Persian Immortals: The 10,000-Man Rule, Wicker Shields and Gold Spears

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The masked, black clad Immortals of the film 300 have little to do with the Achaemenid Empire's elite infantry. According to Herodotus, the unit was held at exactly 10,000 men, with any soldier who died, fell ill or was wounded replaced at once from a reserve, so enemies saw a force that never shrank. The name itself may be a mistake: the Persian words for companion and for immortal sounded almost alike, and Herodotus or his informant may have confused them, though the linguist Rüdiger Schmitt disputes this. They wore soft felt tiaras, colorful tunics over fish scale armor, and carried tall wicker and leather spara shields, bows with reed arrows, short spears and the akinakes short sword.

In battle the front rank planted their shields as a wall, the ranks behind loosed volleys of arrows, and then the men charged with spears and akinakes, a method used at Opis in 539 BCE under Cyrus the Great. Off the field they wore purple and yellow robes, gold earrings and necklaces, and traveled with carriages, camels, servants, concubines and special food reserved for them. A detachment of 1,000 guarded the king, and their commander, the hazarapatish, grew into the empire's chief minister.

Common soldiers' spears had silver counterweights at the butt, and officers' were gold.
Alexander the Great adopted their dress after conquering the empire.
The Sasanian Empire kept its own 10,000 Immortals as heavy cavalry held in reserve.
The Byzantines used the name twice, under John I Tzimiskes and again after Manzikert in 1071.
The last Shah of Iran's Javidan Guard, 4,000 to 5,000 strong by 1978 with Chieftain tanks, was disbanded after the 1979 revolution.

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