The battle of Thermopylae saw 300 Spartans hold back a massive Persian army. But who were the soldiers that faced off against King Leonidas and why were they called The Immortals when they were so obviously mortal? Why were they so feared by the enemies that they went up against?
The Persian Immortals: the precision killers in a massive war machine who forged the largest empire the middle east has ever seen. They were the heavy infantry for the Persian army, their name stemmed from the fact that if one of the Immortals was to fall in battle, he would be instantly replaced by another warrior. The name was coined by Herodotus, the Greek Historian. It was always at its full complement of 10,000 soldiers. While the Persian army was a multi-ethnic force, the Immortals were all from the empire's Persian provinces, people of Iranian origin.
The Persian Immortals: the precision killers in a massive war machine who forged the largest empire the middle east has ever seen. They were the heavy infantry for the Persian army, their name stemmed from the fact that if one of the Immortals was to fall in battle, he would be instantly replaced by another warrior. The name was coined by Herodotus, the Greek Historian. It was always at its full complement of 10,000 soldiers. While the Persian army was a multi-ethnic force, the Immortals were all from the empire's Persian provinces, people of Iranian origin.