Alexander : a history of the origin and growth of the art of war from ...

DECAY OF PERSIAN ARMY. 59atives and favorites of the king. Though the Persians becamea luxurious people and lost much of their warlike quality,they were in early days simple, soldierly andbrave. They received an excellent trainingfor war.It was only cohesion which the Persianarmy lacked. But after the days ofXerxes I.(f465 b. c.) they began to fallbackwards. The great nobles lived in theirharems and more rarelyassumed commandin person. Mercenary troops were graduallyintroduced, and to the best of these the safetyof the kingdom was confided. This laborsavingsystem grew fast when it was foundeasy to raise mercenaries. Asiatics andGreeks were both enlisted.The former madethe bulk, the latter the kernel of the Persianarmies.The Greek phalangites received payPersian Officer.at the rate of one daricus (a ducat) per head per month,between four and five dollars, in addition to which sum, it isprobable, they received an equal amount for rations.A great source of weakness of the central military powerarose when the satraps became more independent and graduallygot possession of the armed, as well as the civil control oftheir satrapies. It was not long thereafter before these satrapsbecame practically independent monarchs, assuming allthe power and most of the attributes which properly belongedto the sovereign, and yielding but a nominal fealty.But theGreat King retained the power of assembling the army.Thus at the time ofthe Grseco-Persian wars, the bulk of thePersian forces was by the king's orders concentrated inThrace, Asia Minor and Egyjot.The most effective part of the Asiatic armies was cavalry.In this the Orientals have always excelled. The horse was