An account of the mercenary Greek soldier from the earliest times to the end of the Hellenistic kingdoms. The work deals not only with the military aspect of the rise of the mercenary but also the social and political impact of these 'soldiers-for-hire'. 262pp, ppb.

The age of the Greek hoplite is usually imagined as a time in which the citizen soldier strode onto the field of battle carrying his own spear and aspis to defend his home city and its lands. But Greek soldiers hired themselves out as mercenaries as early as the Archaic era going as far as Egypt and, famously, to Persia as recounted by Xenophon. Parke's 1933 study discusses service within and outside of Greece, with tyrants, Persian royalty, in Sicily and of course fighting for Alexander the Great and his Successors. Includes discussions of service conditions and an appendix listing known numbers of mercenaries.