Units of History - The 10,000 Immortals DOCUMENTARY
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 มิ.ย. 2024
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In this Units of History episode we turn to the Achaemenid Persian Empire and their 10,000 Immortals who famously fought against the Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae.
The documentary begins by looking at the origins of the unit. This involves a discussion of their first appearance in the history books by Herodotus who describes them in his account of the Greco Persian war and the invasion of Xerxes. Outside of this however, the historical record is quite limited. We therefore have to speculate on how this elite unit came about. One theory we present is the idea that the Persian Immortals were initially a bodyguard units at the immediate disposal of the Kings of Persia around which armies could be formed. Over time their prestige, size, and organization increased as the Achaemenid Empire expanded. Again due to a lack of records, we only speak briefly on their training.
Next we take a look at the weapons and armour of the Persian Immortals. This includes things like scaled armour, tall shields, a bow, axe, spear, and sword. This is to be contrasted with their fantastical depiction in the movie 300 where they fight against the equally mythologized spartan army.
We then cover the battle tactics of the Immortals and their service history. This involves extensive fighting against other eastern forces, steppe nomads, indians, egyptians, and of course greeks. Specifically we discuss their involvement in the battle of thermopylae, the battle of Plataea, the battle of Cunaxa, and the battle of Gaugamela. Stay tuned for more persian army documentary videos and coverage of other famous units of history!
Bibliography and Suggested Reading:
The Persian Army 560-330 BC by Nicholas Sekunda
The Achaemenid Persian Army Paperback by Duncan Head
Armies of Ancient Persia by Marek Adam Wozniak
Cyrus The Great Paperback by Stephen Dando-Collins
#History
#Documentary
#Immortals
Check out our growing series on the famous Units of History: th-cam.com/play/PLkOo_Hy3liEJczxw5jzPHdUBiej_VZC8z.html What topics would you like to see next?
Please do a video on the companion cavalry of Alexander
It's very easy, the unit just isn't in antiquity...Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth's winged hussars.
Any Latin American units, like Jaguar Warriors!
silver shield of the seleucid come to mind when think of famous unit
Norse-Gael gallowglass
Wait what? I'm pretty sure they were dual katana wielding ninja orcs.
There is much academic debate about the subject
I though they were the Rinos.
300 reference? Well, I always assumed that they were monsters because it was told in the perspective of the narrator, who was exaggerating things for the "story".
Watching 300 doesn't worth your time trust me
They should spend the movie budget on something useful
Bruh the movie was exaggerated
Just like how greeks exaggerate most stuff
B - But! Where are the Persianate Samurai wearing clad Black armor with Skull faces ?!
3:42
Don't forget the two swords in the back!
Many of science which we watched in movies such as 300 movie are not accurate .
@@basilcc7 no shit sherlock it was based on a comic book
@@basilcc7 r/woosh
As an Iranian I can't begin to talk about how happy this video made me. When someone mentions Immortals all they can think of is the movie 300 in which they looked like demonic orcish creatures. This is the correct image people should think of when someone mentions Immortals
They weren't orcs???!!!!????!!!
Most smart people do not think 300 was even a semi-decent source of history. It was an example of artistic license taken beyond the extreme for the purpose of pure dramatic entertainment for the simple mind.
@arsacesofconcobar The movie was from the Greek's pov, and from the Greeks pov, their view of their invaders is just like any other defenders of certain places in the world, their invaders seemed to be nothing but hostile, terrible, and aliens, thus the inhuman appearance the Immortals had in the 300 movie.
But if you still think this movie is the defining factor of Persian history then by all means, stay mad idiot (lol)
@arsacesofconcobar When did I say that "Hollywood movies are the definitive sources of Greek history"? I think you're just too mad and too stupid to understand my comment because I never said that.
So let me rephrase :)
THIS IS JUST A MOVIE
This isn't a history book nor a historical documentary, its just a movie for people looking to see some action, where the Spartans take on the role as the good guys in a fantasy-esque setting.
Not one person that watched this had ever said that this movie showed Greek history accurately (lol)
The only one that's taking this seriously is just you.
Again, stay mad, and dumb
Lol I;ve checked out a fight scene there's one big guy I can imagine being a daemon and there's a decent shot of the hand my ultimate victory being when the spartan knocks a immortals mask off and looks with shock on his inhuman face. Can you remember the scene in lord of the rings where after fighting the orks for a while and then they realize the orks had inhuman faces? The inhuman features could even be a result of magic. Did the spartans build a wall of corpses without seeing there enemies face? At worst they portrayed the immortals has Deamons. In terms of greek point of view it's narrated by a greek at the end he seems to say but now the rest of us are coming and ready to kick Persian arse.
