Thoughts on ancient troop numbers.

I heard that a german commander called bullshit on ancient army sizes because of the length of the marching column and the impracticality of it.

So I wanted to try and calculate it out.

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Allowing for troops to march 10 men abreast. And for shield/pack/tent to be carried by each main.

You'll need about a 6' x 6' square space for a single soldier. I'm going to use the US marching general rule of 36" or 3' between soldiers. and say that a soldier in armor is taking up about a 3' x3' space with her body and armor. (THIS IS A REALLY TIGHT SPACING IF YOU CONSIDER LARGE SHIELDS AND SPEARS AND WALKING 10-18 miles a day)

So a square of 100 men would be 60' long.
A rectangle of 10,000 men would be about a mile long.

A rectangle of 100,000 men would be 11 miles long and if Darius really had 1 million men cross into greece... his column would be AT MINIMUM 114 miles long.

That is longer than the drive from santa fe to ABQ

That is about the same distance as a straight line from the center of san antonio to killeen.
It is about the same distance as the distance from fort collins to colorado springs.

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And that is 10 men abreast... or a 600' wide walking path.

In many many cases they'll be lucky to get 4 men abreast making it longer.

And that doesn't count supply wagons, horses, engineering gear, extra arrows, camp followers etc.
Assuming an 16-18 miles per day marching speed (fairly common in ancient times as a top speed).

It would take your rear element 8 days to reach your front element.

This is the single best argument against the inflated number size of ancient armies I've ever heard.