The elite of the Persian army was the heavy cavalry, made up almost exclusively of Persian regular units. In its early days the cavalry was armed with the standard weapons of the Persian infantryman: the bow, battle-axe, and oval shield. Later, heavy cavalry was equipped with the short stabbing and throwing javelin.
Long lances made of wood or entirely of metal, oval shields, and spears were also used. The javelin, properly so called, was invented by the Persians and later adopted by Alexander for use by his Greek cavalry. It was a short spear about a yard long made of date palm wood, thick reed, or the wood of the jujube tree. It was tipped with bronze or iron. The Persian javelin could be thrown like a spear, used as a stabbing weapon, or even thrown end over end.
Each heavy cavalryman carried two javelins as a basic combat load. Cavalrymen wore body armor made of a heavy leather coat covered with overlapping disks of bronze, iron, and sometimes gold. For instance it becomes quite plausible to interpret the costumes worn by horsemen on Iraqi 9thth-century lustre pottery Survey of Persian Art , pls.
Atil, Ceramics from the World or Islam , Washington, , no. All are in one piece, with a short skirt-like lower half, and long sleeves, and the drawing of them suggests that two are of mail, the third is lamellar, and the fourth is probably quilted.
Lees, Calcutta, , p. The existence of certain other pieces of armor may be surmised. The general dearth of illustrations of armor prior to the Mongol invasions is due firstly to the lack of illustrated manuscripts, and secondly to the fashion of covering armor with a colored surcoat. Following the Mongol invasions and the influx of large numbers of Mongol warriors the fashion in armor changed.
The latter consisted of large numbers of strips about six inches by three inches held by leather thongs and arranged one above the other The Texts and Versions of John de Plano Carpini and Wm. Beazley, London, , p. Lamellar coats were sometimes fastened all the way up the front, sometimes only up to the waist; and the skirt had two slits at the back to make a back flap for comfortable riding.
During the rest of the 14th century the Mongol fashion was gradually modified and other forms of armor became more popular. Plate vambraces also appear in manuscript illustrations in the second half of the 14th century. No horse armor appears in any of the published miniatures of the Il-khanid period, although both Carpini and the Armenian historian Haithon claim that Mongol horses wore armor.
Lamellar barding with a plate chamfron was apparently the norm. The elephants shown in the latter are not armored. For the next century or so our knowledge of Persian armor fashion is dependent on further miniature paintings.
This raises problems since the illustrations may have followed earlier styles rather than contemporary fashions. However, the following features seem reasonably certain. By the end of the 14th century handguards had become part of the arm defense, attached to the vambrace, and by the early 15th century armor for the knee joint had become more complex, with plate discs for the knees set in mail surrounds e.
Mail aventails with plate ear-pieces attached to the plate helmets were also standard pieces of equipment by now, and surcoats commonly hid the body armor. The Persian Empire expanded to a vast region spanning from Asia to Europe and Africa, and was involved in many wars. The defeat of the Persians in this war during Alexander the Great's rule of Greece led to the revolt of the Greek cities of Asia, and the end of the Persian Empire.
In contrast to other European armies, the Achaemenid Persian army was a light army. Traditional Persian warfare consisted of light armor and little face to face combat. The Middle Eastern heat was so intense that it necessitated the need to decrease the amount of armor worn by the soldiers.
Metal was also expensive at the time. Therefore, most of the Achaemenid soldiers, except for cavalry, did not wear heavy metallic body protection because of their emphasis on rapid advance and archery.
Soldiers mostly wore tunics, which were loose clothing reaching the knees that were padded with linen as a protective gear against soaring arrows. The Persians were mostly armed with spears, arrows, and bows and so they did not need armor as compared to the Greeks who used heavier weaponry like axes and metal swords that would easily severely injure a fighter close by.
Despite being one of the largest empires in world history, they did not create novel armor design or new armor making techniques.
The power of their force was mostly from arduous training and the loyalty of their soldiers. Their army did possess linen and metal cuirasses as well as metal helmets, but those armors were essentially adopted from recruited Greek mercenaries. The lack of strong body protection was the major weakness in the Achaemenid military and led to their final defeat in the Persian War.
Studying his Greek enemies, Cyrus the Great realized the importance of cavalry to an army, which could move quickly over extensive distances. The greatest number of the Persian cavalry were the lightly armed soldiers with the simple Scythian bow, formed mostly by troops of diverse nationality. The strategical role of this infantry was to pester the enemies and draw them into battles.
The heavy cavalry was almost made up of exclusively regular Persian units. Before then, the cavalry was armed with the standard weapons of the Persian infantrymen: bows, battle-axes, and oval shields. Later, they modified and were re-equipped with short stabbings and throwing javelins instead.
Long lances made of wood or entirely of metal, oval shields, and spears were used too. The diversity of warriors that Persia had gave them an advantage in the military formation, militants of different weapon classes were grouped together and allowing the Persian Commanders to send forth their most effective troops against their enemies. Thus, they decided to deploy the scythed chariot, an ancient war chariot, with one innovation setting them apart from other armies.
The scythed chariot had swords connected to the rotating axles at the wheels of the chariot, so that as the chariot drove pass, the swords sticking from either side of the wheels would swivel with such speed that any victim in proximity to the sides of it would get their limbs and any other body parts either sliced off or deeply cut enough to cause permanent damages. The Persians adopted Greek war ships called triremes and biremes. The long narrow ships triremes, supported three levels of rowers which included a long oar behind for steering, and at the front of the ship, a ram, made of an iron beam.
0コメント