Sushanealone's comment pushed manners but they didn't fire an insult at you or your people reggie was polite your the prick who broke manners so I'm not obliged to lowering myself to treating you like your worthy of respect. to but I didn't start anything your the only one here who might be a stupid prick whilst everyone else is at worse stupid. Though your seem to have made enough assumptions to show your stupidity anyway. What have you got proving the racism or any kind of racial agenda by the people who made the movie. The way I see it mistakes are easy enough to climb down from but insults aren't so pricks should go first. If we should have sources where's your fucking source.
Also sources
th-cam.com/video/h4jeI0fY0JQ/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/FHO1HC5RVLI/w-d-xo.html
and a route for you what might lead somewhere
non-aliencreatures.fandom.com/wiki/Immortal_(300) Without knowing mens minds you'l have no proof of racism but I don't mind you chasing after it.
Fun fact: some people believe "Immortal" is actually a mistranslation on the part of Herodotus, that he mistook the Iranian word the word anûšiya- ("companion") with anauša- ("immortal"), although this is by no means a widely accepted theory.
It actually was "Amrta" close to "amrita" in sanskrit
"A" is negative verb and "Mrta" stands for death. Probably mean not dying.
In modern Persian "mordan" or "marg" stands for death.
So Latin and English pronunciation is similar to Amrta
@@immortal5563 But those words are Avestan not Sanskrit
@@TeutonicEmperor1198 avestan and sanskrit are relative languages
Well on the plusside that way they can´t be mixed up with the companions of the Macedonian armies.
@@immortal5563 yeah, they are both IndoAryan languages !By the way in Greek we still use the sound "A" at the beginning of the word to negate its meaning! Also Mrta,Smert, Mort are all indoeuropean words to discribe death!
An empire from Greece to India, soldiers who fought everything from nomads to heavy infantry. One thing we CAN be sure of; the Immortals were formidable.
Edit: there's a very funny person in this thread x)
Thank you brother
Bottom line is that Persia won at Thermopylae but the Greeks won the war. Meanwhile, Macedon was biding its time. I think the Persian forces were likely better in many ways; but were a classic example of a square peg in a round hole.
The Immortals made the Persians budge. They were forced to use a fighting retreat to defeat them.
@Klaidi Rubiku But of course Alexander employed the Macedonian phalanx which was very different from anything the Greeks were using in the war of 480 B.C. His army bested both Greece and Persia.
@@antoinemonks4187 macedon was, and still is,greek.
as a Iranian i do remember we learned in our history books about immortal guards ( in Persian we call them " Javidan" =Immortal or "Sepahe Javidan" = Immortal army) at school, there was a castle in each major city with about 10,000 immortal soldiers and they always were ready for any battle and the only reason for calling them immortal wasn't because of they were well trained and strong, if one of the immortal soldiers were not able to fight for any reason he would be replaced and thats why they called immortal guards and those castles were always full of strong soldiers.
sorry for my bad English i learned by my self.
So basically they were like any other army?
Interesting. Ironically, we learn very little about history and other cultures here in America. And your English is great for someone who is self-taught. 👍👍👍
@@lecheloco actually what he says is wrong immortals werent immortal but were 10,000 army of elite soldiers cyrus only had 10k not more not less the fact that after anybattle any amount of dead or sick soldier got replaced by fresh ones very fast to make the army have 10k soldiers again gave them the name immortals
Good English
@@mmd6464 That's exactly what he said :/
The unbiased and extreme professional academic approach to history made by this channel is unmatched anywhere.
Truly a beautiful and rare thing.
Thank you very much Invicta.
HistoryMarche is also a very good and unbiased channel
May I suggest Shadiversity?
Mike Duncan. Best there ever was
@@Justin-pe9cl doesn't Shad say scale plate armor didn't exist? I've been trying to find the line in his videos. Now I'm wondering what the motive was for the type of armor the Immortals wore especially because the Greeks had bronze breastplates.
@@rorschach775 I think he said that about leather armor.
Unit suggestion:
Numidian Cavalry
Germanic/Gallic Proto-Knights
Late Roman Comitatenses
Peltasts
Also: Sacred band Carthaginian heavy infantry, Assyrian siege weapons, hispanic swordsmen, Parthian horse archers and Cataphracts
Navajo code talkers and other kinds of signal units in history
Are we talking about rome total war?
John Cross its coincidental, while I am curious about Far Eastern Units such as Korean Rocket troops or Chinese battle formations, Invicta’s channel often focuses on the western ancient era - so I might as well suggest something he’s more familiar with.
@The Martial Lord of Loyalty Tell that to Attila the Hun. The Visigothic heavy cavalry smashed his riders at Chalons and forced him to retreat.
Honestly the fact that you both provide a disclaimer where information is speculative, on top of providing where/how this information was gathered, is a breath of fresh air that sets this channel apart from many other history channels.
