Parthia... ?

[Lucarius]

Hey Guys,
i downloaded RTR again and i was playing online against a friend of me.
i wanted to choose Parthia but they had only archer/cavalry units.
so my question is...
did the Parthian army not had any infantry ? (in that time period)
and is Parthia a different name for Persia ?
the only thing is ask is sombody who can tell me things about Parthia because i don't know anything
Thanks.

(sorry for my english)

~Lucarius

[Caligula Caesar]

Parthia was a nation of Steppe nomads from around the east coast of the Caspian Sea who migrated south into Parthia (the Persian/Seleucid province on the south-east part of the Caspian, a bit away from the coast). They were related to the Scythians, and as such preferred horse archers and cataphracts. There aren't too many references for them using infantry, but it is safe to assume they would have used local Persian troops to garrison cities and stuff like that. However, these aren't present in RTR6 iirc (though there is an "Eastern Infantry" aor unit)

[Lucarius]

Thanks Caligula

[Quinn Inuit]

I've done a bit of research on this, and, although many of the armies they brought against Rome were only cavalry, on their eastern campaigns they seem to have brought local light infantry, as well, like CC suggested.

They also appear to have used Hellenistic settlers as garrison troops, probably armed as thureophoroi or pseudo-Tarentines (think the Seleucid civil militia of the late empire). They only employed them on campaign once, as a matter of last resort, and that didn't go well.

[Anubis88]

Remeber... At the battle of Carrhae Surena had only cavalry, because Orodes II had no use for the cavalry while he waged war on Armenia. He had a much bigger army then Surena, fielding almost exclusively infantry, and Surena was ment only to delay the Romans, not anhilate them.

I've even read somwhere that this is the first battle the Parthians used an all cavalry army, and seeing how good it went, decided to adopt this model in the future wars with Rome

[FXR]

The Parthians adopted the cavalry model not only due to historic legacy, but because of practicality. The Parthian kingdom was a wide spread loose confederation of satrapies and client kingdoms, but the land was not densely populated nor the funding sufficient for a large standing army. The Parthians depended upon a small very mobile core army supported as needed by levies from local provinces. The army had to be able to cover great distances at speed, traveling from the border with China back to Syria as needs arose.
Thus it had to be a mounted force, which of course, suited their natural inclinations. Moreover, this also proved the most effective force for dealing with aggressive nomadic tribes which would periodically invade from the North.

As to using infantry, the Parthians used mercenaries but also thousands of captured legionairres as well, those from Carhae, along the Chinese border. There is Chinese documentation showing the sudden rise of a city along the silk road, named a most un-Chinese name of Alexander, protected by men who are shown in illustrations using a Testudo formation. Moreover, the city itself was protected by a double pallisaded wooden wall, unique at that time only to Roman camps.

[Caligula Caesar]

It is, however, dubious that that city was founded by Roman legionaries. It is pure theory that the Romans were captured and served on the eastern border, and I swear there would be some nomads in the way of China. Furthermore, the documentary I saw states that the city was founded about 50 years too early.

Btw, the Persians managed to field an infantry army.