Persian military history

Dates To 651 c.e.

Military Achievement

The Persians were an Iranian-speaking, Indo-European people. As described in both the Rigveda and the Avesta, the sacred texts of Hinduism and Zoroastrianism respectively, warriors played an important part in Persian society. The warrior class, from which chiefs and kings were chosen, was second in status only to that of the priests. However, these religious texts, written by priests, may overemphasize the importance of the priest class within Persian society. Horses were important to the Persians, who used them effectively against both the native inhabitants of the Iranian plateau and their Mesopotamian neighbors, especially the Assyrians, whose military technology was the most advanced in the world in the first millennium b.c.e. Ancient Persian history can be divided into three periods: the Achaemenid Persian period (550-330 b.c.e. ), the Hellenic and Parthian period (330 b.c.e. -224 c.e. ), and the Sāsānian period (224-651 c.e. ).

Achaemenid Persian Period

The Achaemenid Persians achieved supremacy by 550 b.c.e. after their leader, Cyrus the Great (r. 550-529 b.c.e.), had conquered the Iranian plateau, Mesopotamia, Levant, and Anatolia. The Achaemenid Persians defeated their cousins, the Medes, who had previously defeated the Assyrians. Cyrus’s successors, Cambyses II (r. 529-522 b.c.e.) and Darius I (r. 522-486 b.c.e.), conquered Egypt, Nubia, Libya, and Central Asia, forming the largest empire known to the world at that time. The Achaemenid Persian Empire was matched only by that of Alexander the Great (356-323 b.c.e.), who later conquered the Persian Empire. For two centuries the Persians maintained a vast empire with a large army requiring a large administrative apparatus. Only the Greeks were able to resist the Persians, and the struggle between the two civilizations became a focal point of Greek and Western historiography.

Hellenic and the Parthian Period

After the Greek conquest of Persia in 330 b.c.e., Seleucus I (between 358 and 354-281 b.c.e.), one of Alexander’s generals, took over the Asiatic portion of the Persian Empire and formed the Seleucid Dynasty. The Seleucid Empire centered on Syria and extended, at its peak, from the Mediterranean Sea to as far east as India’s Indus Valley. By 238 b.c.e. an Iranian group known as the Parthians had established themselves in the eastern portion of the Persian Empire, in the area that encompasses the modern Iranian province of Khurāsān and part of southern Turkmenistan. Because the Parthians were a nomadic group, the cavalry remained the most important aspect of the Persian army during this period. The Parthians were able to defend themselves against the Roman forces, defeating the Romans in several key battles.

SĀsĀnian Period

The Sāsānian Dynasty was established in 224 c.e. by Ardashīr I (r. c. 224-241 c.e.), who revived the Achaemenid religious tradition of Zoroastrianism and made it the official religion. From the outset of their reign, the Sāsānian were able to defeat the Romans and all other competing forces in Southwest Asia. The Sāsānian controlled Central Asia, the Iranian Plateau, and Mesopotamia, and made major incursions into Syria. Throughout the third century they repeatedly defeated Roman forces, killing one emperor, capturing another, and forcing a third to pay a ransom for the safety of his army. Seventh century Sāsānian forces conquered Palestine, Egypt, and Anatolia, laying siege to the Byzantine capital, Constantinople. For four centuries, the Sāsānian successfully defended their empire from invasions by the Turkic tribes and the Kushāns from the east, the Romans, Byzantines, and Arabs from the west, and the nomadic tribes from the north.

Weapons, Uniforms, and Armor

The sacred Zoroastrian text, the Avesta, mentions weapons and war sporadically. Certain Zoroastrian gods, such as Wahrām, had been worshiped by the military since well before the time of the Achaemenid Persians. Wahrām, whose name means “offensive victory,” could take on many forms, mainly those of fierce beasts. The goddess Anahitā was another deity from whom the Persians sought aid in battle against their enemies. Prayers were usually accompanied with sacrifices and ritual acts.

Greek and Iranian sources indicate that the elite Persian forces wore long, draped robes with trousers, as well as coats of mail covering their chests. The Greek historian Xenophon (430-354 b.c.e.) states that Persian cavalry forces carried javelins and wore breastplates, armor, and helmets. Xenophon also mentions various standards, or banners carried in battle, specifically the royal standard, a spread-winged eagle on a shield.

The Persian infantry wore loose tunics with corselets of metal scales underneath for protection from spear thrusts. They wore felt hoods and helmets for head protection and carried short swords, lances with wooden shafts and metal points, quivers full of arrows with bronze or iron points, bows with ends shaped like animals’ heads, and wicker shields of different shapes.

Greek sources tend to exaggerate the numbers of Persian forces, with estimates ranging from 900 thousand to 5 million. The main reason for such exaggeration was to boast the Greeks’ ability to repel Achaemenid aggression during the Greco-Persian Wars (499-448 b.c.e.). The Persian navy, stationed at Cilicia on the Mediterranean coast, was composed mainly of foreigners, such as the Phoenicians, Greeks, and Egyptians. The mercenary status of the Persian navy was a reason for its defeat against the Greek navy; when the war became difficult or its outcome unsure, the Persian naval commanders either retreated or left altogether. The lack of a competent naval force would be a major reason that the Achaemenid Persians were ultimately unsuccessful against the Greek city-states.

