Hat 8267 SASSANID LIGHT INFANTRY

The Sassanid state is a power that in ancient times stretched over the area of today's Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, but also periodically in a large part of Turkey or Pakistan. It is assumed that this state was formed around AD 220 and existed until AD 651, until the Arab conquest. In the late antiquity, it repeatedly entered into armed conflicts with the Roman state, and later - in the 5th and 6th centuries - it also fought against the Byzantine Empire. This state had an efficient war machine, which probably could mobilize an army of up to 100 to 130-150 thousand. people. The army of the Sassanid state consisted of three formations: cavalry, fighting elephant units and infantry. The latter was the most numerous and probably accounted for about 70-90% of the army, depending on the campaign. A large part of the Sassanid infantry was light infantry armed mainly with spears and spears. There were also infantry units called "kamandaran", that is, archers with a good level of training and morale. There were also very well trained heavy armed infantry, armed with spears and swords, called "daylami". The fact that the army of the Sassanids was an effective fighting force can be proved by the Battle of Edessa in 260, when it broke up the Roman army and took Emperor Valerian captive.