Imagine a historical accurate movie about the Persian wars
unfortunately that won't happen anytime soon
I would LOVE to see that ,but due to conflicts between the US and Iran that's not happening
@King Lurch Look how the movie 300 made the Persians look like. The movie which was made be the US. Persian history has almost too much potential and they only put one battle to the screen which was one of the biggest failures throughout Persian history. Plus they were portrayed as Orcs..... you get the idea
@King Lurch Nope, the movie was built with obvious anti-Iranian propaganda. I mean, the comic book was too, so it makes no difference. It's not the same as TOy Story. Toy Story didn't vilify ethnicities. Again, SPR was about WW2 and not antiquity, so that's an irrelevant example but PEOPLE DID SAY that SPR was portraying Americans in a positive light and Germans in a poor light.
Nothing's ever just a movie. Only daft people believe that.
Iran won.
@King Lurch imma sorry that i'm gonna interrupt but i agree with buddy boi and kirra korpi, you think you can get away just by saying that 300 is based on a comic? and what that comic is based on? is it fictional? is it like LOTR? no, it's not, the countries in the movie and the comic existed, the names were not fictional the characters were not made up, the persians were still called persian, and xerxes was bad and leonidas and spartans were good, you can't say that it's based on a comic and get away with it because that comic is based on HISTORY with REAL names and people
Thank you!! As a Greek proud of my ancestors and their wars I was tired of foreigners having a completely wrong idea of persia. They were civilized and great people not orc-like inhumane monsters like a "certain" Hollywood movie display them. Greeks respected Persians in a lot of aspects and so did the Persians respected the Greeks. The western image of Persia is so twisted and wrong and almost every Greek cringes hard when watching the movie "300". When watching the movie I was just speechless of how wrong it was. Also lame, yes lame, I think the real event is way cooler then the events of the movie "300"
Wait a second, another Greek talking good about Persia, I would like 2 know more about u
What’s important to understand is that the graphic novel and then the subsequent movie are basically artistic portrayals of the story of Leonidas’s 300 Spartans as it was likely told from the mouths of the Spartans at the time. When I first saw the movie and saw that the Immortals were portrayed as demonic monsters, I didn’t take it literally; I simply understood that the Greeks - and even the Spartans - fought this regiment, were actually given a frighteningly good fight, then went back home to talk about how the Immortals “fought like demons” and the imagery of inhuman elite soldiers is the first thing that popped into people’s heads.
@@thegrimcritic5494 Yes exactly that. I don't know how can anyone take the movie literally, it's obviously an over exaggeration to the point of almost fairy tail( talling mainly about how the fight went )
300 was never meant to be an accurate representation of the war but rather a representation of the greek pathos during th time
"How do you do, fellow Greeks?"
When you're so badass do that your descendants 2 thousand years later will still name things after you
yeah
It's called larping
That's why Iranians are a proud culture! Respect to Iranians from a European! I believe my ancestors at some point sought refuge in Achaemenid Persia to have a better life there compared to the horrid natiure of ancient Greeks who kept slaving and fighting.
Pssst,not anymore, they won't let us...
Britain invaded Iran in 1942 so that oil could not be sold to the Germans, they lasted just 6 days before surrender. The occupation lasted until 1946 when everybody went home.
Not like the Uruk-Hai from 300 I presume
Yeah, that movie had pretty obvious racist overtones. In addition to being a generally shit film.
I still hold the theory that, since the story is told by that eye patched Spartan, everything in the movie is embellished for propaganda (which the Spartans did irl too).
@@CatastrophicDisease Wtf man.... Grow a pair.
@@Wayoutthere didn't you know? Everything is racist these days.
@@Wayoutthere I'm not quite sure what calling out a movie for being bad and a-historical has to do with male genitalia, but whatever you say.
Thank you for covering my countrymen with respect and a balanced perspective. I admire Greek culture but it's very hard to get information highlighting Persian history in a balanced way so thank you!
@arsacesofconcobar I understand your comment and perspective, but with all due respect brother, I know my country's history and I'm well versed in it. My pride does not rely on the west understanding Persian history, because I already treasure it. But in light of all the anti-iranian commentary you quite rightly reference, I think this video presenting balanced (albeit basic) information, is better than being directly offensive or repulsive, such as 300. If you think demanding respect from westerners is the way to open up a dialogue, you're naïve. Thanks for the whole "yOu ShOuLd hAvE MoRE SeLf ReSpEcT" comment, it sounded better in your head than on this comment.
@arsacesofconcobaryou should stop being intolerant and making assumptions about what I need to read and study.
Here's an exercise for you khanoom, stop wasting your life running around the internet telling people what they should and shouldn't do, and teach them through action.
@@easthurricane in a way in 300 it s justified because the whole movie is the narration of the spartan guy before the battle of platea. so it makes sense for him portay the persians as monsters because he has to encourage the troops. he is the definition of an unreliable narrator. if you watch the movie with that in mind it makes sense, thou it s shame it tarnished the image of the persians for so many. I honestly hate 300 fanboys. as an italian I have admiration for the parthians and sassanids as great rivals of rome
@@ce8354 the movie makes no sense and your reasoning is stupid. The Achaemenid Empire was far better than both.
