Inside the 10,000-Man Force That Guarded the Persian Empire
Inside the elite 10,000-man force that held the Achaemenid Empire together.
INTRO — THE LEGEND OF THE 10,000 IMMORTALS
Herodotus called them the Immortals because their numbers never changed.
Whenever a soldier died, retired, or fell ill, another instantly took his place.
To the Greeks, it seemed supernatural.
To the Persians, it was logistics.
The Achaemenid Empire — stretching from Egypt to India — needed an elite corps that could:
protect the king
move quickly across the empire
deploy against rebellions
act as the shock troops of a multicultural army
symbolize imperial stability
The Immortals filled that role perfectly.
They were more than soldiers.
They were a brand — a 10,000-man symbol of Persian power.
