Mercenary networks in Greek historiography
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29327/rom.v26i.47844Keywords:
Networks, Mercenaries, Migrants, Greek historiographyAbstract
This text examines key steps from ancient Greek historians in which the actions of mercenaries are narrated from the perspective of the support networks they constituted. The aim is to highlight other elements that made the relationship between mercenaries, regimenters and communities of either origin or reception something more complex than just a relationship of payment for services performed. Finally, two consequences of the coordinated action of these mercenaries are discussed: on the one hand, their transformation into a reserve support base; on the other, and perhaps the most significant consequence, the danger that the presence of these mercenaries in a community entailed as something not always just latent, especially when they were motivated to act in a concerted manner and had opportunities to do so.
Downloads
References
BAYLISS, A. New Readings on a List of Mercenaries from Athens. Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, v. 146, p. 85-90, 2004.
BETTALLI, M. Mercenari. Il mestiere delle armi nel mondo greco antico. Età arcaica e classica. Roma: Carocci, 2013.
DEL HOYO, T. N.; SÁNCHEZ, F. L. (ed.). War, Warlords, and Interstate Relations in the Ancient Mediterranean. Leiden: Brill, 2018.
DOUGHERTY, C.; KURKE, L. (ed.). The Cultures within Ancient Greek Culture: Contact, Conflict, Collaboration. Cambridge: CUP, 2003.
ENGLISH, S. Mercenaries in the Classical World to the Death of Alexander. Barnsley: Pen and Sword, 2012.
GARLAND, R. Wandering Greeks: The Ancient Greek Diaspora from the Age of Homer to the Death of Alexander the Great. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014.
ISAYEV, E. Polybius’s Global Moment and Human Mobility through Ancient Italy. In: PITTS, M.; VERSLUYS, M. J. (ed.). Globalisation and the Roman World World: History, Connectivity and Material Culture. Cambridge: CUP, 2015, p. 123-140.
ISAYEV, E. Migration, Mobility and Place in Ancient Italy. Cambridge: CUP, 2017.
LEÃO, D. F.; SEBASTIANI, B. B. (ed.). Crises (Staseis) and Changes (Metabolai): Athenian Democracy in the Making. Firenze: Firenze University Press, 2022.
LURAGHI, N. Traders, pirates, warriors: the proto-history of Greek mercenary soldiers in the Eastern Mediterranean. Phoenix, v. 60, p. 21-47, 2006.
ROLLINGER, R.; SCHNEGG, K. (ed.). Kulturkontakte in Antiken Welten. Leuven: Peeters, 2014.
ROP, J. Greek Military Service in the Ancient Near East, 401-330 BCE. Cambridge: CUP, 2019.
TAYLOR, C.; VLASSOPOULOS, K. (ed.). Communities and Networks in the Ancient Greek World. Oxford: OUP, 2015.
TRUNDLE, M. Greek Mercenaries: From the Late Archaic Period to Alexander. London: Routlledge, 2004.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Breno Battistin Sebastiani
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
a. The authors retain copyright and grant the journal the right to first publication.
b. The authors are authorized to assume additional contracts separately, for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in this journal (e.g., publishing in institutional repository or as a book chapter), with acknowledgment of authorship and initial publication in this journal.
c. Authors are allowed and encouraged to publish and distribute their work online (e.g. in institutional repositories or on their personal page) after the first publication by the journal, with due credit.
d. The journal's texts are licensed under a CC BY 4.0 Deed Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY).