Sacred Band of Thebes would be an interesting unit to cover next.
Carthage Army i think ?
Rafito Hornero or Thebes
I agree!
@@rafitohornero3850 No not from Carthage, Thebes in Greece. They were an elite core of homosexual partners who fought in pairs to defend their lovers. Thought by many historians to be the best infantry unit in Ancient Greece.
When being gae is awesome.
Many people in the west, especially due to nationalism (which many times merges with propaganda) tend to believe that persian civilization ended at Plataea or with Alexander, but this is far from the truth. The Achaemenid Empire actually kept meddling in greek politics and conflicts for decades, especially the Peloponesian War where they would often side with the spartans or the athenians. The whole period of spartan hegemony was enforced by full persian support of Sparta and it's policies as a way to contain athenian imperialistic desires. Then, when Sparta itself became imperialistic and tried to control all Greece, the persians switched sides and started supporting Athens, and would again switch sides in favour of Sparta when the athenians started gaining territory. By the end of the Corinthian War (which was actually ended by the persian emperor Artaxerxes II and his spartan allies in the so-called Peace of Antacildas), Persia would have taken back all of it's lost territories in Asia Minor and reign in peace until the time of Alexander The Great, who himself was inspired by persian emperor Cyrus The Great, adopted persian culture and forms of government (satrapies), married a persian woman and changed his capital to Babylon, former territory of the Persian Empire.
Persia would later ressurge in the form of Parthia, becoming the only empire to defy roman hegemony and defeat them in several occasions. The later Sassanian Empire (which seemed itself as inheritor of the achaemenid tradition) would be even more sucessful, defeating the eastern romans many times and almost conquering them at one point, but then it was too late and the arabs came in. Yet, ironically, the persians would be the ones to have a major influence on muslim culture, art and tradition, making kings out of desert raiders.
Funny enough an Arab king/kingdom/city state was the one that stopped the Sassanid conquest of the Roman empire or at least the eastern part of it. Look up Odaenathus, that man is severely underrated not only because of what he did and the amazing feat he achieved but also because of the fact that he and his people (or at least most of them) were arabs. He couldv'e easily declared self rule but he was loyal to rome and returned the eastern province to the romans. This notion of arabs being some one or two bedouins in the peninsular desert couldnt be farther from the truth. The arabs were cultured and civilized and were spread all over the levant and even egypt and some parts of persia way before even Christianity and Judaism was a thing. They had rich city states and cultures all over the place thanks to the trade coming in through the levant and also from the south arabians (which situated in all of yemen and western parts of oman and all the way north to medina in saudi arabia) who had a civilization that is twice as big as all of those arabs combined. Generalizing all arabs as "desert raiders" or just simply bedouins is unfair, its like calling persians nomads because of the scynthians or parthians and ignoring everything else.
Yes...we know.
How do you know this? Are you immortal?
Not to mention a bunch of Turkic empires especiallly the Seljuks followed by more Persianized Timurids,Safavi,Afshar and Qajar.
I think Persia will always be the "villian" and the giant that lost. The fact that they faced defeats to the hellenetic nations consistently, whom had less resources and smaller armies will always place them in the light that we often view them in: Relient on diplomacy,wealth and meddling, whilst being less physically or martially capable than the hellenic. Had Alexander adopted persian culture and philosophy earlier he wouldve never conquered half the world. The empires before Persia were more capable in the art of war, and less in the art of diplomacy, and will always be regarded as more formidable in their respective period.
So interesting, I think i can undrestand now why the units were famous as the 10 000 Immortals .imagine your land gonna be conquered by the Persians and you hear that there are gonna be immortals showing up at your city walls the next day, and what you know about these warriors is that they are the same warriors which conquered every other land neighboring your lands, they were 10 000 from the beginning , and are still 10 000 of them after all the conquest they have done, that gives you the thought that these warriors will conquere any land with out losing one single soldier and that would make your legs shake for sure. whether the name was given to them from the beginning or was just a title they gained from the nations I think psychological warfare was what was behind that title.
If one dies they just replace them lol
@@blane2056 but the other nations didn't necessarily know that, just that their numbers were identical before and after crushing every other nation
@@blane2056 that’s the thing though, it’s not like other nations saw that part of it. After battle dead bodies would be hidden and taken with the Persians, and at the next battle the enemy would be dismayed to see a seemingly untouched force of immortals marching to the field. Whether it’s a rational conclusion that they replaced them or not is not the point, the point is that the force seemed to never be harmed
" [24] My vast army marched into Babylon in peace; I did not permit anyone to frighten the people of [Sumer] /and\ Akkad. [25] I sought the welfare of the city of Babylon and all its sacred centers. As for the citizens of Babylon, [x x x upon wh]om he imposed a yoke which was not the gods' wish and not befitting them, [26] I relieved their weariness and freed them from their bonds. Marduk, the great lord, rejoiced over [my good] deeds. "
Cyrus the Great (from Cyrus Cylinder)
Im gonna copy and paste this from my other comment about the same Cyrus Cylinder
This was part of a several-millennium tradition of issuing very popular mass-appeasing decrees when a new king ascended in Mesopotamia. It was a way to gain legitimacy and popular support. "This cylinder has sometimes been described as the 'first charter of human rights', but it in fact reflects a long tradition in Mesopotamia where, from as early as the third millennium BC, kings began their reigns with declarations of reforms." No scholars today believes that the Cyrus Cylinder is an example of human rights. It wasn't even national rights, but it did make for good press when Cyrus ascended the throne.
