Glued Linen Armour- a simple test

[Paralus]

Sorry, I stick by my previous opinion....there is no evidence that Cyrus supplied the mercenaries equipment.

Aside, of course, from this clear statement.

Of course, in a sense, the 10,000 'belonged' to Cyrus - he was their paymaster.

Yet the King is not asking for them but for the arms that belonged to Cyrus and are, by right, the King's.

Moreover, the Mercenary Army was raised from over ten different sources, almost all of them existing forces, so they were already armed with their own equipment when hired.

Which implies that all these mercenaries were of a "class" to be able to afford same. This would mean that we must suppose that there were "armies" of reasonably well to do and respectable Greek citizens (certainly well enough off to buy a panoply) who had decided that hiring themselves out was a good career. This would be Xenophon's mercenaries of the anabasis who were so well off they took slaves along and not a few actually paid to join in. Either that or they are the poor with no means of making a living and are of bad character. If Xenophon is right we have a class of citizen who has decamped his holdings to go adventuring.

The eternal question: did they go and sign up for noble causes (and add a little extra cash) or did they do so because it was their only living?

Furthermore, by the time Cyrus hired his army, the 'terms of service' were well standardised, including the fact that mercenaries brought with them their own weapons.

Are you able to supply the rationale for this standardised "terms of service"?

One of the reasons for the notion that Cyrus' supplied much of these arms is the actual size of the army. As well, it is not as if an employer supplying arms to mercenaries had not happened. Athens did so with the peltasts sent to Evagoras in 391 (Lysias Aristophanes [19] 43):

when the Cypriots came and you gave them the ten vessels, he supplied thirty thousand drachmae to pay the light infantry and purchase their arms.

Also there is the army of Dionysius in Sicily (Diod. 14 41.3-4):

After collecting many skilled workmen, he divided them into groups in accordance with their skills, and appointed over them the most conspicuous citizens, offering great bounties to any who created a supply of arms. As for the armour, he distributed among them models of each kind, because he had gathered his mercenaries from many nations; for he was eager to have every one of his soldiers armed with the weapons of his people…

Evidently, Dionysius’ mercenaries (from many nations – including Greek – hence the Greek craftsmen) were unaware of the standardised terms. Also the Phocians, in the Sacred War, evidently supplied their mercenary army with weapons – at the minimum – as Diodorus claims. Onomarchus made ready a “great supply” of weapons and, after Crocus Field, attempting to reverse fortune, his brother “began to gather a multitude of mercenaries, offering double the customary pay, and summoned help from his allies. He got ready also a large supply of arms…”

That the Phocians fought this war with mercenary forces is well attested. It seems they supplied their employees with arms financed by the pillaged temple treasures.

Not being familiar with the secondary writers you refer to, I would be interested to see what their arguments are - perhaps you can supply them?

That is a possibility. I shall have to search the Library of Paralus database… I may only have it photocopied. Really, though, the problem is that Josh – on school holidays – has destroyed my bandwidth. The ISP has us limited to 64 kps and, as I use webmail, uploading and sending documents is a bugger on this speed. I do not have Roy but I do have Paul McKechnie’s paper (as well as Cawkwell “Orthodoxy and Hoplites”).

Email me if you want the second, I’ll try the first shortly.