PERSIAN EMPIRE (CA. 538–CA. 331 B.C.E.)
Th e Persian Empire is also known as the Achaemenid Em-
pire, named for its founder Achaemenes (r. ca. 600s b.c.e.).
Th e fi rst great Persian military leader was Cyrus the Great (r.
ca. 559–ca. 529 b.c.e.). Persian soldiers were especially skilled
in the use of slings and bows and arrows, perhaps a result of
their origin in mountains in Iran, where hunting with such
weapons would have been important. Although the Persians
borrowed much of their military organization from that of
the Assyrians, horses were rarely used by them in Cyrus the
Great’s era, relegating chariots to minor roles, whereas the in-
fantry was of primary importance.
As was the case with the Assyrians, archers were very
important to the Persian Empire. Th e Persians imitated the
combining of shield bearers with archers, but they massed
their archers behind a line of shield bearers. Th e shields were
made of rectangles of leather stretched over rodlike wil-
low twigs called osiers, and then the leather was allowed to
harden, creating a tough but easily lift ed shield. Th e shield
bearers would form a line, one next to the other, allowing
their shields to create a long, tall wall, behind which archers,
also arrayed in lines, fi red their arrows in volleys. Unfortu-
nately, the shield bearers lacked weapons other than daggers
for close-quarters fi ghting, a problem the Persian army con-
tinually tried to solve by experimenting with diff erent kinds
of weapons such as spears and curved swords.
Th e core of the army was the king’s spearmen, the arsti-
bara. Aft er them came the amrtaka (“immortals”), a division
of troops that gained its name from its never being allowed to
be short of troops; its strength was always at 10,000. Th e ma-
jor unit of the army was the hazarabam, the regiment, which
had 1,000 troops. Its commanding offi cer was the hazarapatis.
Th e hazarabam was divided into 10 units of 100 troops. Each
unit was a satabam, commanded by a satapatis. Each satabam
was divided into 10 companies of 10 men each. A company
was a dathabam. On the battlefi eld each dathabam would be
lined up in a column perpendicular to the front line, with its
leader, the dathapatis, in front. Th e dathapatis carried a 6-
foot spear or a large protective shield. Th e other nine soldiers
in his company carried either bows or falchions, which were
curved swords. When all the men behind the company lead-
ers had bows and arrows, the company leaders would form a
protective line of shields.
All Persian men were expected to serve in the army. A
boy lived with his mother, apart from his father, until age fi ve
and then with his father, apart from his mother, until age 20,
during which time he learned skills important to combat.
From 20 to 24 years of age a man served in the army. His
period of enlistment could be extended, and he was subject to
recall to military service until he was 50 years old.
As he conquered much of the Near East, Cyrus the Great
relied on vassal troops to supplement his core of Persian in-
fantry, especially vassal cavalry. Cyrus the Great decided that
his army should have a cavalry composed of Persians. Th ushe established a new unit of the army composed of horseback
riders. When horses and their supplies were captured in his
campaigns, he distributed them among his nobility. Th en he
declared that it would be considered a disgrace for any noble
to be seen walking rather than riding. Th e cavalry would
be considered an elite unit. Th e most prestigious unit of all
would be the 1,000 horsemen drawn from the nobility and
called the huvaka (“king’s kinsmen”).
Not much is known about the organization of the Persian
navy. It was developed during the reign of Cambyses (r. ca.
529–ca. 522 b.c.e.) as a response to the Egyptian navy, which
had helped thwart Persian eff orts to invade Egypt. It appar-
ently borrowed ideas from the Corinthian navy, dividing its
ships into units of 30 as the Corinthians did. When it was sent
into battle against the Greeks in the 400s b.c.e., the Persian
navy was decisively defeated. Military historians debate why
this happened, but it appears that the Greek navy was more
ably led and its sailors more skilled at the techniques required
to disable enemy ships.
Th e failure of the Persian army to defeat the Greeks, fi rst
at Marathon in 490 b.c.e. and later with a massive army of
between 700,000 and 1,500,000 troops, seems to have been
a shock to the Near East. Th e perplexing methods of combat
of the Scythians had been only an annoyance. Th e Scythians
used archers on horseback, who attacked and then rode away,
attacked again and rode away, and so on until the Persians
stopped chasing them. In the case of the Greeks the Persians
fought an enemy willing to engage in large battles of massed
infantry and horsemen.
Th e Persian soldiers were courageous and determined
fi ghters, but their commanders had no answer for the Greek
soldier called a hoplite. Th e hoplites were members of heavy
infantry, armed with spears and protected by shields that
strapped to their forearms, allowing for a wide range of
motion. Holding their shields high for protection from the
Persian archers and covered by the fi re of Greek archers, the
hoplites were swift l y able to take advantage of changing con-
ditions on the battlefi eld to close in on Persian units of ar-
chers. When the Greek style of fi ghting combined with the
genius of Alexander the Great, the Persians oft en found their
units outmaneuvered. From 336 to 328 b.c.e. Alexander the
Great fought Persia, conquering the country just fi ve years
before his death in 323 b.c.e.IRANIAN EMPIRES
One of Alexander the Great’s generals, Seleucus I (r. ca. 311–
ca. 281 b.c.e.), founded the Seleucid Kingdom (ca. 311–ca.
140 b.c.e.). Th e Seleucid army was most notable for its cav-
alry, which was probably the best in the Near East in the 100s
b.c.e., but they were overcome by the Parthians, who were
also famous for their cavalry. Th e Parthians had migrated
into Iran from central Asia. Th e Arsacid Dynasty of Parthia
was founded by Arsaces I (r. ca. 250–ca. 248 b.c.e.) and lasted
from about 250 b.c.e. to 226 c.e. It was King Mithridates I (r.
ca. 174–ca. 136 b.c.e.) who toppled the Seleucid Kingdom.1134 war and conquest: The Middle East0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i1134 1134 10/10/07 2:31:12 PM