What Did the Persians Call Their Cavalry?

[Antilogic]

Well, as the thread title might imply, I am wondering what the ancient Persians called their cavalry. I am building a mod for Civ4: BtS, and I want to remove some of the annoying things like the "Immortals" being a mounted cavalry unit when historically they tended to fight on foot and being limited in numbers to 10,000 troops. I've decided to just leave the original unit graphics in for the Persian cavalry, but rename the unit. However, I'm not an expert on the Persian language and do not know what they called their mounted troops, hence my question in the history forums.

So, can anyone help me out?

 

[Naskra]

asabari (and 3 characters)

 

[pawpaw]

The Immortals were really called the Anusiya meaning companions-not immortals

 

[Antilogic]

The Immortals were really called the Anusiya meaning companions-not immortals

The most recent source I have read on classic Greece and ancient Persia was written by a particular Greek author...you could probably figure out who. In any case, Herodotus called them the Immortals, as does the game at the moment. This is just one of the annoyance factors I'm trying to mod out.

Thanks, pawpaw and Naskra, for your quick responses.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

What were the hippotoxotae then?

 

[Evie]

Well, at a guess I would say something cavalry-related with "hippo" in it has better odds of being a greek term than a persian one.

 

[Naskra]

hippotoxotae = horse-archer

 

[Mirc]

Well, as the thread title might imply, I am wondering what the ancient Persians called their cavalry. I am building a mod for Civ4: BtS, and I want to remove some of the annoying things like the "Immortals" being a mounted cavalry unit when historically they tended to fight on foot and being limited in numbers to 10,000 troops. I've decided to just leave the original unit graphics in for the Persian cavalry, but rename the unit. However, I'm not an expert on the Persian language and do not know what they called their mounted troops, hence my question in the history forums.

So, can anyone help me out?

I agree, Immortals were (generally, at least AFAIK) not mounted units. That's one more reason why Civ3 is superi... ok let's not go off-topic.

@Naskra: that's in Greek, right?

 

[silver 2039]

I thought the immortals rode chariots or something....

 

[Mirc]

AFAIK, they were elite units, so they could have used many things in combat.

 

[Naskra]

Yes, Mirc. Hippos - horse, toxotae - bowmen. Singular is hippotoxotas.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

The Immortals were really called the Anusiya meaning companions-not immortals

I think that's still disputed, but it is likely that the Greek translators confused the persian words Anushiya (companions) and anausha (immortals).

 

[pawpaw]

I think that's still disputed, but it is likely that the Greek translators confused the persian words Anushiya (companions) and anausha (immortals).

Which will be the main problem here, almost any source on this is going to be based on Greek or Macedonian sources and they are going to use Greek not Persian for the troop types.

 

[shortguy]

What were the hippotoxotae then?

Greeks.


(Well, the word is, anyway.)