Units of History - Sassanid Horse Archers DOCUMENTARY
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- Опубліковано 7 чер 2024
- Units of History Documentary on the Horse Archers of the Sassanid Army! Claim your SPECIAL OFFER for MagellanTV here: try.magellantv.com/invicta. Start your free trial TODAY so you can watch "Warrior's Way" about famous units of history and the rest of MagellanTV’s documentary collection: www.magellantv.com/series/war...
In this animated history documentary series we bring to life the military of the Sassanid Empire. We begin by discussing the fall of the Parthian Empire and the rise of the Sassanid Empire. This involved a reorganization of its political structure with a far greater degree of control to be exerted from the shahanshah. However stability still relied to a great extent on the Great Houses of Parthia. It is from these families and the other members of the iranian heartland that the core of the Sassanid military would draw its strength. These would be augmented by auxiliaries, mercenaries, and allies from further afield including Armenia, the Central Streppe, and Kushan.
Specifically for the Sassanid Horse Archers we look at their equipment, training and tactics. These are then put into practice with a review of their service history. As such we cover the rise of the Sassanid Empire under Ardashir I. We then cover the campaigns of his descendants againt the Roman Army, the Byzantine Army, the White Huns, the Arabs and more.
You can learn more about the Units of History through our documentary series:
THE NEAR EAST
The 10,000 Immortals : • Units of History - The...
THE BYZANTINES
Byzantine Flamethrowers and Grenadiers : • Units of History - Byz...
The Varangian Guard : • Units of History - The...
THE GREEK WORLD
Macedonian Silver Shields : • Units of History - The...
Macedonian Companion Cavalry : • Units of History - The...
The Spartan Skiritai : • Units of History: The ...
The Spartan Royal Guard : • Units of History - The...
The Sacred Band of Thebes : • Units of History - The...
Mycenaean Chariots : • Units of History - Myc...
Balearic Slingers : • Units of History - The...
THE ROMANS
Roman Cataphracts : • Units of History - Rom...
Roman Army Spies : • Units of History - The...
Roman Army Scouts : • Units of History - The...
THE NORTHMEN
The Jomsvikings Mercenaries : • Units of History - The...
Viking Berserkers : • Units of History - Vik...
Early Germanic Warriors : • Units of History - Ear...
THE EASTERN EUROPEANS
The Druzhina :
THE AFRICANS
Nubian Archers : • Units of History - Nub...
The Sacred Band of Carthage : • Units of History - The...
Carthaginian War Elephants : • Units of History - Car...
The Numidian Cavalry : • Units of History - The...
Credits:
Research = Eric TenWolde and Soroush Torabi
Writing = Invicta
Narration = Guy Michaels
Artwork = Penta Limited
Reenactment = Eran Ud Turan
Source and Suggested Reading:
"The Armies of Ancient Persia - The Sassanians" by Kaveh Farrokh
"A Synopsis of Sasanian Military Organization and Combat Units" by Kaveh Farrokh
"Sassanian Millitary" by David Nicole
Horse archery should be an Olympic sport
Is it not?
@@INVICTA63 no
Yes.... 1000%
Why is ski shooting an Olympic sport when horse archery is not?
@@rukeyazu8669 because barbarians are allowed in the olympics nowdays
I love the history of iran! Such rich culture Horse archers/ Kataphracts have always been an interesting topic to me
Last time I was this early, Arabs were still paying tribute to Sassanid Shahs
lol Waht>?
@The Philosoraptor people seem to forget that islam was around in the 7th century and not since 200BC lol
Still got rekt by odaenathus(اذينة)
@@rabroub2052 everyone eventually gets rekt by something civilization come and go
Odaenthus' story is Romam propaganda in a time where they had lost all "honor" in their wars with the Sasanids. Most of what is said about him in the sources is pure BS.
Sassanids are one of the most interesting powers in the Dark Ages, in my opinion! Great to see them getting covered!
For the Iranian people Sassanid era was golden age of Iranian history
That was dark age for Europe.
