Immortals (Achaemenid Empire)

Immortals (Greek: Ἀθάνατοι Athánatoi), or Persian Immortals, was the name given by the Greek historian Herodotus to a 10,000-strong unit of elite heavy infantry in the Achaemenid army. They served in a dual capacity, operating as an imperial guard and contributing to the ranks of the standing army. The force mainly consisted of Persians, along with Medes and Elamites. Essential questions regarding the unit's history and organization remain unanswered due to the lack of authoritative sources.^[2]

Herodotus describes the Immortals as heavy infantry led by the Persian military commander Hydarnes the Younger; they provided the professional corps of the Achaemenid army and numbered exactly 10,000 men. He stated that the unit's name stemmed from the fact that every dead, seriously wounded, or sick Immortal was immediately replaced with a new one, maintaining the corps as a cohesive entity with a constant strength.^[3]

Xenophon (Cyropaedia 6.4.1; 7.1.2) describes the guard of Cyrus the Great as having bronze breastplates and helmets, while their horses wore chamfrons and peitrels of bronze together with shoulder pieces that also protected the rider's thighs. Herodotus instead describes their armament as follows: wicker shields covered in leather, short spears, quivers, swords or large daggers, slings, and bows and arrows. They wore coats of scale armour. The spear counterbalances of the common soldiery were of silver; to differentiate commanding ranks, the officers' spear butt-spikes were of gold.^[3] The regiment was followed by a caravan of covered carriages, camels, and mules that transported their supplies, along with concubines and attendants to serve them; this supply train carried special food that was reserved only for their consumption.^[4][5]

The headdress worn by the Immortals is believed to have been a conical or rounded metal on top and scale or chains on the sides, resembling a ridge helmet or Phrygian cap; surviving Achaemenid coloured glazed bricks and carved reliefs represent the Immortals as wearing elaborate robes, hoop earrings, and gold jewellery, although these garments and accessories were most likely worn only for ceremonial occasions.^[6]

The Persian denomination of the unit is uncertain.^[7] This elite force is only referred to as the "Immortals" in sources based on Herodotus. There is evidence from Persian sources of the existence of a permanent corps, which provided a backbone for the tribal levies (raised by satraps) who, together with increasing numbers of mercenaries, made up the bulk of the Achaemenid army.^[8] However these do not record the name of "Immortals"; it is suggested that Herodotus' informant confused the word anûšiya- (lit. 'companion') with anauša- (lit. 'immortal'),^[3] but this theory has been criticized by German linguist Rüdiger Schmitt.^[2]

The Immortals played an important role in the Achaemenid conquest of Egypt under Cambyses II in 525 BCE, as well as in the Achaemenid conquest of Indus Valley (western Punjab and Sindh, now located in Pakistan) and European Scythia under Darius I in c. 518 BCE and 513 BCE, respectively. They also notably participated in the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BCE during the Greco-Persian Wars and were amongst the Persian troops who occupied Greece in 479 BCE under Mardonius.^[3]

During the final decades of the Achaemenid Empire, the role expected of the Immortals' hazarapatish (lit. 'one thousand overseer') was extended to include that of chief minister to the King of Kings.^[9] The provision of a bodyguard, in direct attendance of the monarch, had already been allocated to a select thousand-strong detachment of the unit.^[9]

The first recurrence of the word "Immortals" is in Roman historians' description of an elite cavalry unit in the army of the Sasanian Empire. Primary sources suggest that they numbered around 10,000 men in accordance with tradition, with the main formational difference being that they were heavy cavalry. However, recent scholarship has doubted the Roman description of the force, including their name, their size, and that they were modeled on the Achaemenid Immortals, although there may have been one or more of such distinct elite cavalry units during the Sasanian period. Their task was mainly to secure any breakthroughs and to enter battles at crucial stages.^[7]

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The designation "Immortal" to describe a military unit was used twice during the era of the Byzantine Empire: first as elite heavy cavalry under John I Tzimiskes (r. 969–976) and then later under Nikephoritzes, the chief minister of Byzantine emperor Michael VII Doukas (r. 1071–1081), as the core of a new central field army following the disastrous Byzantine defeat at Manzikert to the Seljuk Turks in 1071.

During the 19th-century Napoleonic Wars, many French soldiers referred to Napoleon's Imperial Guard as "the Immortals".^[10]

Under Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, the Imperial Iranian Army included an all-volunteer known as the Javidan Guard (Persian: گارد جاویدان, romanized: Gârd-e Jâvidân, lit. 'Immortal Guard'), named after the ancient Persian royal guard. The Javidan Guard was based at the Lavizan Barracks in Tehran. By 1978, this elite force comprised a brigade of 4,000–5,000 men, including a battalion of Chieftain tanks. Following the 1979 Islamic revolution that ended the Imperial State of Iran and the Pahlavi dynasty, the "Immortal Guard" was disbanded.^[11]

The signature shield of the Achaemenid Empire's Immortals has been adopted in the insignia of the 65th Airborne Special Forces Brigade and the 55th Airborne Brigade of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army.

Herodotus' account of two warrior elites—the hoplites of Sparta and the Immortals of Persia—facing each other in battle has inspired a set of fanciful depictions of the battle, especially with regard to the Immortals:

• In the 1962 film The 300 Spartans, the Immortals carry a spear and wicker shields like the actual Immortals. However, they are mostly dressed in black and other dark colors in contrast to historical depictions.^[11]
• Frank Miller's 1998 comic book 300 and the 2006 feature film adapted from it present a heavily fictionalized version of the Immortals at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BCE. These Immortals wear Mengu-style metal masks, appear to be inhuman or disfigured, and carry a pair of swords closely resembling Japanese wakizashis.^[11]
• The Immortals also appears in the film Meet the Spartans that is mainly a parody of the film 300.
• The History Channel's 2007 film Last Stand of the 300 also features the Immortals as part of the reconstruction of the historic battle at Thermopylae in ancient Greece. In this version, the Persian tiara that the Immortals habitually wore is depicted as a full-face black cloth mask transparent enough to see through.^[11]
• The second season of the show Deadliest Warrior featured the Persian Immortals in a simulated match-up against Celtic warriors. The Immortals were found to be victorious.
• In the video game Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, the protagonist Sargon is part of an elite group called The Immortals, who in the game serve as soldiers in the Persian army as well as bodyguards to the royal family, including the titular prince.^{[citation needed]}

• History of Iran
• Military history of Iran

• Hicks, Jim (1975). The Persians. Time-Life Books. ISBN 9780809412983.
• Lendering, John (1997). ""Immortals"". Livius.
• Schmitt, Rüdiger (2004). "Immortals". Encyclopaedia Iranica.