Military Organization

The success of the Persian military was based on the capability of its military leaders and its army. Greek sources provide ample information on the composition of the Persian army, especially during the Greco-Persian Wars. The Persian nomadic forces that conquered the Medes were turned into organized standing forces composed of both Persians and Medians. These forces consisted of both cavalry, which included chariots, horses, and camels, and infantry, which included lance bearers and bowmen. As more people, including Greeks, Lydians, and Mesopotamians, were incorporated into the Persian Empire, they were also brought into the army. Greek mercenaries were used from the time of Cambyses in the sixth century b.c.e.

The Persian army’s sophisticated training regiment of elite forces was drawn from the ranks of the nobility. In a system resembling that of the Spartans, who trained soldiers from youth, the Persians selectively trained certain youths, who passed required tests, to be warriors. According to Greek sources, the youths who were accepted into warrior society were taught various athletic, farming, and craft skills. As they matured, they were trained in the military arts, such as archery, spear and javelin throwing, and marching. In addition to these elite warrior forces, there were special forces composed of hardened warriors who acted as a sort of secret service.

The Persian army was divided according to the decimal system, in units of tens, hundreds, and thousands. Greek sources mention an elite Persian force known as the Immortals, composed of ten thousand men and so called because previously selected men waited to fill the places of casualties in battle. The Immortals reportedly included spearmen of Persian nobility: one thousand in the cavalry and ten thousand in the infantry. Of these ten thousand infantrymen, one thousand had golden pomegranates instead of spikes on the butt-ends of their spears. They marched in two sections, one ahead of and the other behind the remaining nine thousand Immortals, whose spears had silver pomegranates.

After 238 b.c.e. when the Parthians came to dominate the Persian Empire, the heavily armored cavalry, known as cataphracts, became the elite forces of the army. The extremely accurate mounted bowmen of the Parthian cavalry repeatedly defeated the Romans with their famed maneuvering techniques. The most famous of these techniques, riding a horse while shooting arrows backward, came to be known as the Parthian shot. Parthian horses were covered with mail to protect them from attacks by Roman infantrymen. Another unit of lighter, more mobile cavalry also carried bows and arrows. At the Battle of Carrhae in 53 b.c.e. , Roman troops under the general Crassus were destroyed by the Parthian cavalry, which harassed the Roman infantry until it broke ranks, at which point the Parthian cavalry pursued and cut the Roman foot soldiers to pieces. People from other regions were also used in the Parthian forces as either light cavalry or infantry. The infantry was the second group of the army and it was usually considered to be weak and untrained and less reliable in wars.

In the fourth century c.e. Roman soldier and historian Ammianus Marcellinus (c. 330-395) described the Persian cavalry as clad in body armor, mailed coats, breastplates, leg armor plates, and helmets with holes only for the eyes. The Persian cavalry horses were also covered with armor. The grotto of King Xusrō II (590-628 c.e.) at Tāq-i Bustān in northern Persia represents the culmination of the advancement in armor. The Persian weapons, based on the descriptions of Muslim historians, included swords, lances, shields, maces, battle-axes, clubs, bow cases containing two bows with their strings, thirty arrows, and two plaited cords. By the sixth century the chancery of warriors set a stable stipend for cavalry. It was from among these soldiers that the the Immortals, the elite corps of the Achaemenid Persians, were chosen. Their leader was probably the puštigbān-sālār, or “commander of the royal guard.”

There was also a light cavalry composed of mercenaries or tribespeople in the empire, including the Dailamites, Gīlānīs, Georgians, Armenians, Turks, Arabs, Kushāns, Khazars, and Hephthalites. The other form of cavalry used in wars were the elephant corps, or pīl-bānān. Ammianus Marcellinus described the elephants as having awful figures and savage, gaping mouths. They looked like walking towers and scarcely could be endured by the faint-hearted. According to Muslim historians, elephants were used as early as the third century c.e. by the Sāsānians, who used them to raze such cities as Hatra. Sāsānian king Pīrōz I (r. 457/459-484 c.e. ) used fifty elephants in his campaign against the Ephthalites in the fifth century. Elephants were again used against the Arabs in the seventh century.

