Muster Field

Drawing upon their citizens or subjects, supplemented by mercenaries, Hellenic states could quickly muster troops in times of war. Their generals were usually elected officials or chosen from amongst the nobility. In Athens, the military consisted of the ephebes undergoing training and the older male citizens, led by the ten elected strategoi, or war ministers. Originally these men were hoplites but, following the pattern of Alexander the Great, they developed into the hypaspists, phalangites and thureophoroi over the following centuries. This shift also saw a move to more professional and mercenary troops being used. Wealthier citizens, those able to afford horses, provided the hippeis, or light cavalry, while noble cavalry again followed the Alexandrian model. Mercenaries, such as the Thracians, the Scythian bow-armed police of Athens, or the Galatian royal guard of Cleopatra, supplemented these mustered forces.