Quote:
Originally Posted by Blademaster
There's no way in hell that there was a million man army at that time. It would be simply too unsustainable to support by sea. Persia just did not have the capacity to feed & clothe & arm a million man army by sea or even by land.
A more believable number would be less than 100,000. Hell I think that's way too high if a 300 man force can hold that contigent for so long. I would say it was around 25000 to 35000 total with 10 000 facing against 300 and the rest supporting forces or diverted somewhere else.
|
It is as Kenny said, the concept of a million man army was Greek of saying that it was very big. Arabs equally had the same ways, but they didnot use a million, rather used fourscore. So everything was four time bigger than theirs.
As far as million-man army in general, back than it was impossible, only in 1812 did the barrier came close to be broken when Napoleon invaded Russia with 650,000-man
Grand Armee. Even then his genuis could not transfered into physical world without the invention of wireless communication, which characterize the million-man armies of Franco-Prussian war and the Great War. It was the the mass-conscription of French Revolution followed with wirless radio some a century later that dawned the age of million-man armies.