Mercenaries.
Hello and welcome to History on the Run. This is the fourth episode in the series titled, “Violence for Profit”, and it is on Mercenaries. Each of these series will run for 5 episodes, and we have only one more left after this one. So….I had a few things that I want to talk about, but before we go to that I think that I should define what a mercenary is. While some might label Mercenaries as foreign forces fighting for another country I prefer to view mercenaries as a group of contractors independent of national combat forces. This would make groups such as Blackwater and other contractors for the US Army fall under mercenaries. Now, I wouldn’t say that the electrical contractors would be included in this definition and it would simply include independent combat units. Let me give some examples that exemplify what I mean by mercenary. In the French Army, even today, you can sign up to become a part of the French Foreign Legion. Now, if simply being foreign makes you a mercenary as some in the scholarly world would say then the members of the French Foreign Legion are mercenaries. I, under my definition would say that they are not. Why? Well because when you enlist you are trained by the French Army, you serve under the French army, and there is no way to switch allegiances. They don’t do it for money, but rather for citizenship and a chance to start over. Afterwards they become French citizens. They are a part of the French Army. So, what is an example of a mercenary? A good example of a mercenary would be those fighting in Hannibal’s army during the 2nd Punic War. They were not Carthaginian, and often came from the areas of Numidia, Iberia, or Gaul. The mercenaries would revolt if their pay was delayed and ironically enough the Carthaginians once had to hire a second mercenary army to defeat their previous mercenary army that hadn’t been happy with its payments and had decided to just loot the countryside instead. A mercenary is the Swiss pikeman, the Hessian fighting in the Revolution, or Xenophon’s ten thousand.
So, let’s start talking about when mercenaries have fought and what is their role in different societies, and what are some really cool stories. Well, mercenaries have been a constant in warfare, and would often come from the sort of backwater parts of the world. Now, in Western history we see a massive expansion in mercenary Greeks going abroad after the Peloponnesian War. Now, for those of you who don’t know what the Peloponnesian War is I’ll give a quick summery. In Greece, in the late 4th century BC (which means below instead of above 50 because the years go from 30 to 29 to 28 and count down and from AD they start going up) there were two big superpowers: Athens and Sparta. Athens was a big trading and sailing country and Sparta had the best army. Best Navy vs. Best Army. The two states went to war and utterly crushed each other. Athens had these big walls, so the Spartan army was only able to burn and pillage the countryside. Sparta had this awesome army, so all Athens could do is do costal raids where they burn and pillage the countryside. The war basically was just a lot of burning and pillaging which wrecked the farming community. Each and every one of these Greeks were now expert fighters and they had no farms as those had all been destroyed. Now, if you remember your history you’ll remember that the Greeks had just shown the Persians off in two failed invasions. The Persians expected to run right over the Greeks, but surprise surprise! The Greeks had invented a style of fighting that was better than any other. They had invented the Phalanx. The Phalanx was a group of well armored men who marched in close formation with overlapping shields and a literal wall of spears. When the Persians encountered this with their shields made of woven brush and very little armor they were decimated. Now, in the future I might have to have an episode on the combat tactics of the Greek Hoplites, but for now that’ll do. Now, the Greeks, living in crowded cities, without enough food, and with the best military experience and tactics in the known world often decided to pick up and act as mercenaries in foreign countries. Now, when I say that everyone in Greek society knew how to fight I mean everyone. As the historian A.G. Russell states:
“Every young man in Greece during the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. had to be a soldier or a sailor, whether he liked it or not, for the greater part of his life; we may recall that Socrates 'trailed a pike' when he was forty-five at the battle of Delium, and the records of those times certainly show that anyone to whom the life of soldiering appealed had ample opportunity to indulge his taste to the full.”
Now, this meant that everyone from the poet to the philosopher knew how to fight and probably had some bit of combat experience under his belt. This combined with the fact that fighting as a mercenary could get you wages equivalent to a trained artisan pushed a lot of young adventurous lads off to fight for gold, guts, and glory. There are a lot of historical instances of Greeks going off to help some king conquer some country, but the best one by far is the tale of Xenophon and his 10,000. Xenophon was a part of a group of mercenaries whose journey is covered in the Anabasis which is a good book you should all go out and read. Xenophon, the author of the work narrates how he and 10,000 other Greek mercenaries were hired to help Cyrus the Younger take the throne back from his brother Artaxerxes ll. The battle got started the with Greeks just destroying all in front of them. According to the sources only one Greek was wounded in the entire fight. However, Cyrus was killed by a javelin, so the Greeks were in a pickle as their guy who had a claim to the Persian throne was now dead. The Greeks, as all good mercenaries would do, offered their services now to one of the nobles of Artaxerxes named Tissaphernes. The Greek generals accepted an invitation to a feast, but were all killed. Xenophon, one of the lower level officers was elected along with others to decide what to do. They decided to head back toward Greece and fought their way through enemy territory and finally returned to the Mediterranean to the famous cry of “the sea, the sea!”
