Cost of Cavalry
"So this is where all the cost came from," Alexander said weakly as he added up the number.
He calculated that one-time equipment cost came at 125 ropals, which though large was nothing compared to the monthly running cost.
According to Grahtos, vets and grooming came at 10 ropals a month while the biggest expense was food, producing a bill of at least 15 ropals a day, or an astronomical 450 ropals a month.
Thus it gave Alexander an annual spending of roughly 6000 ropals per horse, which was more than three times as much as employing a peasant!
So for Alexander, the cost of owning five hundred horses (500) came to two hundred and fifty thousand ropals (250,000) a month or 3 million ropals a year!
And this was on top of buying the animal which was an average of ten thousand (10,000) ropals per beast if one wanted to get a very well-trained horse, like the ones Sycarians used.