Here's where you can read more on it, not taking a jab at the amazing history and empires of persia but i hate looking at fake information being thrown around without a thought and taken as fact. www.ancient.eu/article/166/the-cyrus-cylinder/#:~:text=The%20Cyrus%20Cylinder%20is%20a,ending%20the%20Neo%2DBabylonian%20empire. "This document is clearly propaganda, praising the Achemenid ruler Cyrus and treating Nabonidus like an impious and bad king.
"
I love persian history, i love all history, but i cant tolerate misinformation being thrown around s facts. I can get you more information if you'd like.
what a Chad
@@werewolfhunter2011 read a little. we don't like to be a racist nation but don't insult greatness, learn from it.
@@werewolfhunter2011 i mean if the king made jews and others slaves hes a bad guy like the greek slavers Romans later on European countries most of ur western history is with slave trading and ours on humanity and love for other fellow humans regardless of faith and race
@@alibordbar2785 i never insulted him. The fact that you thought me correcting misinformation is an “insult” then thats problematic. I suggest you look at history in an unbiased view, but youre probably a persian nationalist anyway
Taking herodotus as a source is a bit of a leap of faith given that he also said there were over 2 million persians invading greece 😂
thats righte but you see in the whole ancient times, even by roman times, there said much to big scales of numbers for armys so its a 'common' bad thing about ancient scourses, but of course we have always to be critical about this sources
@@Tarnatos14 yes if course you are right but even by ancient standarts herodotus wasn't really "fair" in describing the persians
Yep. Unless one is a trained and experienced soldier or scout from the army, it would be hard to accept numbers from one who cant tell if it was 1000 or 10000 men marching.
Even numbers were inflated or deflated depending on, who won a battle, who wrote the numbers down, where said person got his numbers from etc.
As was stated in the video that is the only source available on this particular group
Given that Herodot himself had his information second hand and because he's the only one reporting such a unit it's probably safe to assume that the Immortals never existed.
Why are they almost never represented with helmets? Such an elite unit would have good helmets, we know that their assyrian predecessors used helmets
I've never seen assyrian helmets. How do they look.
Anthony Amenta many reliefs depict them with bonnets or tiaras
There is a big probability that most of the unit did not have helmets and were not well equipted.
1) To expensive (even romans had hard time with equimpent and even at their time one of the best range units were cretean slingers)
2) the envoriment is too hot (crusaders had a hard time fighting in full armor, egyptian units like nubimian are not shown with helmets)
3) faith (celts were famous to fight naked, like other germanic tribes)
Traditionally they are depicted with those wrapped felted phrygian hats who themselves are surprisingly protective but it's fair to assume they would wear the same conical helmets as their neighbouring peoples.
Immortals don't need helmets necessarily, though it seems odd that they seem to never wear any form of armor to protect against decapitation.
Can we just apritiate how Iran was like: "Immortals but with tanks!", and how metal this sounds?
Not mocking your spelling, but write as "appreciate" for future use.
@@Mr.LaughingDuck thanks, mate
Having Iranian ancestry, I appreciate Iranian history on this channel! Nice bit of representation.
Not sure whether it makes a difference but Persian is the Greek form of Parsi (or Pars-e), meaning 'from/of Pars,' a province in Iran. Iranian stems from Aryan, meaning 'of the Iranians.' I understand that Persian is recognizable but it would go a long way to see Iranian used more.
What's more, Cyrus the Great's actual name was Kuruš.
Whilst these things might seem insignificant, many Iranians don't know this. For example, Iran's greatest ancient city, Persepolis (Greek form), is known as Takht-e Jamshid (Throne of Jamshid), because of a famous text, The Shahnameh (Book of Kings), written long after the Haxamanishi (Achaemenids) were gone. However, its actual name was Parsa, as named by Dārayavauš (Darius) the Great.
Considering Alexander burned that city and much of Iranian heritage to the ground, people need to be reawakened to the real names and origins of these historical entities/sites.
Thanks regardless! 😊👍
Absolutely love these videos!
Please consider doing videos on the Varangian guard and the Jannissary corps as well.
This has to be one of my favorite episodes y'all ever made
Unit suggestions:
• Roman field engeniers
• Numidian Cavalry
• Gallic/Germanic Cavalry
• Old Roman Centuriae (pre hastati/principes/triarii)
• Pezetairoi of Macedon
• Leucaspidi of Seulucid Empire
• Agema Cavalry
• Peltasts
• Chariots of the britons
• Celtiberian Infantry
elite mongol cavalry keshig.
