Dr Adrian Goldsworthy

But broadly speaking, it's not a vast army.

The tradition of Herodotus is that Xerxes invades Europe with a million men.

And even the sober modern reconstructions put it at 100,000, maybe more.

This is not an army on that scale, but it's still a very big army.

This is the same sort of size as the biggest Greek army that's ever happened before, which is the Battle of Plataea when they face Xerxes.

And it's got more cavalry, although not as high a proportion as you'll get in Persian and other eastern armies.

It's certainly fitting for him.

It clearly is a big deal to him.

And it might be partly, you know, the tourist in all of us.

You can't go past somewhere like that with something you've been reading the Iliad or hearing it since you were tiny.

And your ancestor Achilles is the great hero.

So you can't not go there.

So it is a big... And that's become...

almost a stereotype of Greeks fighting Asians, Persians in the later tradition.

Though, of course, you know, Sidious himself points out Homer doesn't call the Greeks Greeks.

There are Achaeans and there are all these other names, but it's not.

So it's a bit of tourism.

It's a bit of theater.

And it's a bit of, though, you know, again, his ambitions are clearly much broader than this, but it's, and you have,

the idea of them acting like the heroes and running around Alexander and his friends.