Hiring Mercenaries in the Classical Greek World. Causes and Outcomes?

Abstract

This paper explores the reasons why employers hired mercenaries in the Classical Greek World of the fifth and fourth century BCE. It discusses the rise of mercenary activity against the backdrop of socio-economic and political phenomena that created the conditions for a large number of men to find service overseas especially in the Persian Empire. Mercenary service in an ancient Greek context is complicated by traditions that valued heroic service of aristocrats and rulers abroad in the past, for example as extolled in the poems of Homer, and that 'mercenary' is perhaps not an accurate label for men serving others abroad. Ultimately, the paper affirms the demand driven nature of such service and the wars of the fourth century in which Greeks served as products of great events extraneous to the mercenary service itself.