10 Horrifying Facts about Persian Immortals
10.
The Name
According to Greek Historian, Herodotus, the Immortals always had 10,000 men in their unit,
no more and no less.
If one died, or got sick, or something else went wrong, he was immediately replaced by
another soldier.
This gave the impression that the unit was full of immortal beings, because their numbers
never dwindled.
In order to become an Immortal, the warrior had to be Persian born and training started
at an early age.
When a space opened up in the Immortal unit, the leaders picked from the best soldiers
from the lower groups of warriors, which were the Sparabara and the Takabara.
Besides ranking below the Immortals, not much is known about either group.
9.
Their Size of the Persian Army
Compared to some of their enemies, like the Greeks, the Persians didn’t have the best
weapons.
While they did have scaled armor, they used shields made from wood and wicker, which wasn’t
much help against something like the Spartans’ swords and spears.
Instead of relying on the strength of their weapons, the Persians tried to intimidate
their enemies with the sheer size of their army, which Herodotus said was 3 million strong
under Xerxes.
However, modern day researchers do not think that figure is anywhere close to correct.
It was actually probably more like 70,000 infantry and 9,000 horsemen, which is still
a massive number of soldiers.
Also travelling with the army were caravans with concubines and servants that the Immortals
were allowed to bring along with them, which would have made the advancing army look even
bigger.
Based on the size of their army alone, some cities surrendered upon seeing the Persian
forces advance towards them.
8.
Training
The training of Persian Immortals was difficult and it started early.
From birth, boys were kept separate from their fathers until the age of five, then they would
be taken to start their warrior training.
It involved a wide range of skill development, including archery, fighting, how to live off
the land, they practiced standing guard, they trained for arduous marches (Hikes?), and
finally every Persian boy in training needed to know how to tame a wild horse.
They would enter military service when they were 15-years-old and would remain a soldier
until the age of 50 when they could finally retire, providing they lived that long.
Once they entered military service, they either became foot soldiers or cavalry, but it wasn’t
a permanent placement as the most skilled veterans were able to serve in both units.
The soldiers were also trained in both archery and hand-to-hand combat, which maximized the
effectiveness of their already overwhelmingly massive army.
7.
War Practice
A big problem with the Persian army was the logistics of moving everyone and sometimes
that meant the soldiers had a lot of downtime.
So what did they do to pass the time?
How about hunt lions, panthers, and cheetahs?
What’s interesting is that the Immortals were allowed to bring caravans with them on
their travels and these caravans would be full of food, so they didn’t hunt the big
cats because they were hungry.
Instead, hunting the big cats was a form of practice that kept their battle skills sharp,
and they would have used the skins to decorate their caravans and their uniforms.
The skins would be a sign of the Immortal’s bravery and skill.
Since these hunts were so dangerous, they were usually only performed by high ranking
Immortals.
6.
Cavalry
While the Persians weapons didn’t help them win their wars against the Greeks and the
Macedonians, one definite advantage the Immortals’ weapons had over enemy forces is that most
of their weapons were versatile and could be used on horseback.
This would make their light weapons incredibly dangerous, because on horseback, it would
allow them to get more force behind their blunt force weapons and their razor sharp
spears.
Another innovative way that the Persians used their cavalry was scythed chariots.
Scythed chariots were invented in the early days of the empire and was used all the way
up until their downfall in 330 B.C.
The scythed chariots were tall, so only a small part of the driver was exposed above
the rim.
Attached to each axle were two-foot-long iron blades that spun and it would cut through
their enemies’ legs.
It wasn’t a clean cut either, the blades churned and ground through the skin, muscle,
nerves, and bones of the legs.
Besides chariots and men on horseback, the Persians used camel riders and in one battle
they brought 10 war elephants with them, but not much was written about their animal war
unit.
5.
The Apple Bearers
The weapon predominantly used by the Immortals was their spears.
They were often six feet long with a razor sharp bronze or iron broad leaf-style spearhead
at one end and a metal counterbalance at the other end.
This counter balance was also used as a blunt force weapon.
Often these counter balances were in the shape of fruit and they denoted rank.
The most common was pomegranates.
However, the 1,000 most elite of the Immortals had an apple counterbalance and these “Apple
Bearers” were the bodyguards of the Emperor.