"Dark ages" 🤣🤣🤣🤣 only for the barbarians living in caves in the west
@@mortache the term "dark age" was use because there is not much writing about those time, not because the people at that time was barbarian
@@chickknightgreenleaf820 the word dark age was used by self-aggrandizing enlightenment era Europeans to make themselves feel like the pinnacle of human existence. They also smeared lead and arsenic on their face, truly cultured 🤣🤣🤣.
Its true that the western Rome became poor as fuck as the rich started owning everything and didn't pay any taxes and the "barbarians", who they treated like shit, rebelled and took over shit. After Goths took over, centralized governments collapsed for about 200 years and there was no big public projects. But at least from Charlemagne's time the "dark age" did not even exist in western Europe. Maybe in some fringes like Scandinavia it would be true
The level of skill and precision they possessed was astounding.
Would love to see a netflix/hbo series following a Sassanid warrior
Imagine a movie about surena. The guy who defeated roman army when he was outnumbered 4 to 1. He was a parthian commander, but Parthia and house sassan are mostly the same.
But just imagine what Hollywood can do with this story.
But sadly they never make this movie. Because it has a bad content. East beat west asses first. That's not cool with Hollywood. But they made so many movies about west beating Eastern asses, such as Alexander the great and that stupid movie 300.
You see 300 however, was just a propaganda that held together the Greeks moral in fight. But you can see what Hollywood can do even with an untrue story.
But back to the main point. NOBODY will make a movie about Persian history and if they make a movie about them, it's about their defeat.
Even the Persians them selves wouldn't make a movie about their own history, you might ask why. Because persia or iran is ruled by a fanatic Islamic government as we speak now. Hint: islam first big achievement was capturing persia, so it means Persians were the first enemy of islam but now they are Muslim them selves. I know it's complicated but it's the truth.🤣
@@yousefzayabi37 indeed it is sad
Oh please no , not Netflix , or the shahanshah will be a transexual black guy
Lol they’ll never do that western media hates iran and Iranic history … just look at 300 … too bad really :) the west loves to demonize Iranian people because they fear iran
@@soroushtorabi98 Netflix has dropped its wokeness. It cancelled a number of woke projects like anti racist baby and have told its woke staff to stop whining or resign.
As an Iranian, be prepared for the Persians that will spam the comment section faster then our ancestors spammed arrows, I have spoken for my people.
😂😂😂😅👍👍
Loved this episode. I'm very glad to see content from ancient Persia. ❤️
What I would give for an episode on the Thracian Peltast or Cretan Archers. However such an amazing video exploring the militaries of the east and greatly opened my eyes to their might as well as their magnificence. Horse mounted archers and javelin throwers have always been a favorite of mine as well as irregular light infantry warriors. This video was great truly and is precisely why I will remain a life time subscriber! Good job guys!
thanks! It was really awesome to explore another civilization which I knew very little about. I certainly hope to do more!
Ahhh yes! The Sassanids! Aka the Make Persia Great Again dynasty.
Agreed, Refreshing
There was no Persia. Iran
@@mazandarani8435 Bro Persia is how the ancient Greeks used to called the original Pars province bcz both the Achaemenids and later the Sassanids came from Pars province and created the Parsi Empire
Greeks called Pars as Persis and the Parsi as Persia
A few words about depictions of Iranians.
As an Iranian, I thank Invicta for paying attention to the history of Iran. Not because I consider Iran to be better, in any sense, of other countries, but because Iran has played a central role in shaping of our world (especially from 6th century BC to 7th century AD), and without studying its history, it is impossible to understand even the present time in a tenable manner. However, western depictions of Iranians in history are often stereotyped and inaccurate. The problem can easily be seen when one juxtaposes depictions of Greeks and Romans with depictions of Iranians: The former people are often glorified and shown based on good artistic works, while the latter are often denigrated and shown using sketchy and ugly drawings without taking into consideration the various historical periods and the manifold of customs (often mixing e.g. Achaemenid clothing and armor with those of the Sas(s)anids!). This video is surely a huge improvement, but is also a bit stereotyped when it comes to clothing and armor, and inaccurate with regards to the maps of various historical periods. This kind of issues can easily be solved by looking at academic works such as "Rome's Enemies (3): Parthians and Sassanid Persians" and the two volumes of "The Roman Eastern Frontier and the Persian Wars" (Both are easily accessible on the internet). Again, I must stress that this video is a huge improvement, and I am sure it can contributes to rectify the widespread misconceptions about Iranians.
