Historical factor
Reliance on mercenaries
Reliance on mercenaries is a recurring structural feature of empires that hire foreign or professional soldiers instead of relying on citizen or subject levies. Mercenaries can provide skilled forces quickly but are costly and may mutiny or change sides when pay fails. The Punic Empire, the Ptolemaic Empire, the Seleucid Empire and the Byzantine Empire all depended heavily on hired troops.
Mentioned in 13 profiles
Achaemenid EmpireDeclineAlmohad CaliphateMilitaryAlmoravid EmpireMilitaryAztec EmpireFoundationBrazilian EmpireMilitaryByzantine EmpireMilitaryKhazar KhaganateMilitaryKongo EmpireMilitaryPolish-Lithuanian CommonwealthMilitaryPortuguese EmpireMilitaryPtolemaic EmpireMilitaryPunic EmpireFoundation, Military, DeclineSeleucid EmpireSocioeconomy, Military
See also
Cite this entry
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Reliance on mercenaries. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/reliance-on-mercenaries
- MLA
- “Reliance on mercenaries.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/reliance-on-mercenaries. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Reliance on mercenaries.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/reliance-on-mercenaries.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Reliance on mercenaries’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/reliance-on-mercenaries (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