04-25-2006, 03:58 PM
I think that kliri is the word usually rendered in English as Kleros, a land grant for a military service
They are evidence for what it is called "theoretical maximum strength", the total manpower theoretically at the disposal of an army. There are other 2 steps below that one, the "mobilized strength" and the "present strength", the former being the manpower actually mobilized, the later being the force in presence at a given time in a given place (a battle, for instance). We have to be careful to compare the same kind of figures. I will give some examples
In 1322, the English parliament, at the request of Edward II decreted a general levy of the Kingdom, troops were to be recruited in all counties, each one allotted a quota, so that the total number ammounted to 39.000 men, that was the theoretical maximum strength of the Kingdom of England. However only 4.349 men turned out, the mobilized force, you see that could be a great difference in those numbers. In medieval times a similar system of granted lands for military service was in force in most of Western Europe, and the mobilized force was always very much inferior to the theoretical maximum strength.
In Ancient times we have very rarely, if ever, anything but theoretical maximum strength, an exception could be the report by Thucydides on the battle of Delium, IIRC he says something like the whole body of Athenian citizens in arms moved to the field, and they ammounted to 7.000 hoplites, contrast that with the theoretical maximum strength of the Athenians as given by Thucydides in the speech by Pericles at the start of the war. Another example could be the tabula laciniana mentioned by Polybius.
AFAIK present strength is only given by some Egyptian papyrii on Late Roman units.
"In modern states citizens can vote and have social securrity without military service. In ancient Greece you could vote only if you could fight"
Then I will give the example of Napoleonic France, every year a new batch of around 420.000 recruits were elligible for military service, the maximum theoretical strength, but many were discarded on social, political, physical grounds, you name it, so that only about 80.000 were drafted each year, the mobilized strength, finally after desertion and sickness, less than 60.000 really made to the army.
They are evidence for what it is called "theoretical maximum strength", the total manpower theoretically at the disposal of an army. There are other 2 steps below that one, the "mobilized strength" and the "present strength", the former being the manpower actually mobilized, the later being the force in presence at a given time in a given place (a battle, for instance). We have to be careful to compare the same kind of figures. I will give some examples
In 1322, the English parliament, at the request of Edward II decreted a general levy of the Kingdom, troops were to be recruited in all counties, each one allotted a quota, so that the total number ammounted to 39.000 men, that was the theoretical maximum strength of the Kingdom of England. However only 4.349 men turned out, the mobilized force, you see that could be a great difference in those numbers. In medieval times a similar system of granted lands for military service was in force in most of Western Europe, and the mobilized force was always very much inferior to the theoretical maximum strength.
In Ancient times we have very rarely, if ever, anything but theoretical maximum strength, an exception could be the report by Thucydides on the battle of Delium, IIRC he says something like the whole body of Athenian citizens in arms moved to the field, and they ammounted to 7.000 hoplites, contrast that with the theoretical maximum strength of the Athenians as given by Thucydides in the speech by Pericles at the start of the war. Another example could be the tabula laciniana mentioned by Polybius.
AFAIK present strength is only given by some Egyptian papyrii on Late Roman units.
"In modern states citizens can vote and have social securrity without military service. In ancient Greece you could vote only if you could fight"
Then I will give the example of Napoleonic France, every year a new batch of around 420.000 recruits were elligible for military service, the maximum theoretical strength, but many were discarded on social, political, physical grounds, you name it, so that only about 80.000 were drafted each year, the mobilized strength, finally after desertion and sickness, less than 60.000 really made to the army.
AKA Inaki
