Greek Soldiers in the Achaemenid Empire
In my article for the Journal of Ancient Civilizations, I tried to be as clear and concise about Greek soldiers in the Achaemenid empire as I could. In the 20th century scholars often used the subjective and partisan term ‘mercenary‘ and focused specifically on Greek soldiers and Greek hoplites. I think its better to think about them differently.
Beginning with Ctesias, Greek writers often mention that thousands of Greeks fought for Achaemenid kings and satraps in exchange for pay (in earlier periods Greeks fought for the king as allies or subjects). Modern researchers have written half a dozen books about these so-called “mercenaries” but have not always considered the Egyptian and Near Eastern context. Since the Old Kingdom, Egyptian armies had contained large contingents of Nubians, Libyans, and other people from the edges of the Egyptian world. The Neo-Assyrians and Neo-Babylonians deported all kinds of people to the cores of their empires, gave them land to work, and extracted civil or military service from them. By the Achaemenid period Babylonians often provided a substitute or paid a fee rather than serve themselves. Hiring Greeks for coins was just another way of obtaining foreign soldiers.
“The Armies of the Teispids and Achaemenids: The Armies of an Ancient World Empire,” Journal of Ancient Civilizations Vol. 27 Nr. 2 (2022) p. 156 hosted here
Empires move people around in ways from the crudest violence (Roman slave trade, British transportation to Australia) to the most subtle incentives. Some of the people they move are soldiers. Every community which gets moved will tell stories about how it was the most important or the worst treated. Its a good idea to take those stories with a grain of salt.
As we saw earlier this year, most large forces of Greek ‘mercenaries’ were recruited by a city, a federation, or an aristocrat. Recruiting them was less like recruiting staff for a supermarket, and more like organizing an academic conference, where the organizers call in favours, contact people they have gone drinking with, and recommend their students and cronies. Jeffrey Rop was absolutely right to emphasize that recruiting large forces of ‘mercenaries’ meant making deals with people and communities which did not get all their power from a spear and a shield. Bret Devereaux believes that recruitment in pre-Roman western Europe worked similarly. But its also important to place the practices which Greek writers describe in a long-term, Egyptian and Near Eastern context so that we understand ancient practices in the context of the ancient world not of European literature. Talking about mercenaries makes us think of Soldier of Fortune magazine and arguments about the news, whereas foreign soldiers and paid soldiers make us think of things closer to the ancient world.
(scheduled 25 July 2024)
So a British Colonel raises a company of soldiers for King George. Some of the recruits are in the general soldier community, but currently unemployed. Possibly their previous company was discharged, officer ran out of money, whatever. Others are non-soldiers, mostly free labor, who are otherwise unemployed. Others, just want to do something different.
Other than the British Colonel being in a distinctly national army, and mostly recruiting within the general British “Nationality” (something that would probably be loosely true of the Greeks), his company doesn’t seem much different in nature than the Greek units. At least up to the point where they went marching off to fight for someone else.
So the only distinction seems that they are fighting for someone other than their local ruler.
And a lot of soldiers in the British Empire were Irish, Scottish Highlanders, and other people far from the center of power. Many of the Irish were not happy to have an English king or queen but they needed a job and it was easier to put on a red coat than sail to France or America. The British army was unusual though, the Kabinetskriege guy cites books on his blog that many soldiers in the 18th and early 19th century had a trade and a certain amount of national feeling.