The armies of LATER ACHAEMENID PERSIA

[Jim Webster]

I've just been reading  THE PERSIAN MILITARY ESTABLISHMENT IN WESTERN ANATOLIA: A CONTEXT FOR CELAENAE byChristopher Tuplin

https://www.academia.edu/38135564/Military_establishment_Kelainai_II_.pdf

One interesting comment made was that many armies seem to have Persian cavalry but 'local' and 'mercenary' infantry rather than 'Persian' infantry. Also with the exception of Paphlagonians the cavalry seems to have been 'Iranian' rather than, for example, Karian.
Looking at DBMM list II/7 this obviously allows for that sort of thinking but perhaps we need the option of more local infantry

Jim

[Duncan Head]

The Paphlagonian horsemen are discussed - a bit inconclusively - here.

Cavalry in art - like Tuplin's example of the "Persian" cavalry on the Limyra frieze - are ambiguous as evidence, because of course they might indicate no more than the popularity of Iranian fashions amongst a native Anatolian aristocracy. The cavalryman in the battle-scene in the Karaburun II tomb from Elmali is wearing Persian clothing but is depicted in an Anatolian tomb; if he is indeed a representation of the deceased, he may well be a native who has assimilated to Persian styles, at least for warfare.

The textual evidence does suggest an absence of native horsemen, true.