Cheers
should listen to hardcore history podcast
My sisters husband is Iranian and likes history much. We talk quite a lot about the conflicts between Greece and Persians in the ancient era. It is kind of interesting to see the difference in how they are perceived. From his perspective the battle of Thermopylae etc are more of a minor nuisance in the history of Persia, while for most europeans it is seen as a major event with great value for the europeans.
As a Swede I can relate to this difference in perspective, because there is a similar thing in our history. During the Swedish empire the swedish army lost the battle in Fehrbellin. For Swedish history it is a minor battle, almost a skirmish, which doesn't really matter. But in german history that battle is seen as the start of the unification process of Germany and the birth of the german army.
@@Kramplarv sasanians is childrens of scityians parthians aramaic iranic arya avestan greater iran
As a Greek I feel huge Respect for Persians and their great past .A great civilization, so important for all the humanity. Specially Sassanids and the religion of Zarathustra is another more convince for The great Persian past. All our love from Greece
@@VV-wi6ir I have also great admiration and respect for the Greeks. I have been to Greece and I was surprised how similiar the Greeks and the Iranians are. This is in contrast to the picture that is prevalent in the “West”, i.e. Western Europe and North America. In my view the continuity between the modern “Western Civilisation “ (as oppsed to the “Orient”) and ancient Greece is a fabricatin of the West. Iran as a represntative of the “Orient” is much closer to Greece than Western academics are willing to admit. Cheers
*The erstwhile Achaemenid Immortals were heavily upgraded and modified and became known as the **_Zhayedan_** (Immortals) heavily cavalry in the Sassanian Dynasty the most powerful unit of the Zhayedan Heavy Cavelry was the **_Pushtigban-Salar_** which consists of 1000 high ranking **_Sāvāran_** heavy cavelry and was an elite military unit of the Sasanian Empire, charged with the protection of the Persian Shahenshah (King of Kings/Emperor).*
*A sub-unit of pushtigban were the **_Gyan-Avspar_** , the ("sacrificers of their lives") - the best of the pushtigban. This sub-unit of pushtigban fought with distinction and zeal befitting their name during Julian's invasion of Persia in the 4th century AD.*
Thank you "Invicta" for working out such great masterpiece!
Please make a video about "Sassanid/Parthian Cataphracts" and their historical ancestors.
You should really make a video on how their enemies, especially the Romans, adapted to fighting these horse archers.
by ultimately having their own horse archers
Battle of Dorylaeum between the seljuks and princes crusade is a great example for countering horse archers without your own. Forming a firm box and not letting them through, while your own archers rain fire back at them. But romans could do little with slow, divided lines with traditional tactics, thats why eastern romans actually heavily relied on mercenary and noblemen horsearchers in flanks and vanguard
Have in stuff like their Roman Cataphracts vid
@@librainvictus5660 that's the worst example you could give, the crusaders were loosing that fight, taking heavy losses, Only by the surprise attack on the seljuk flank and sjeljuk camp did the tide of that battle turn, the sjeljuk army that was smaller then just the crusader vanguard inflicted more losses on the crusaders in that battle
the insufficient scouting of the sjeljuks played a role as well, that strategy you described wouldn't work against the mongols for instance look at mohi, where they even had wagons and crossbowmen surrounding the Hungarian camp & still lost
/ Much better example's are Arsuf, Parwan & Ain jalut
horse archers can counter foot archers & crossbowmen by simply dismounting and shooting, so that's just a matter of who has more missile troops, not the ideal counter
Wasn't Ain Jalut Mongols vs Mamelukes?
this was a refreshing documentary. the "west" is very interesting and everything, but overly exploited, there are already countless documentaries there, and seeing you guys venture more into the east and into africa has been quite a pleasant change; i would urge you to carry on with that trend, and also add ancient america, specifically meso and south america. South american history is woefully underappreciated and unknown to the rest of the world, and to themselves, and it would be wonderful to work against that. thank you
100%. It wouldn’t likely fit into the “Units of History” theme, but there’s so much fascinating stuff about the states and societies of the Americas. I would *love* more about the agriculture, warfare and statebuilding in the Andes leading up to the Incan expansion.
