BEING CLEAR ABOUT THE EXPLANATION: A MATHEMATICAL EXAMPLE IN ARISTOTLE, METAPHYSICA Θ.9, 1051A26–91

摘要

There has been surprisingly little written about the standing army or spāda ofnAchaemenid Persia, even though its most well-recognized formation, the so-callednImmortals, is a staple of modern accounts of the Persian Wars.1 Indeed, it emergesnthat o ur understanding of the infantry units of this ostensibly familiar period ofnPersian history is surprisingly patchy. For the most part, it is derived from rathernuncritical interpretations of Herodotus’ account of Xerxes’ attempted invasion ofnGreece in the early fifth century B.C., in addition to the historians of Alexandernthe Great, and Arrian in particular. This article seeks to shed further light onnthe body of Persian infantry commonly referred to as the Immortals (ἀθάνατοι),nwhich unit, perhaps most famous for its involvement at Thermopylae (480 B.C.),2nis normally presumed to have been 10,000 strong and seems to have disappearednin the aftermath of Xerxes’ defeat (post 479 B.C.).3 It also looks at the elite unit