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An Old Midlish Rhyme
The wind from the North sings of heroes of Olde
Tales of wars fought long ago and far away, by small but brave warriors.
An Old Midlish Rhyme
The wind from the North sings of heroes of Olde
The wind from the East makes our blood run Cold
The wind from the South smells of Spices and Gold
But the wind from the West tells of warriors Bold.
So spectacular! I don't know about the level of 'historical accuracy' according to current standards and later discoveries, but I remember how fascinated I was watching the parade on TV, then.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!
Historical accuracy was, as I recall, mentioned at the time - it was designed to show the glory of the monarchy, accuracy was an optional extra. Now, of course, I'm also kicking myself because I had never considered searching on the Internet for footage.
ReplyDeleteRob
There are some still photos of the parade in Kaveh Farrokh's book "Shadows of the Desert":
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.co.uk/Shadows-Desert-Ancient-General-Military/dp/1846034736/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1271061217&sr=1-1
(Seems to be going cheap at the moment, if anyone is interested in acquiring a copy)
He also has a personal website:
http://www.kavehfarrokh.com/
Cheers
Paul
Splendid indeed, Ross ! Despite the politics and fuzzy picture quality, how amazing to watch something that I would have thought completely lost. As to accuracy, I remember Phil Barker commenting in Slingshot (in reply to a letter) that the Iranians had no more information to go on than western scholars. However ... the Achemaenid infantry formation has a 'sparabara' at the front of a file of archers, something which western wargamers would take until the late 1980s to rediscover (barring the slightly smaller Garrison spara, of course !).
ReplyDeleteI suppose it would not have been feasible to send off requests to Egypt, Iraq, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Georgia, etc etc asking them to send contingents representing the various subject levies that would have come from ares now within their borders. "yes its a big international celebration, yes like Queen Victoria's Jubilee with contingents from all over the empire, your troops need to be 1/2 naked, daubed with chalk and vermillion and carrying fire hardened sticks..bzzzz hello? hello?
ReplyDeleteI like how often the 'old outdated' Garrison figures do actually show up so well against some of the later, more 'accurate' opposition.
ReplyDeleteBut then, I also feel the same about Victorian illustrators - they get a very poor press, yes a lot of their illustrations are very good copies of classical forms and sculptures.
We're obsessed with the idea that anything done more than 5-10 years ago is 'wrong'. Look at WRG - the stick the PB ranges get, yet when the various Armies and Enemies books came out, everything published earlier was 'wrong'. Now the WRG books are 'wrong' - Goths have acquired bows, Late Romans didn't have leather armour it was mail, etc, etc, etc.
I think 'current fashion as the only true history' is the main reason I prefer things from the past!
Rob
Not to mention the inference that armies 2,500 years ago were more tightly regimented and better supplied than those today.
ReplyDeleteAlways wondered what those original Garrison 25mm clibinari came from though, till I saw them marching for a later dynasty in the video . A Persians's a Persian for a'that. I feel even better now about my plan to be have a core of "universal" Iranian troops with early and late extras to cover 1,000 years.