South American history is boring as s**t. PD: I'm Argentinian.
They already covered some of the more well know pre colonial warriors. However it's quite difficult as there are just so little to no written or otherwise clear documentations.
Or more likely there are but we don't know how to read them.
@@sirBrouwer was going to say this, im interested in maori history but there's so little written it's hard.
This channel is heavily eurocentric so don't expect much, like this video for example, did this guy really just mention horse archer without it being about the Mongols or the Huns but about a shitty sassanid horse archer imitation ? Lol okay
Romans: Ha! How much damage can a bunch of horsey boys with bows really do?
Persians: And we took that personally.
Maybe you could cover the persian Sparabara unit later ?( if you haven't already)
The first row of the persian foot infantry to hit the enemy lines , defenders of archer lines and one of the most versatile units of the persian empires.
You should cover the sassanid elite royal bodyguard; the Pushtigban.
Thank you so much for covering Sassanid military.
thousands years later seljuks followed by ottomans and then french had also their light cavalry named *Sipahi*
My favorite era in all history is the Sassanid era. Majestic, powerful, just, and technologically advanced! I consider them the culmination of the Indo European heritage.
All will tremble before the House of Karen!
I demand to see your King!
@@Taistelukalkkuna *ShahanShah
I play with them in CK2.
Loved this video, can't wait for more videos on sassanid armies
Man I just couldn’t let it pass by : House of Karen 🤣🤣🤣🤣. The emperor of Sassanids must have a hard time dealing with them huh
It pronounced kuren. Like the word up.
But actually I think they were the most troublesome one for house sassan. So I think you're right 😂
LOL. Nailed it 🤣🤣
Omg,😂😂😂😂
Sorry i don't get it
What's this whole house of Karen thing in the comments about ?
@@ramtin5152 its an American cultural phenomenon where mad blonde ladies rage and become annoying self centered self privilege c!@#%@ . They are called Karens. It has nothing to do with the royal house though 🤣
I would love to see a full video on the full sassanid army description as that is a force you don't tend to see.
Sassanian Empire one of the best Empire in history
How exactly what was so impactful about it
@@wankawanka3053 they had cool looking armor
@@wankawanka3053 How many Empire rule for 400 years as one of the most powerful Empire of there time like the Sassanian Empire and also in time of Shapur I the nightmare of Roman Empire Sassanian Empire was solo superpower Empire of is time
Ok dude let's don't be punfars
Wow, Invicta! You should do a video about a Mexica or Mayan unit, Greetings from Mexico!
The Moral of the story: Regardless of how strong, educated, smart, civilized, and skillful you are, even how many fights have you won, if you are not wise enough to make peace with your likes, you will erode yourself to death and only make space for lurking enemies to either steal or destroy what you have accomplished during your magnificent lifetime.
Facts
Hehehehehehehe
literally united states right now
cc: Khosrow the 2nd
Burning Ctesiphon goes chop chop
Most people don't realize that there is a difference between the shooting styles of the Eastern step, and the West. I was surprised, and delighted, to see that your animators we're aware of this difference. And made the appropriate changes. This shows a level of detail that is seldom seen. Good job. And.. Excellent video
Shut up.
Cum
@@singlefather6221 🥵
Art of your videos are getting so crazyly good!
Excellent! Thanks for such a great documentary.
As for me Sassanids are one of the most interesting powers in the Dark Ages, thank you for video!
Please make more persian content (more cavalry content would also be great).
Great as always. Thanks for the video
I really appreciate your contents on iran. Your videos are top notch🔥
The Karens came from a long line dating back to the Sassanid empire 4:41. Descendants of one of the great sassanid houses. 🤣
It's pronounced kuren. Like the word up.