Dismas should be in series with kipchak and other steppe cavalry
Invicta and The Historian's Craft uploading withing minutes! 😁👌
👌
Nice
@@jjvega83 it's a little channel, with a bit more academic focus. It was previously named The Fall of Rome, but expanded into Japanese and Asian tribes too.
@@InvictaHistory pls do one on a sikh niangh warrior and empire pls
@@InvictaHistory PLZ make video About Timurid Empire plz plz
Much more fierce and skillful than we see in 300 movie 👌 they deserve better representation. Interesting to see battle axes in that age, like you only think of Vikings using them.
Well axes are easy to make compared to swords and they're pretty versatile. They can hook shields, bash helmets etc. So I'd be more surprised if only the Scandinavians used them.
@@OsKuukkeli good point
As I recall, axe shaped weapons are popular all over the world, especially Asia (but please don't quote me on that!).
"Axe shaped weapons are popular all over the world, especially Asia"
- Kasey
@Klaidi Rubiku well they did win you know?xerxes burnt down and sacked athens and then left,they came for revenge occupation was their secondary objective and they did beat the spartans but then they didnt give a crap and just left some of their axuiliary troops and left with their immortals,but yeah macedonians did beat them
Would love to spectate a battle back then , sitting on top of the battlefield and drinking beer.
That's what Herodotus did, except he drank wine, and servants behind him to feed him grapes.
I know it’s the wrong era but this often occurred in Napoleonic battles and with Italian Mercenaries in the Renaissance period.
I’d love to know more about Centurions and other kinds of mid-level Roman officers.
Lucious Vorenus and Titus Pulo
nemesio fenomeno THIRTEEN!!
Kings and Generals did a pretty good job of going over the historical development of the Centurion
I wouldnt say a centurion is a mid level officer. He was the premier enlisted soldier in charge of leading his legion into battle. If anything he would be the equivalent to an E-9 in the united states military
Centurions led 100 man units not a full legion.
It was amazing! I am learning much more exciting things about the history of my own country from this channel than I ever learned in school!😅 Thanks a lot! 🌺🌺🌺
this was an amazing and great video . keep up the good work .thanks a lot for sharing
I've been excited about this upload ever since your post. 💙🤍
Love it! I want you guys to cover the Gallic / Germanic Calvary so often used by the Romans next!
Man imagine going back in time and recording those awesome battles with a drone.
Yeah, immortals and Spartans will stop fighting each other and shoot down your drone. There is also the small problem of charging batteries in 6th century BC.
The fookin legend of gin alley
@@justacrow9847 just bring a shit load of batteries
I mean, awesome? It looks cool in movies and video games nowadays, but actually seeing people being stabbed/shot/slashed/trampled to death would be pretty brutal and horrific to witness IRL. Although war and violence were a much larger part of ancient societies, it wasn't any less awful than modern conflicts, or somehow more dignified.
In a modern war, the enemy is often very far away and you might not even directly see him when he is killed; depending on the technology, killing him and his allies might be as banal as pushing a button or typing out commands on a computer system. Compare that to having to look your opponent in the eye and putting a blade in his body, amidst hundreds of people pressed together trying to do the same.
@@thomaskole9881 it would be brutal and horrible, yet very entertaining. Nowadays people have gotten more sensitive but overall as humans we still love to witness violence or at least conflict as entertainment, so we'd watch the shit out of that.
So glad to see this covered, love this empire!
Fasinating history I wasn't taught about in school. Thanks 4 taking time sharing.
I loved your art! Hoping to see many more such units from the ancient era
@ADN that's not a Nazi swastika, it's an Indian one, which has been used in the subcontinent for more than 2 millennia atleast and neighbouring Asian communities. Just because a piece of filth incorporated it as his symbol & that of his party to lay claim to our heritage & history, doesn't mean it is so. Google what it is!
@@shivampaliwal8162 And it was still used by the Celts as a symbol a renewal millenia after they moved from the Indus valley.
Ty so much for the documetary
Love u all guys, from Iran
@DSW22 Remember the Islamic golden age?
@DSW22 How is your comment even relevant? What does it even mean? Islam made Iran the hub of Science and Education and made it insanely rich which was destroyed by the Mongols.And I didn't understand your comment above please elaborate.
@DSW22 How does ethnic mixing destroy a country? Almost all Iranians are 70% native Iranian. It's because it's directly in the silk road and loads of foreigners traveled there. The Iranians didn't lose their intelligence their books were burned and their scholars were killed. Russians are pretty isolated and very less foreign people migrated there that's why they're pure Russians. And cousin marriages are very rare. There is a lot of cousin marriages in non Islamic countries and it doesn't DESTROY the country. Russia is a huge country with lots of oil,gas and minerals and a big population that's why they could easily recover. And the Mongols didn't do any damage to Russia compared to Iran .And stop acting like Iran is a 3rd world country. They're a 2nd world developing country and would be way better without stupid sanction and all the western intervention drama in the middle east for the past 60 years. Your claim is funny. Iran is destroyed because of Race mixing even though the country is fine,LOL.
