While Ctesias of Cnidus did indeed serve within the court of the Persian king Artaxerxes II Mnemon in the 5th century BCE and possibly had access to the Persian archives, his estimate of 800,000 foot-soldiers is still extremely generous as the following accounts will show that the area of Thermopylae could not logistically support an army of such a size due to the terrain and supply of water. In the time shortly after the First world war an English general by the name Sir