The Cutting Edge of Culture

This article considers the role of Greek war workers, often called “mercenaries,” in the transmission of culture from the Near East and Egypt to Greece, as well as the impact of their activities on the formulation of their own ethnic identity, from the eighth to the sixth century BCE. It opens with a discussion of the scholarly terminology applied to foreign war workers from ancient Greece to the present, showing its ambiguities and limitations. The evidence for the presence and activities of Greek war workers in the eastern Mediterranean is then presented in a comparative framework, leveraging case studies from other periods, with special attention paid to the army of the Neo-Assyrian kings and the role of Scandinavians in the Byzantine army of the Macedonian dynasty. In conclusion, a broader overview of ethnic formations and subdivisions within imperial armies, drawing on case studies from antiquity, the Middle Ages, and beyond, makes it possible to reevaluate the formation of an Ionian identity in the archaic eastern Mediterranean.