Subject: kardaka heavy infantry hoplite
Culture: Persian, Greco-Persian
Setting: Achaemenid empire 4thc BC
Context (Event Photos, Primary Sources, Secondary Sources, Field Notes)
* Bennett 1998 p176
"kardakes (or cardaces or kardaka) Achaemenid Persian infantry in the 4th century BC. According to the Greek historian Strabo, kardakes were Persian noble youths undergoing military training who took part in the royal hunt and carried out police work. The term also refers to bodies of infantry.
"In 367 BC the Persian general Autophradates fielded a large force of kardakes, and they were probably at Issus in 333 BC, although the Greek historian Arrian called the infantry there hoplites."
* Brosius 2006 p59-60
"The use of Greek mercenaries in the Persian army has often been remarked upon as a sign of military weakness and dependence on foreign soldiers. This seems to be emphasised by the fact that the use of Greek mercenaries seemingly increased in the fourth century. Yet this practice must be put in perspective. Mercenaries from Caria and Ionia had been used as early as the archaic period, when they hired their services to the pharaohs of Egypt. With the development of the hoplite army this became the most effective form of infantry and brought Sparta to the forefront of military repute. Arguably the increased use of mercenaries has less to do with a weakening Persian army, than with the economic situation in Greece which had been ravaged by the cost of the Peloponnesian War (431-404) and the continued fighting between Greek city-states throughout the fourth century. If the Persian kings and their commanders employed Greek mercenaries, it was because of their reputation as an effective infantry force, and they were used as one among many other units. The use of mercenaries itself does not necessarily point to the military decline of the employing state, although it certainly demonstrates a state's preference for 'imported' troops, instead of using its own people, as well as its ability to pay for them."
Costume
* Sekunda/Chew 1992 p
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