§-Quick questions
NSWAncient HistorySection II (Ancient Societies): Persia in the time of Darius and Xerxes
Quick questions on Persia's army, navy and subject peoples under Darius and Xerxes: HSC Ancient History
2short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is cavalry?Show answer
Persian cavalry combined Persian nobility with subject horse-peoples: Medes, Sacae (Scythian mounted archers valued for skirmishing), and Bactrians. Cavalry was decisive in the second phase of the Greek war: at Plataea (479 BC), Persian horsemen under Masistius harassed the Greek line before Masistius himself was killed, and Mardonius relied on cavalry to compensate for infantry losses in the campaign's final stages. The mounted arm shows the same pattern as the infantry, a Persian aristocratic core reinforced by specialist subject contingents recruited for a particular skill.
What is the imperial navy?Show answer
Persia had no ethnic navy of its own; the fleet was built entirely from maritime subject peoples, chiefly the four contingents this dot point names.
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