In 481 BC when the Persian king Xerxes was going to
invade Greece for conquest, he assembled a huge army from his tributary
states. They were so numerous that it was hard to count them. So they
counted out 10,000 and had them stand in a densely packed circle. Then
they built a waist high wall around them. Then they had the rest of the troops
enter the walled circle until it was full, and called it 10,000 per
filling. The Persian army filled the circle 170 times, for a head count of 1,700,000!! Of these there were 80,000 cavalry, 20,000 charioteers and camel riders. This was and is the largest army ever assembled in the history of the world. The Persian army was made up of armies from each province or satrapy of the kingdom, and my theory of the purpose of the head count is that this technique was to verify the number of soldiers that each provincial governor said he had contributed, which might have been an inflated number.
This illustration from The History of the World, by Ridpath, 1915. The Persian navy sailed through a specially built canal in the Athos peninsula which had been in preparation for three years.
The
Persians continued via a land march to the Pass of Thermopylae, where they were faced by 300 Spartans and 8700 Greek soldiers from allied cities. The Persians finally got through the pass, at a loss of 20,000 killed, and the Spartans killed to a man.
The Persians then met the Athenian fleet, who they greatly outnumbered. The Athenian fleet mauled the Persian fleet, and the main force of the Persians returned to Persia, leaving an army of 260,000 to finish the conquest in the Spring. They were routed by a Greek force of 108,000 soldiers at Platea. What the Greeks had discovered was a new strategy of fighting, the phalanx, and they had perfected its use during decades of Greek against Greek warfare.
Good story...thanks for the enjoyable read!
Posted by: Jeremy | January 04, 2006 at 04:34 PM
wow awsome story must have been hard for the 300 spartans
thanks for a good read
Posted by: chris | July 31, 2007 at 09:33 PM
yeah right... more like 200 thousand to 300 thousand
Posted by: | June 16, 2008 at 12:51 AM