Complaining women
Sassy Karens
It's Karan not karen. This video says it worng.
Shapur the first is the most gangster man in ancient history
thank you so much for this video
wow cant lie i used to think sassanids were not as good as this but this video has made me greatly change my mind thanks for it
In reality. They was greater than this video
I very much enjoyed this video, especially the tactics they would employ.
Finally! My favourite persian dynasty!
Same!
So useful and informative lecture. Thank you so much...!
Thank youuu people for this great video !
the condottieri of the 15th century would be a great addition to this amazing series
Amazing; thank you!
Very nice video, please make a video about sassanid's cataphracts or sassanid pushtigbans. ty❤️💛💜
Ty fore this great video and your time its so heart breaking to see how great we was in before
Please do more videos on Iran I love this
The battle at Ctesiphon looked pretty similar to the way things went down at Carrhae.
Great job invicta
Thanks for such content
Excellent video.
Hey Invicta,
Love your work, determination and passion. However if it's possible, can you add subtitles? It would not only help me, but also other viewers too. Thanks!
Well Said
I fully agree with you on that.
Do the auto generated captions not work for you?
@@josephr.9977 Those are pretty accurate.
@@josephr.9977 those are hot garbage lol
Great work 🥳 Thank youuuuu 💜
amazing as usual
Love your videos invicta rich with information as always and has information that is not provided anywhere but could you make a video about mamluk units or any arab units your arab viewers will appreciate that
Long live our Persian history and heritage
Very informative and interesting. Thanks for producing and sharing... Impressive men of honor.
Fantastic documentary
as an iranian i really enjoyed this episode. top
Minor correction: "Spah" is not pronounced as "espah".
The correct pronunciation is "sapah" which means "army". This is where the word for the individual soldier "sapahi" comes from.
And sepoy in india, also comes from that word.
Actually "espah" is a more original pronounciation, its Middle Persian form, while "Sepāh" is more modern/New Persian pronounciation.
Great Job. Thanks
Very interesting and complete video❤🙏🏻
Please make more videos about Sasanian and Parthian periods
0:12 CRASSUS! THEY'RE NOT RUNNING OUT OF ARROWS!
Can you do please make video about all the Sassanian army units.
Terrific video!
Thanks
I'm a persian
I truly appreciate the lvl of knowledge and research you have done for this beautiful documentary.
It's completely accurate and true.
There are alot of videos on UA-cam that talked about the history of my country but tried to downgrade it saying stupid racist things to mock the wonderful history of my country culturally and militarily.
But what you did in this video makes me so happy and satisfied and reminds me of why I'm so proud of being a Persian.
Thank you alot.
Your lvl of knowledge made goosebumps all over my body.
Very accurate very true very complete.
Thank you.🙏🏻
Thank you 🙏🏽 more about on my beloved Iran-shahr 🇮🇷
This is gonna be a fun playlist.
Excellent Video. Very interesting :)
The guide track for the bows, to overdraw the bow, or shoot darts is the same idea as the Korean Pyeonjeon. The aegisal is a short arrow or bolt, shot using a longer bamboo arrow guide called the tongah in Korean archery. The tongah allows you to draw a short arrow at a full draw length with a full sized bow, it is an overdraw device. A tongah used with a bow looks somewhat similar to a crossbow. A good Korean movie about this is called "War of the Arrows."
Like a sniper
wut ???? how that similar even possible whit names ... in farsi ( persian lang ) it names " PanjeGan" which means " panje = number 5 and the same time " the 5 fingers" ( cuz they shoots 5 dart-like arrows ) and " gan = sum of two arrows and fingers"🤩 im sure our ancestors met eachother... im sure of it
War of the Arrows was such a great depiction-it showed a less-common use of it, where the hero takes broken enemy arrows and fashions them into ad-hoc darts.
Damn! Beautiful content. I love you! Keep it up please. More Sassanid videos for us
tnx for your document about our ancesters
Exactly what i waited for
Rome II Total War has shown me how strong Eastern Horsemen were lol Super Heavy Shock Cavalry in that game are no joke.
