Who did the Greek mercenaries consist of?

by Tigersniff

As the title says, I am interested in who the Greek mercenaries consisted of. Was it poor people looking for a way of life? What about the elite? Where there women involved? Thanks in advance for all answers :)

  • Markus
Iphikrates

Hello Markus! I saw your thread from last month and also this one, but I haven't gotten around to answering. However, I did recently write an answer to a very similar question which you might find interesting!

Where there women involved?

There certainly were, though not as fighting troops. Women in Greek warfare took on many different supporting roles, but they usually only participated in combat in the defence of their own cities and towns. In mercenary armies, the women present tended to be cooks, merchants and craftspeople, sex workers, nurses and midwives. All of these could be freeborn or enslaved women. When mercenaries served abroad for extended periods of time, they would often have regular female "companions" (hetairai) in their baggage train - an ambiguous status somewhere between sex worker, servant and partner, to whom the soldiers would become deeply attached. It was not uncommon for mercenaries to form families with the women who accompanied their armies.