Pages: 137-144

During campaigns, the ancient Persian women followed the armies as concubines rather than warriors. Female warriors in the Iranian epics are an exception to the rules. In the Achaemenid period there were women-leaders in Asia Minor where the social status of a woman was high since the Hittite epoch. In general, in the Achaemenid and Arsacid periods, the woman was neither commander nor warrior, she followed her man in the army train, and she was captured by the enemy if the army fell. Groups of women participated in the fighting only in case of emergency, e. g. in the battle of Pasargadae. In the period of Sassanian dynasty, when fights between the Sassanian troops and their enemies were fierce, when there was a need to recruit more men, women would usually replace them in the army train.

Keywords: female warriors, Ancient Persia

Information about author:

Alexander Nefedkin (St.-Petersburg, Russia). Doctor of historical sciences. Journal of War History Para bellum.
Е-mail: [email protected]