Who would've thought that multiple people on horse with missiles were so devastating
Crassus discovered it lol
I now picture mongols riding down a russian tank column with RPG's....
@@robinderoos1166 , yeah now that infantry weapons have been upgraded cavalry and even chariots for heavier weapons systems might be useful in some cases. they could even carry their own modern days birds of prey as drones as well. Napoleonic era light artillery and weapons systems could be included. Less cost in fuel for the mobile troops for sure.
@@Wolfen443 are you actually being serious
@@Wolfen443 thats the dυmbest thing ive ever heard
Excellent Job
Hello.great work.thank you🌹
weird timing considering I'm halfway through a Parthia campaign on RTW 2
lol
Truly fascinating! A suggestion- the Redshanks, Scottish mercenaries from the Scottish highlands and western isles who fought in Ireland. Interesting, some were send to still be wearing chain mail, long obsolete elsewhere.
I love this series! I would love to see one about the Norman knights at the battle of Hastings!
New Sub Great Content
awesome video as always.. I'm learning more about my ppl from UA-cam than I did in history class back home.
thank you
Great video! I would love to see a video on the French Gendarme, one of the heaviest cavalry units in history! Thanks.
Its good to see more content about Sassanid Persian empire. 💚🤍❤️
I really enjoyed this
Please make a video of Persian cataphract 🌹🌹
Long live The Eranshahr ! Great video and so many thanks for this masterpiece history . Sassanid ( iran ) has deep history unforutnly its underrated and its deserve more love ! ( aswaran heavy cataphracts of sassanid for next pls ) love and peace from Eranshar ( iran )
Amazing
awesome , thank yuou
A great documentary as always 👏 👍
I've actually been waiting for this :)
*The "Asavaran" were legendary* 🙌
Perhaps with Ubisoft celebrating the 15th year anniversary of the Assassin's Creed franchise, maybe sometime this year cover the Assassins of the Nizari Ismailis, which began in Persia.
About time.
Excellent
Do not forget the cataphracts. Heavily armored cavalry that breaks any formation of infantry.
*The erstwhile Achaemenid Immortals were heavily upgraded and modified and became known as the **_Zhayedan_** (Immortals) heavily cavalry in the Sassanian Dynasty the most powerful unit of the Zhayedan Heavy Cavelry was the **_Pushtigban-Salar_** which consists of 1000 high ranking **_Sāvāran_** heavy cavelry and was an elite military unit of the Sasanian Empire, charged with the protection of the Persian Shahenshah (King of Kings/Emperor).*
*A sub-unit of pushtigban were the **_Gyan-Avspar_** , the ("sacrificers of their lives") - the best of the pushtigban. This sub-unit of pushtigban fought with distinction and zeal befitting their name during Julian's invasion of Persia in the 4th century AD.*
@@ShahanshahShahin Excellent...Very informative.
Not true. Horses will not run up against a shield line bristling with spears. Arrian proved this against the Aland as did Timesitheus against Shapur at Resaina in 243 AD
@@michelewyatt439 Jajaja ask the Seleucid phalanx against the Parthians and Marcus Licinius Crassus at Carrhae. And Shapur defeated Gordian III at Misiche in 244 AD
Love your channel ❤
The amount of accurate detail is insane in this documentary !!!
Well done honestly 👏
Please also make a video about those super heavy cavalry you mentioned
Tabari and some other islamic hostorians which i don't remember say that a hand picked unit of 12000 cavalrymen led by Bahram Chobin won a war against 300,000-400,000 Göktürks. Even if we cut numbers in half this figure is seriously great.
Wow pershians solders was looking so legendary
Yeah they were, you definitely heard about European knights and chevalier. Right? The concept was copied from Persian cataphracts. Ok let's go back a little more back in time line.
Immortal guard of achimenid empire was the first special forces in human history.
Can you please do the Scottish Highlander, Cataphracts from other Eras (Hellenistic Period, Stepps), Creten Archers or Preatorian Guard