From: "Andrew Bollen" 
Subject: Re: (urth) Latro and the Persian army
Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2003 10:08:34 +1000

>
> Crush responds:
> You have solved the puzzle yourself. Latro was an Immortal -- probably an
> officer among them on a tactical level. He could be merely an officer in
the
> Persian military, but it is unlikely that a foreigner would be permitted
> such a distinction. Foreigners were, however, preferred among bodyguard
> units as they considered less corruptible (Wolfe himself states in the
> introduction) -- consider Rome's Praetorian Guard. How this particular
Latin
> won a place with the Immortals is not explained, but Latro's knowledge of
> Zoroastrianism strongly suggests he spent some significant time in Persia
> (as opposed to being mustered in Egypt which the text suggests he went to
> first). I don't believe any of the Immortals were mentioned in Herodotus
by
> name.

Doesn't this get kind of explained in Latro's vision at Thermopylae? I don't
have time to search out the quote, but as I recall, we learn from this that
Latro is captain of a group of Romans, which has been given a position of
honor near the King, in the absence for whatever reason of the Immortals.
They front the desperate charge by Leonidas' band; I think we can probably
infer that Latro personally slays Leonidas.

It's not a stretch to imagine Mardonius granting the Romans an
Immortals-like position on the field at Plataea,  given this.



--