I loved this video it was great. You people are quite informative. Great job.
I love the documentary narrator so much. Such a pleasing voice.
Great video, hopefully more "unit spotlight" videos coming. Tabardarriya or the Caliphs' guards would be pretty interesting imo.
You could cover Bactrian/Scythain/Iranian early cataphract units, armored cavalry.
Or have a discussion about whether or when towers were added to elephants.
A video on war elephant armor.
One about mercenaries.
Perhaps Germanic units, weapons, and armor (if any).
When I was taking classics in college, I absolutely hated it because I’m an engineer and I thought classics was boring. Your videos have made me see the value in studying classics.
Thank you.
wow coming back to this challe after a while and you did quite an upgrade!
Awesome video! I would love to see one on the Byzantine Tagma some time in the future!
Alternate theory: Herodotus was a fantasy writer who never found his calling
Herodotus the type of guy to write self-insert fanfics about the Trojan War
Thank you for the video 👍👌Nice work.
Been looking forward to this
Once you guys get to the dark and middle ages, perhaps cover the Daylamite Infantry. They are a fascinating elite infantry unit when shock cavalry reigned supreme. They even were some of the last peoples who resisted the Muslim expansion.
Varangian guard, Sacred band of Thebes and Skeshig. Ps love these special videos keep them coming
Awesome . Something that many people in western countries ignore due to the way history is told in their countries. What is a shame . Persian history is so fascinating with all the knowledge they gave to the world and many still used today . Like laws , gardens and more
Greetings from Minneapolis MINNESOTA. The almighty AHURA MAZDA BLESS YOU ALL. 🙏🏼🙏🏾🙏🏻🙏🏿
been looking for video on this subject for a long time
Differentiating the Spartan king's bodyguard from the "average" spartan would be interesting, as a guy with genetics from that part of the world and genetics from east asia too.
One of my favorite historical military groups
Nice to see focus on the military units again on this channel.
Very informative, thanks
Love these specials on crack military units, love your content in general, keep it up! 🔥
Thanks! Let me know what you all would like to see next
@@InvictaHistory pls do one on a sikh niangah warrior pls
Although mythical, I’d love to see the Myrmidons covered. Perhaps a little on both the myth side as well as their more historical versions.
I signed up to MagellanTV using your link. The content looks great, nice sponsor!
Excellent work
I watch this video and just realise "Oh man we know nothing about them and yet they're still so famous"
The reason much is unknown is because Persian literature was burnt and destroyed countless times, by Alexander, the Arabs, Turks, Mongols etc.,
But one point was incorrect about Immortals. They were from decent Persian families and a kind of noble troop in seance of blood and loyalty.
But of course the rest of Persian army was a multinational army.
not only that but for joining them you should be persian(lur and bakhtiari and other persian ethics) and you should be born in mainland of iran city like shiraz and Tehran
Really great quality videos man, you’ve come a long. Keep it up 👍. Maybe a total war video too?
Wow!great history!great content and great channel!!!
Herodotus is basically Tolkien of the time. He wrote high fantasy.
people in Ancient period didn't know the distinction between fiction and history.
the lines were blurred.
even in Medieval period, historians were still writing fantasy because the vast majority of them were religious people.
the Bible is a religious book but there are still lots off historically accurate events that did happen at some point in time.
story of Moses might be true but the claims are exaggerated, especially when it comes to the curses and blood in the Nile river.
or insects. and dead crocodiles.
but a Jewish revolt and Moses helping his people escape out of Egypt might be true.
this was right before the Bronze Age collapse.
Egyptians were probably preoccupied with the war against Sea People invasions.
this gave the chance to the Jews to escape out from Egypt.
and that 40 years wondering the deserts if the Sinai peninsula is definitely exaggerated.
40 years might have just been 4 years, living a semi nomadic lifestyle before eventually setting foot on Judea as a permanent settlement.
still, we still have to give it to Herodotus to actually being the first ever historian. Greeks were an incredible civilization.
they pretty much created everything.
Well made and very informative. I would be interested in what forces King David and King Solomon utilized during their reigns.
Great video 👍
I love the new format ! :D
i want a video on the Spartiates, they seem very similar yet very different from the standard Spartan hoplites, and they are also almost nobility.
