Achaemenid Imperial Army

The Achaemenian/Achaemenid army is well known through descriptions by Herodotus, Xenophon, and Arrian as well as by illustrations on Persepolitan and Greco-Persian monuments. Of particular importance for the topic are the Greek representations of Persian warriors and the evidence of the so-called Alexander Sarcophagus from Sidon The Persians whom Cyrus united did not possess a professional army: as in days of old, the "people" of a region was represented by its backbone, the "military force," so the two words were used synonymously in one Old Persian term, k�gra (cognate with Lithuaniank�grias/k�gris "war, army," Gothic harjis "army," and German Heer "army," , a sense still retained in the New Persian term kas-o k�gr "relatives and supporters."