These soldiers were the best warriors chosen from the most elite military unit in the biggest
army in Ancient history.
They guarded the palace and their spears were much longer, six-to-eight feet long.
If the Emperor left the palace, they completely surrounded him, making it nearly impossible
to reach the Persian Emperor, thus guaranteeing his safety.
4.
Armed to the Teeth
Most of the Immortals’ weapons were fairly lightweight, which did have its downside,
but one major benefit is that it allowed them to carry multiple weapons at once.
Foot soldiers carried at least a short sword, a spear, a quiver full of arrows, a bow, and
a shield.
As for the horsemen, they carried a bronze shield, 120 arrows, an iron mace, and two
iron spears.
For protection, the Immortals and other soldiers wore scaled bronze and iron armor that would
glitter in the sunlight.
This would increase their visibility when advancing on cities.
3.
Battle Tactics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdDdHMwhU2s
Persian arrows where thin and only really effective within a 120 yard range.
But again, this is where their numbers came in handy because they would launch wave after
wave of thousands of arrows.
According to one Greek soldier who survived a battle against the Persian army, their arrows
“blacked out the sky.”
How the Achaemenid army was usually formed was archers were at the front, to their sides
were the cavalry, and the archers were supported by light and heavy infantry.
The first wave of attacks bombarded the enemy with arrows and men with sling shots would
fling rocks, and later pieces of lead, at the enemy’s frontline.
This would frighten the enemy and then they were simply overwhelmed by the sheer manpower
of the Persian infantry units.
Due to the size of their army and military tactics, the Achaemenid Empire became the
biggest empire of its time, spanning 3.4 million square miles.
It extended from Anatolia and Egypt across western Asia to northern India and Central
Asia.
In fact, it holds the record for highest percentage of the world population under its control.
Out of the 112.4 million people alive in 480 B.C., 50 million, which is 44 percent of all
humans on Earth, lived under the Achaemenid Empire.
2.
The Sagaris
A favorite weapon of the Immortals was the Sagaris, which was a slender handled war ax.
On the head of the ax, there was a traditional flat ax blade, but on the other side was a
sharp point that could pierce iron and bronze armor.
Since the ax was so light, it could be used with one hand, and it was usually swung overhand.
Since it could be used one-handed it was popular for fighting in hand-to-hand combat, as well
as on horseback.
In fact, a Sagaris almost killed Alexander the Great at the Battle of the Granicus in
334 BC, which was the first battle between the Persians and the Macedonians.
During the battle, Spithridates, a Persian commander, and his brother happened upon Alexander
who was on horseback.
A fight ensued and Spithridates hit Alexander in the head with the ax and it cut all the
way down to Alexander’s scalp.
When Spithridates raised the Sagaris again to deliver the death blow, one of Alexander’s
men drove a spear through Spithridates, killing him.
Alexander would go on to conquer the entirety of the Achaemenid Empire within four years
of nearly being killed by the Persian war ax.
1.
Psychological Warfare
While often referred to as barbarians by the Greeks, the Immortals were more interested
in psychological warfare than winning through force and brutality.
One of their more famous uses of this psychological warfare happened in 525 B.C. during the Battle
of Pelusium, and it is believed that it all started over a woman.
Supposedly, Emperor Cambyses II of the Achaemenid Empire wanted to marry the daughter of Amasis,
the Pharaoh of Egypt.
Amasis was worried that his daughter could become his concubine instead of his wife and
he didn’t want to hand over his daughter.
Instead, Amasis disguised the daughter of the previous ruler and sent her in place of
his own daughter.
When Cambyses discovered the fraud, he decided to take over Egypt.
Before attacking them, Cambyses hatched a plan based on the fact that he knew that the
Egyptians worshiped cats, specifically they had a beloved cat goddess named Bastet.
Cambyses ordered his men to paint cats on their shields and when they went into battle,
they had herds of cats walk in front of them.
Supposedly, some Egyptian soldiers refused to fight and they were slaughtered.
50,000 Egyptians in all were killed in the battle, while the Persians only lost 7,000
men.
It was a decisive victory for Cambyses and the Persians easily took over the city and
Cambyses installed himself as Pharaoh.