"Persian Military Might and the Battle of Plataia..." Topic

Thanks – I'll have to give it a read through. My initial thought is that a wicker shield against a bronze faced oak one is a pretty significant equipment disadvantage when the othismos comes.

Doug

None of this is new….

Interesting what you can make out of a fundamentally flawed analysis … the idea of 'Greek helplessness before cavalry' doesn't really ring true, and if we were to accept Konijnendijk's conclusions, it would make the wholesale switch over the next century or so by the Persians to Greek-style (indeed, mostly mercenary Greek) infantry harder to understand.

Lazenby's analysis (basically, that the limitations of the Persian wonder weapon – archery – got 'found out') is much more convincing.

When the Greeks are completely undone at Plataea, Mardonius brings up his battle winners, the archers, to finish them off. The archery is ineffective and a general engagement ensues which the Greeks win because their equipment and fighting style is optimised for close combat …

Phil

Agreed YTP and I would just like to add that it is a clash of two independently developed systems. What the Persians have clearly worked well against Babylonians, Iranian tribes, Egyptians and Indians. Its just that the Greeks haven't been told the good news the their system is primitive .
It is also interesting that on a wargames table the Persians stand a good chance of winning as they often did at the Society of Ancients battle day games at Plataea in 2012 (its covered on the website at soa.org.uk) Because the Persians have a large variety of troop types they have a distinct advantage over the Greeks. However, tweak the rulesets to reflect the Persians inability to get flank attacks with their cavalry (the Greeks just turn the rear rank round) or to out skirmish the Greeks and you are left with a head on clash between men with big bronze shields and Persians who, once their line of anti archery paves is broken, are essentially shieldless.
Why don't the Persians combine their cavalry and infantry well? Probably because the cavalry have already exhausted themselves on trying to turn the Greeks out of a position on a rocky slope and are too done in to intervene.