Ancient greek armies: Recruitment in the Late Classical Period of The Greek world

By the beginning of the Peloponnesian War (431 – 404 B.C.E), which is one of the largest and longest wars in antiquity, some important changes took place within the traditional Greek military structure. As a result of instances that had challenged the superiority of heavy infantry army of hoplites, composed by equal citizens of the city-states, employment of different military units in army became widespread. However, composition of the army from various militarily specialized units that all originated from different social classes was not consistent with the democratic structure of the city-state. While various military units were being recruited, at the same time it was necessary to find a compromise that will conserve the social structure in which heavy infantries were dominant. For this reason several recruitment methods were implemented at the same time and employment of mercenary or elite troops commonly practised. Thus, the Greek army took the shape of an compound structure which is composed from cavalry and light infantry as well as the heavy infantry, principal component of Classical Period armies. Consequently, shorter 4th century B.C.E. or Late Classical Period which started by the end of the Peloponnesian War and ended after the death of Alexander III (Alexander the Great), witnessed important changes in warfare. In this period, a process of development in which three different army type, that can be denominated as "citizen", "mercenary" and "standing" armies, followed each other in chronological order.