The infantry, or paygān, was headed by the paygān-sālār, or “commander of the infantry.” Infantrymen were fitted with shields and lances. Behind them in formation were the archers, who actually started the war with volleys of shots into the enemy camp before the cavalry charged. The Strategikon (c. 580 c.e. ; English translation, 1984) of Flavius Tiberius Mauricius (c. 539-602 c.e. ), a Byzantine emperor who reigned from 582 to 602 c.e. , gives detailed information on the differences in strategies between the Persian and the Roman soldiers, as well as the intricacies and differences in their weapons and their uses. Naturally the cavalry and infantry forces required a huge logistical apparatus that was sustained by conscripts from the general population. These forces prepared food, repaired weapons, tended to the wounded, and established camps, among other tasks. The Sāsānians also utilized Roman techniques in the use of siege weapons including ballistae, battering rams, moving towers, and catapults. The Sāsānian navy had been instrumental from the beginning of the Sāsānian period, when the founder of the Sāsānian Persian dynasty, Ardašhīr I (r. 224-241), conquered the Arab side of the Persian Gulf. The control of the Persian Gulf was necessary both militarily and economically, to make it safe from piracy and Roman encroachment. Based on the accounts of Muslim historians, it appears that the Persian ships held one hundred men but were not very important to the military.

Other Persian titles and classifications are from later sources that describe several other military positions, including commander of the forts, warden of marches, the hereditary title of the general of Tus, in northeastern Persia, and the army general. The warrior estate also had a designated Zoroastrian fire temple known as Adur Gušhnasp. This fire temple was at Šhīz, in northwestern Persia, where the king and the warriors went to worship. Rulers such as the Sāsānian king Bahrām V, or Bahrām Gūr (fl. fifth century c.e.), sent the booty of jewelry to be hung in the Zoroastrian fire temple after defeating the Turks in his campaign against them. Ardashīr I also made offerings—the heads of rebels—to the fire temple of Anāhīd.

During the Sāsānian period the warrior class formed the second tier of the social structure; the function of the warrior was to protect the empire and its subjects. There were several divisions within the military, and within the cavalry and infantry. As clergy attended seminaries, the soldiers attended academies where they were trained in the military sciences. The alliance between the priests and the warriors was of paramount importance; the idea of ērān-sahr, which had manifested itself under the Sāsānian as that of a set territory ruled by the warrior aristocracy, had been developed and revived by Zoroastrian priests. Under the Zoroastrian religion, which was made the official state religion during the Sāsānian period, church and state were considered inseparable from each other. In reality, however, each group attempted to impose its will on the other, and this long battle caused the final fragmentation and the weakening of the Persian Empire.

Doctrine, Strategy, and Tactics

Although Achaemenid Persian forces were superior on the ground, their weakness was on the seas, where they mainly employed mercenary forces. At the battles, it was the norm for the king to be present to watch over the battle lines and to engage in battle as well. Before each individual battle a council decided the plan and the strategy the forces would follow. In terms of the military attack, the foot soldiers and the foot archers were stationed in the front and in the middle, flanked by the cavalry and the armed forces. To begin the war, the archers began sending volleys of arrows toward the enemy, then the spearmen and the cavalry came into action. These tactics were successful against the people of the Near East, but they did not crush the Greeks, who, with their hoplite forces, were able to withstand the Persians. Man-to-man combat was also known, and it was a sign of heroic deed to defeat one’s enemy in this manner. Cyrus the Younger (c. 424-401 b.c.e.), versed in the Greek tactics, was able to strengthen the Persian military capabilities by enlisting Greek hoplite forces into his army. This group was aided by a heavily armored but ineffective cavalry. Xenophon mentions the Persian cavalry kept their seat only through the pressure of their knees, indicating that they lacked stirrup and saddle.

During the Sāsānian period, there existed manuals of warfare that have since been lost. Portions, however, remain extant in Middle Persian and Arabic texts. The Middle Persian text known as the Dīnkart (ninth century c.e. ; acts of religion) contains a section devoted to the military. This manual informed soldiers about tactics and rations for food, methods for dealing with war prisoners, and the positions for specific forces. For example, the text mentions that the cavalry should be in front and that left-handed archers should be put on the left flank to defend the army. The center should be on an elevated place, where the army commander could be supported by the infantry. The army should also be placed with the sun and the wind at their backs to blind and hamper the capability of the enemy.

Ancient Sources

Sources for the earliest history of the Persians come from the sacred book of the Zoroastrians, the Avesta, in which references to combat and weapons are made. The Old Persian sources of the Achaemenid period also give some terminology on weapons, but the Greek sources furnish much more. Herodotus (c. 484-424 b.c.e. ), Xenophon, and Strabo (64 or 63-after 23 b.c.e. ) are the chief Greek sources, providing many details of the Persian army and their tactics. For the Hellenic and the Parthian period classical authors such as Herodian (third century c.e. ), Pliny (23-79 c.e. ), and Plutarch (c. 46-after 120) are the major sources. For the Sāsānian period, there are a variety of sources not limited to the classical authors. Among the Greek and Latin sources, Ammianus Marcellinus is quite informative on Persian siege tactics, armor, and military. Sāsānian sources such as the Dīnkart are primary sources, whereas the Arabic and Persian sources after the seventh century c.e. give much information; the best of these is Abū Jaՙfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī’s Ta՚rīkh al-rusul wa al-mulūk (872-973; The History of al-Ṭabarī, 1985-1999, 39 volumes).

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