In this Topic i would like to help people answer question

[Matthew Amt]

Were not the spartans the first real army :evil:

Good heavens, no! The Egyptians spring to mind--they had a fully professional army complete with roughly legion-sized units, very well organized, at least a thousand years before the rise of Sparta. There were trained armies in Mesopotamia back around 2500 BC.

One might even say that Sparta's army was simply another citizen militia force, just better trained than the others in Greece at that time. They were certainly considered professional full-time soldiers, but the core of their force was hereditary, not enlisted from volunteers serving a set term for pay, like the Roman Imperial army.

Matthew

PS: I know, I'm not helping this very strange thread die...