Essay from the year 2003 in the subject World History - Early and Ancient History, grade: 66 %, University of Wales, Aberystwyth (Department of Classics), language: English, abstract: Early Saite Pharaohs possibly employed Greek mercenaries, but there is no validatedconfirmation1 of this. Moreover, in the 26th dynasty, Egypt entered a period of unquestionableartistic brilliance and prosperity and became a powerful state. The primary resource for thisperiod is Herodotus, Book Two. There is no evidence that a link between Egypt and Greeceexisted, but it is a possibility which might go back to the Mycenaean period 2or even the third millennium BC 3. If there was a link it broke down and became non-existent or evenbecame hostile4 in the Dark Ages 5. Apart from those early contacts, the first time we hear ofGreeks, especially as mercenaries in Egypt, is under Psammetichos I, when Greeks hadaccess to the country 6. Traders followed the mercenaries and commerce between the Greekand Egyptian worlds which prospered once again. Before the Peloponnesian War, the Greekcities had no significant skill in extended7 campaigns or distant expeditions. Their fightingconsisted of mainly small struggles on a medium to small scale. In any battle citizens mightbe called in to fight according to their standing in their city as cavalry, infantry or skirmishers. So, nearly everybody was familiar with warfare but only some of those who chose to developinto experts became mercenaries. Generally, these mercenary activities were accepted assources of profits and were practised for that reason 8. These soldiers barely existed asidefrom in foreign armies. In the Greek tradition, the Carians were seen as the first9 mercenaries, who originated wearing crests on their helmets and devices on their shields, and who firstmade grips for their shields 10. [...]1 Sullivan, p. 177. 2 Chamoux, p. 87, Sullivan, p. 185 and MacGillivray, p. 81 ff. 3 Cartledge, p. 48. 4 Sullivan, p. 185. 5 Chamoux, p. 87. 6 Chamoux, p. 87. 7 Sage, p. 19 f. 8 Sage, p. xi. 9 Griffith, p. 236. 10 Hdt., I.171.