So, let’s move on in our history of the mercenary. During Roman times mercenaries got just as much use. Most notably during the Punic Wars the Romans faced a foe that relied almost entirely on mercenary forces for its army. The Carthaginians operated a large trade network that stretched over the entire Mediterranean. The capital of Carthage was actually a Phoenician trade city, but Carthage went above and beyond its origins as a humble trading port. The new growing powers in the West, Rome and Carthage, came into conflict over Sicily and fought a series of wars for control of the Western Mediterranean. While Rome used its own citizen soldiers to fight Carthage merely bought armies from the outlying regions. Most famous were the Numidian cavalry who were far superior to the Roman cavalry. Hannibal brought his army of mercenaries over the Alps including elephants and won a series of victories against the Romans. However, Hannibal was unable to crack the Roman alliance system and the Romans decided to strike against Carthage itself instead of trying to defeat Hannibal. This successfully pushed Hannibal off the offensive as he was called back to Africa. Scipio Africanus then beat Hannibal and his mercenary army and Carthage was basically crippled. Carthage would later be destroyed in the third and final Punic War. Its fields would be scattered with salt which killed crops and the city was forced inland so the once great city could never again become powerful through commerce.
From there Rome became the primary military power in the west as it gobbled up state after state until the Mediterranean became known as a “Roman lake”. The Roman military started off as a force of citizen soldiers, but after the Punic Wars the independent farmer was being replaced by a few very large slave estates. After a series of reforms the legions became professional instead of part-time soldiers. Slowly the Roman legions became less and less Roman and more and more German. The legions could be bought off in an attempt to become emperor and became more and more like mercenaries and less and less like soldiers. While they didn’t switch allegiances to another state they would often put themselves up for the highest bidder. Legions became bought and sold commodities that owed allegiance not to the people or the state, but oftentimes whoever could pay the most coin. The legions did employ mercenaries in their campaigns which often consisted of Germanic tribes. The mercification of the legions along with their degrading efficacy on the battlefield as others copied the legions war winning tactics are some of the reasons the Roman Empire fell in the West. The Byzantines would adopt new forms of warfare such as the horse archer and the armored cavalry to stay alive for another thousand years. They would also employ Vikings as mercenaries in their famous Varangian Guard which was an elite part of the Byzantine army and personal guards to the Emperor. Again the line is blurred as to whether they were mercenaries as they were an official part of the Byzantine military despite the fact they were recruited overseas. They often consisted of Anglo Saxons or Norsemen and were prized for their loyalty and would not easily break their oaths. During the wars against the Normans in Sicily those who were Anglo Saxon and whose families had suffered at the hands of the Normans were keen to get revenge.
An interesting concept that provided a large number of mercenaries in Europe during the medieval period would be the way property was doled out to sons during the period. William the Conqueror, the Norman who conquered England had a force that was primarily made up of younger sons of nobles hungry for a chance to find their own claim to power. Now they weren’t mercenaries, but it was a more for-profit venture than you might normally see in medieval times. The Normans also found mercenaries ideal for putting down revolts as the stationed soldiers might side with the citizens of the region.
At the end of the medieval period in Italy mercenaries were the way that the city states fought battles. Machiavelli once witnessed a battle between mercenary armies where only one man died when his horse bucked and he suffocated in the mud. They were expensive, ineffective, and often concerned more with style than killing power. Machiavelli also argued in The Prince that a mercenary who loses is worthless, and one who wins could be dangerous and could try to take over your kingdom. In 1494 when Charles the Eighth of France tore down the Italian Peninsula with his modern cannons and conscript army they took Italian city after city. It was only when the combined power of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire teamed up was France beat out of Italy. Despite this lack of political change the war did serve as a point where change in military affairs began to occur. Gunpowder made combat something everyone who could pull a trigger could do. Even today in Africa we see child soldiers that exemplify that point. Quantity over quality became just as important in warfare and conscripts were cheaper than the costly mercenaries. Groups such as the Hessians or Swiss mercenaries would still be used in places like the Revolutionary War and many of the fights between European states, and during the thirty years war tens of thousands of mercenaries fought for gold. But, for the most part professional or conscript armies would be the norm into the future. The one exception to this has been Africa over the past fifty years which has seen foreign troops brought in to squash rebellion and secure power for dictators. Mercenaries will always be a force that are most effective at shooting civilians due to their often foreign origins and high pay. For instance ex-Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi used foreign troops who didn’t speak Arabic to suppress rebellion. It’s hard to empathize with someone who doesn’t speak your language.
A few years ago another mercenary group called Blackwater dominated the news cycle. Since then it has changed its name twice to Xe and then to Academi. While they cater mostly to the United States they are also involved with other countries including Iraq, Afghanistan, Japan, and Azerbaijan. They are firmly in the mercenary zone as they provide their services to other countries and are not officially a part of any national government. While they will never replace the US Army they do provide services that the US needs for its war efforts. For one it’s easier to hire/fire them because they’re often ex-military and don’t need to be trained, and during peacetime they can just as easily be put off. I kinda see it as a comparison between building a house and renting an apartment. Regular US Army troops are cheaper just as a house is often cheaper per cubic foot and apartments are often easier to move away from because you don’t have to sell it.
While mercenaries might not be at the front lines anymore and they have certainly evolved since their early days, but they are still a part of current events and probably will be into the future. Their role is much diminished, but still alive in the media where mercenaries still hold sway in Hollywood. Films such as Rambo, the Expendables, and even Star Wars show how mercenaries will be us a long time ago in a galaxy far away.
The Prince by Machiavelli
The Market for Mercenaries by David A. Latzko from Wilkes University
War Made New By Max Boot
The Greek as a Mercenary Soldier By A. G. Russell
A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War by Victor Davis Hanson.
The Father of Us All: War and History, Ancient and Modern by Victor Davis Hanson.
The Decline and Fall of Rome Lecture Series by Thomas F. Madden
The Tiber and the Potomac Lecture Series also by Thomas F. Madden
http://abcnews.go.com/International/libya-benghazi-doctor-gadhafi-foreign-mercenaries-quell-protests/story?id=12972216#.TwuahG-XQ-A
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