Mercenaries Of The Classical Greece

Greek mercenaries came up as early as in the Archaic Period of Greece.By the late 5th century and the 4th century BC,the number of the Greek mercenaries exploded.At the same time there appeared a new mercenary term ----misthophoros. In addition this period mercenaries had both heavy infantry and light infantry. The reason of the explosion on the one hand is the internal pressure of the Greek city-states, on the other hand is the demand of the Persian, Sicily and the Greek city-states which were in turmoil,they need professional soldiers to supplement their troops.While employers needed large mercenaries troops, there is no suggestion in the sources that commands have problems in hiring men because of a lack of availability.This is because,on the one hand, there formed a mature mercenary recruitment system, on the other hand, the trend towards lighter equipment made hoplite panoplies cheaper and the city and the employer provided the poor with weapons.