PERSIA. The organization of the Persian army in ancient days appears to have corre sponded largely with the divisions introduced into the forces of Media at an earlier date by King Cyaxares (q.v.), as mentioned by Be rodotus (c.103). This general distribiltion into infantry, composed of spearmen. bowmen, and others, and into cavalry, supplemented by war riors mounted on chariots. prevailed through out the history of the Persian Empire. The cavalry was the flower of the army, as Persia was ever famous for her horses and her ex cellence in horsemanship. These mounted forces occupied the wings of the main body. This latter mass was composed of the people, and was often little better than an armed mob. The scythe-bearing chariots were drawn up as a division in front of the army, and they seem to have inspired terror into the foe, but were often less effective than the other forces. The use of elephants is found as early as in the campaigns to oppose the invading Alexander. From Herodotus (vii. 61, 84) and other sources we learn that the characteristic equipments of the Persian soldiers were a short straight. sword, a long spear, a bow, quiver, battle-axe, mace, or club, and a sling, according to the spe cial district or province from which the levies came. A large wicker shield and a close-fitting leather tunic and trousers, a coat of mail, or a quilted corselet, completed the outfit. The
horses as well as the riders were protected by mailed trappings—at least if we can judge from the caparison of the war-horses on the sculp tures in Sassanian times. A division of the army on the decimal scale of tens, hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands may be gath ered from Herodotus (xii. 81), and seems to he as old as the Avesta (q.v.). The Persian hosts have ever been proverbial for numbers, and even allowing for exaggeration, the figures must have been enormous. The army which Xerxes led against Greece has been estimated at hardly lest than 2,000,000, and Darius is reputed to have opposed the world-conquering Alexander with a force of between 750,000 and 1,000,000 men. The development and history of the Per sian army during the Parthian and Sassanian periods. down to the overthrow of the Persian dominion by the Arab conquest and its subse quent results, may be obtained from a study of those times. On Persian armies and armor con sult Jackson, Classical Studies in Honour of Henry Drisler (New York, 1394) ; Zoroaster the Prophet, chapter vii. (New York, 1899) ; Spiegel, Erdnische Altrrtumskundr, Vol. 111., 638 ff. (Leipzig, 1873) ; Kelsey, Xenophon's Anabau.s, Introduction (Boston, 1895); G. Raw linson, Story of Partkia, p. 397 ff. (New York, 1893).