Awsome video brother as a Persian I know that the immortals were offered to the army when they were 6 to train until they reach 20 or something the defeat in Greece was nothing more awful luck(10000 immortals were drowned in a storm ) bad leadership and the disadvantage of geography that greeks used which saw that we Persians couldn't fight as we would have...Long live Persia
Yet the mercenary army of Xenophon had no trouble cutting them to pieces. Persians always lost against Greeks, hard to dismiss that as bad luck
@@JoeSmith-sl9bq We didn't lose against greeks we won a lot of battles greeks used the land to defend themselves we were at an extreme disadvantage not to mention our best elite immortals died in a storm when trying to get there persian immortals learned how to fight since they were 7 until 20 they marched swam and trained under hot sun every day so don't you dare tell me that we just lost go search persian victory against greeks and romans and others except just referring to the two battles we lost ...
@@JoeSmith-sl9bq The Persian always wins. It's the simple and complex truth. Iran won.
@@JoeSmith-sl9bq lok
@@rpd6874 Greeks always wrecked Persians in battle no matter if they were defending or invading. Persian armies were just no match
Enjoying your videos here in Brazil! Cheers!
nice vid keep up the good work
Did anyone else thing „Argh“ when the stirrups where showing at 4:39?
Love your content anyway though.
@Purp Indeed, they were invented 600 years after the Persian empire was destroyed. It would be like Napoleonic soldiers using railguns.
There's also a T-55 in Iran's WWII-era army at 10:17...
@@solwen Or the English mowing down the French knights at Agincourt with machineguns :D
Yaay!! Thank you for making a video on the Persians!
Been waiting for This
"In 1942 they created their own Immortal Gurads"
Ok cool...
"They had about 5,000 men"
You had one job!
Well , you see Iran was a country that has just got out of a swamp known as the Qajar dynasty and started the pahlavi dynasty and yes I know that Reza Pahlavi didn't become the king in 1942 but the country started it's real change from 1939 as it started becoming something that you could call a country. So to expect a country that doesn't have a proper infrastructure and recruitment system and military to have over 5000 elite infantry squads is quite harsh.
Did you know that Iran suffered the most casualties in the First and Second World Wars?
I'd love to see a video about Caesar's 10th legion.
love this series!
awesome stuff
i read some place that one immortal was equipped with a sword named "Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker"
Did someone said ThunderFury Blessed Blade of the wind seeker ??
Excellent video! I’ve always had an interest in the Immortals after I first saw “The 300 Spartans” (1962). This is far from being the greatest movie ever made, but at least it depicts Xerxes, portrayed with a larger-than-life flair by David Farrar, as a true King of Kings and not as some 10-foot tall sadomasochistic creature, and the Immortals as Persia’s best troops, not as demented gargoyles dressed like ninjas! Check it out.
You can thank Frank Miller's xenophobic imagination for the latter ones
D.S. Archer.
My mum took me as a young boy, to see that movie when it was first released in the early 60's.
Richard Egan played the Spartan king ,and I still remember the end scene" finish them with arrows".
@@seeker5736 That's a sweet anecdot you have there
@@ShinigamiInuyasha777 . Happy memory.My mum died 30 years ago.
@@seeker5736 Sorry for that
I would love you to do videos on the Companion Cavalry, Silver Shield Pikemen or other elite units of the successor kingdoms, Cataphracts
thanks alot
Do the Mongolian Kheshig I think that would be interesting to cover.
Herodotus also said that there was a long wait list to join the immortals, many wanting to join.
Very cool video
Most informative video on the immortals I have seen to date. On another note, that's the source of the drums music in the background??
Popular culture has turned the Spartan warrior into some kind of super soldier of antiquity. But here we see that the Persian Immortal was likely just as well trained as any Spartan foot soldier. In the end it is strategy and tactics that win wars and battles.
I know this isn’t the format of the channel but could you do reviews of historical movies especially the ones that have big battle this could be a great opportunity to point out all the misconception in Hollywood and you could recommend videos that cover different aspects of the movies to get the full answer on any topic and it would be a very entertaining format to watch. Long pitch sry and thx for the Great content
Excellent video on immortals..... Too good
I really need to know from where you got the soundtrack, it is amazing and really sets the tone for the amazing video
When I saw the title I thought he was gonna talk about historical units of measurement! 😂
While it is fascinating to learn about these guys again, I’d love to see some coverage of more atypical military units. There are so many other nations and empires that we could explore, as popular as the Near East and Mediterranean empires are.
Very interesting and well-made Invicta, despite the scare historical sources. Could you cover the Cataphracts next ?
Very good
my suggestion Is about Mesoamerican warriors and their equipment, I don't know much about their weapons except for that wooden club with obsidian blades
Macuahuitl
Units Suggestions - Chariots, the Praetorians, The Varangians and the Schiltron
And maybe Alexander the Great’s Hypaspists and Companion Cavalry
The Martial Lord of Loyalty yeah, that’s what I meant - A History of Chariots and Their Use in Warfare vid
The Praetorian bastards. The most overrated unit in history. Pampered fools who damaged the Roman empire more than many foreign invasions.
Praetorians were just politicians, they never made any positive impact for roman military, video games just made them cool.
4:03 that was very well made, good video !
Thank you.