Alexandros Documentary

**gamegeek2** · 12-25-2008, 02:37

So I live in the USA and have RCN for my television, and there's this channel, the Military Channel, that recently aired a documentary about Megas Alexandros. It focuses on the battle of Gaugamela

It features (EB positive)

-Greek and Persian language for dialogue, not the conventional English
-Historically accurate armies (Persians AFAIK need more bows)
-Talk about the fall of the chariot and the tactics used to defeat it
-the Hetairoi, who actually have (9 to 12 foot) xista (doesn't matter how they wield them, they were known to wield them in different ways).

Stuff that we can bitch about

-No reference to Persian archers (though it does mention 8-foot spears, exactly the correct length)
-they refer to the psiloi as "peltasts", though they do mention all three types, the sphendonetai, toxotai, and akontistai

**desert** · 12-25-2008, 02:55

Interesting. From what I've seen of the Military Channel they usually show stuff about airplanes and military hardware, the Vietnam War, and WW2. Never saw anything before the WW1 time period. Then again, the last time I watched anything on the Military Channel was 1.5 years ago.

**mikil100** · 12-25-2008, 04:55

Originally Posted by gamegeek2

So I live in the USA and have RCN for my television, and there's this channel, the Military Channel, that recently aired a documentary about Megas Alexandros. It focuses on the battle of Gaugamela

It features (EB positive)

-Greek and Persian language for dialogue, not the conventional English
-Historically accurate armies (Persians AFAIK need more bows)
-Talk about the fall of the chariot and the tactics used to defeat it
-the Hetairoi, who actually have (9 to 12 foot) xista (doesn't matter how they wield them, they were known to wield them in different ways).

Stuff that we can bitch about

-No reference to Persian archers (though it does mention 8-foot spears, exactly the correct length)
-they refer to the psiloi as "peltasts", though they do mention all three types, the sphendonetai, toxotai, and akontistai

I am so jealous I missed this documentary, when was it?

**Ibrahim** · 12-25-2008, 07:41

oh, that one?

yes, the textual (narrated) , stuff as good, but the filming was garbage IIRC-many uniforms/clothes for the persians are miles off in particular.

unless we are dealing with 2 documentaries with coincidentally the same subject.

**gamegeek2** · 12-25-2008, 15:24

Yeah, the Persians look a bit stereotypical, and there are no archers mentioned except on the Greek side. The Persians with 8 foot spears and wicker sheilds (who made up the majority of the army) also carried bows AFAIK. There are also no details on the immortals, who had a thin layer of mail (as seen in a documentary I saw on the History Channel about Thermopylae, which is the most historically accurate depiction of the battle I have ever seen) and besides that fought like much of the Persian army, though their equipment was higher quality than the levies from the Satraps.

**O'ETAIPOS** · 12-26-2008, 15:12

There are few points to mention:

1)Persian guard inf NOT used mail. They could have used scale armour, but mail was invented later, most probably by celts.

2)Hetairoi from Alexander's time used xyston one handed, underarm or overarm. Two handed grip seem to be adopted in hellenistic age and only in some specyfic conditions, most probably not as common as we had portrayed it. It came from steppe peoples, maybe Sarmatians. Hetairoi in EB2 would use xyston 1h underarm.

**Watchman** · 12-26-2008, 19:08

AFAIK mail was already around by that point - IIRC the first traces are from like 5th century BC - but around Alex's time had yet to spread much beyond the Celtic lands.

Well, scale's better against arrows anyways.

**MeinPanzer** · 12-26-2008, 21:55

Originally Posted by Watchman

AFAIK mail was already around by that point - IIRC the first traces are from like 5th century BC - but around Alex's time had yet to spread much beyond the Celtic lands.

Well, scale's better against arrows anyways.

No. The first mail appears c. the middle of the 4th c. BC, and only in northern and eastern Europe; certainly no where near the territory of the Persian empire. It took till the very end of the 3rd or beginning of the 2nd c. BC to even reach the Seleucid empire.