josifrees posted...Something does not gel with the narrative posited in the OP. If Sparta did not have good warriors (but rather just had relative military hegemony over the other Greeks) how did they hold up in Thermopylae as long as they did? Was the Persian army also relatively weak in terms of training? If so is there any practical difference between being average among the weak and elite among the average? I would say elite is a completely relative term anyway.
Thermopylae was a pass. I think any heavy infantry could've held up a narrow pass.
As for the Persians, they probably weren't impressive either but they did have superior cavalry which the Greeks feared. They also had a core of heavy infantry like the Immortals and levied heavy infantry such as the Egyptians and the Assyrians. The Greeks mainly fought in terrain that wouldn't allow the Persians to make good use of their cavalry. At Marthon the Greeks made a sudden charge at the Persians to quickly negate their archer and cavalry. At Platea they held the high ground and fought in irregular terrain.
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Forbid it, Almighty God!
U.S. Army. 13B. E-3 PFC