The Immortals were the elite fighting unit of the Persian Empire. Most of what we know of them comes from the historian Herodotus. They were created when Cyrus the Great was emperor. Credit goes to a female named Pantea Arteshbod, the governor of Babylon. They were trained from age 5. They became experts in riding horses, shooting arrows, hunting, and living off the land. At age 20, they could join, but they had to wait for a spot to open. This was because the unit was kept at an even 10,000. Herodotus gave them the name “Immortals” because whenever one was killed or wounded, they were immediately removed from the battlefield and later replaced so the number was always at 10,000. To gullible foes these Persian soldiers seemed to be immortal. They were equipped with wicker shields, short spears, and bows and arrows. They wore scale armor coats. The best 1,000 had golden apples on their butt spikes. These elite of the elite were called “apple-bearers”. All of the Immortals traveled in style. As they marched, they were followed by a baggage train that included their concubines and servants. The Immortals took part in the conquest of Egypt, northwestern India and Scythia. They were most famous in their involvement the Persian Wars. In the Battle of Thermopylae, they were sent to break the Spartans after the regular soldiers had failed, but they suffered the same as the others. (They were not the zombies imagined in the movie “300”.) Later, they suffered a similar drubbing by Alexander the Great at the Battle of Gaugamela.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immortals_(Achaemenid_Empire)
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/persian-immortals.html
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