. An army of one million soldiers would need a tremendous number of caravans, pack animals, concubines, entertainers (singers, dancers, etc), doctors, waiters, guards, etc. This adds to the total amount of the previous one million. Each man would roughly recieve 1.85 gallons of water a day. The total amount of water per day to sustain an army of that size would cost 1,850,000 gallons or 7,705.25 tons of water each day. A comfortable cargo weight for a camel is 330 pounds, but can carry as much as 990 pounds. If each camel carried 990 pounds, the Persians would need a total of 15,567 camels. If each camel carried 330 pounds, Darius would need 46,699 camels. The camels would also have to take a day's break every 3 days or so to rest. The Perians would need extra camels to fill in for the resting camels if they wanted water each day. These are the amounts without deducting the water taken in by the staff and animals. Remember, this is for one day only, if the army intended to remain together for one week, the amount of water would add up to 12,950,000 gallons or 53,936.75 tons of water. This is leaving out the food as well, which would be substantial if the men were to remain ready and tough for the battle. This would be nearly impossible to accomplish, expecialy if the army were to stay for a long period of time.

Not a dumb question at all Justinian, it was better to clear that up for other members who thought the same thing.