Interesting. Herodotus gives some really incredible numbers for Xerxes invasion force – around one million if I remember correctly – and a lot of people chalk it up to him being basically unreliable about a whole lot of things (flying snakes, ants as big as dogs, and so on). But maybe his totals are actually closer to the reality of what a giant empire like Persia could raise?
According to Herodotus Persia mustered 1,700,000 infantrymen, 80,000 horsemen, 1,207 animals, and 3,000 cargo ships at the same time and in one place. So no, not really.
It’s not entirely impossible that Persia could be able to overally muster 1800000 men, since the total population was around 50 million, but gathering them all in one place and leading such mass of people to the small, far and poor Greece was nonsense, not to mention the logistics was impossible on this scale.
Most likely total Persian force in entire war was between 120000 to 180000, which is still huge number for those times and place, so no wonder Greeks freaked out. Note that even those numbers probably never gathered in the one place at the same time.
At the battle of Platea Greeks scraped the barrel completely and might actually even have numerical advantage.
Yes, I suppose logistics are the big problem with Herodotus’ numbers. I imagine supply for an army that size would be complicated even with modern transportation, let alone when everything had to be transported by foot, horse, or (sail and oar-powered) ship.
Herodotus does mention that Xerxes’ army was starving towards the end, but I guess that too doesn’t argue for an a nearly two-million man army.
Interesting. Herodotus gives some really incredible numbers for Xerxes invasion force – around one million if I remember correctly – and a lot of people chalk it up to him being basically unreliable about a whole lot of things (flying snakes, ants as big as dogs, and so on). But maybe his totals are actually closer to the reality of what a giant empire like Persia could raise?
According to Herodotus Persia mustered 1,700,000 infantrymen, 80,000 horsemen, 1,207 animals, and 3,000 cargo ships at the same time and in one place. So no, not really.
It’s not entirely impossible that Persia could be able to overally muster 1800000 men, since the total population was around 50 million, but gathering them all in one place and leading such mass of people to the small, far and poor Greece was nonsense, not to mention the logistics was impossible on this scale.
Most likely total Persian force in entire war was between 120000 to 180000, which is still huge number for those times and place, so no wonder Greeks freaked out. Note that even those numbers probably never gathered in the one place at the same time.
At the battle of Platea Greeks scraped the barrel completely and might actually even have numerical advantage.
Yes, I suppose logistics are the big problem with Herodotus’ numbers. I imagine supply for an army that size would be complicated even with modern transportation, let alone when everything had to be transported by foot, horse, or (sail and oar-powered) ship.
Herodotus does mention that Xerxes’ army was starving towards the end, but I guess that too doesn’t argue for an a nearly two-million man army.
An army who is losing on enemy territory will usually starve no matter its size.