Mercenaries: Italy, Persia and Putin

We travel from ancient Persia to Medieval Italy to modern Russia to learn about mercenaries.  

Transcript

Mercenaries: The Persian Army, Renaissance Italy, and Putin

July 2023

In the movie Godfather: 

Michael Corleone:

 I saw a strange thing today. A rebel was being arrested by the military police. And rather than be taken alive, he exploded a grenade he had hidden in his jacket. He killed himself and took a captain of the command with him. Now, soldiers are paid to fight; the rebels aren’t.

Hyman Roth:

 What does that tell you?

Michael Corleone:

 They could win.

“I say, therefore, that the arms with which a prince defends his state are either his own, or they are mercenaries, auxiliaries, or mixed. Mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous; and if one holds his state based on these arms, he will stand neither firm nor safe; for they are disunited, ambitious and without discipline, unfaithful, valiant before friends, cowardly before enemies; they have neither the fear of God nor fidelity to men, and destruction is deferred only so long as the attack is; for in peace one is robbed by them, and in war by the enemy.

The fact is, they have no other attraction or reason for keeping the field than a trifle of stipend, which is not sufficient to make them willing to die for you. They are ready enough to be your soldiers whilst you do not make war, but if war comes, they take themselves off or run from the foe, which I should have little trouble to prove, for the ruin of Italy has been caused by nothing else than by resting all her hopes for many years on mercenaries, and although they formerly made some display and appeared valiant amongst themselves, yet when the foreigners came they showed what they were.”

Niccolò Machiavelli from The Prince, Published in 1532

Part of the success of Cyrus the Great, founder of the 1st Persian or Achaemenid Empire, was in developing an elite corps of mounted warriors skilled at shooting arrows on horseback and deployed war chariots with blades attached to the wheels. “His troops seem to have been highly motivated and well trained, and he seems to have been able to move his armies more rapidly than enemies anticipated, even during winter. In Christopher Beckwith’s book, the Scythian Empire, the historian places the titular peoples as the progenitor of Cyrus’ forces and their success.  

Given the vast wealth of Persia, at some point, members of the Royal family began to dabble in hiring mercenaries. The most famous of these was Xenophon’s 10,000. As chronicled in the historian Xenophon’s “Anabasis,” the “Ten Thousand” were a motley assortment of Greek warriors contracted by Cyrus the Younger to help oust his brother King Artaxerxes II from the Persian throne. In 401 BCE, the Hellenic soldiers-for-hire—many of them hardened veterans of the Peloponnesian War—fought alongside Cyrus and his rebel army in a clash with the King’s forces near Baghdad. While the Ten Thousand held their own in combat, Cyrus was killed in the battle, and the mercenaries’ generals were double-crossed and murdered while trying to negotiate a retreat.

Under pursuit from Artaxerxes II’s troops and hostile natives alike, the surviving Ten Thousand members were forced to band together and fight their way out of enemy territory. After electing Xenophon as one of their new leaders, the army of rogues embarked on a grueling nine-month odyssey that took them from the heart of Babylonia to the Greek Black Sea port at Trapezus. Despite facing constant ambushes, punishing weather, and famine, they arrived on friendly soil with nearly three-fourths of their numbers intact. Xenophon’s account of the Ten Thousand’s fighting retreat has since become a classic tale of heroism and even inspired the 1979 cult film “The Warriors.” Okay, at no point did the Persian yell, “Hey Xenophon, come out and playee.” If you have not seen the movie, then watch the trailer. If you are a millennial or Gen Z, watch the film, it will be way better than any of the latest superhero or Star Wars tripe on TV today.  

Some 200 years after Cyrus, when Alexander of Macedon began his conquest of Persia, the first force he faced was not a Persian army but a for-hire Greek one at the Granicus, and it was one of his harder-fought battles. Here there is a blurring of the lines. 

Though the Greeks were undoubtedly mercenaries, others under Persian King Darius III, who fought battles like Issus, were technically part of the Empire and therefore obligated to fight. 

But no one should mistake the ardor of Bactrians or Indians as comparable to that of the Persians, who were of the same ethnicity as their ruler. 

Alexander’s forces, by contrast, were largely Macedonian or from Greece proper.  

If the Persians under Darius III found mercenaries problematic as an adjunct to his core forces, medieval and Renaissance Italy farmed out the entire combat.

We began this podcast with a quote from Machiavelli, who, as a member of the government of Florence, saw how a fractured Italy played into the hands of her enemies and was dominated by French Kings marching from the North, or Aragonese and later Habsburg rulers, from the West. He also saw how mercenary companies caused havoc in his country. They even had a unique name. The Condottieri were Italian captains in command of mercenary companies during the Middle Ages and of multinational armies during the early modern period. They notably served popes and other European monarchs during the Italian Wars of the Renaissance and the European Wars of Religion. Mostly, these mercenary companies preferred to avoid pitched battles and instead focus on sieges for starving cities into submission. The Condottieri knew that sending hired men into a pitched battle might involve a revolt, thus best avoided. 

One of the first and most infamous was the White Company, a member of the so-called “free companies”—bands of for-profit soldiers who conducted the lion’s share of warfare in 14th-century Italy. The unit first rose to prominence in the 1360s before falling under the command of Sir John Hawkwood, an Englishman who had been knighted for his service in the Hundred Years’ War. With Hawkwood at the helm, the White Company became known as one of Italy’s most elite mercenary armies. Its troops—a cultural hodgepodge of English, German, Breton, and Hungarian adventurers—were renowned for their skill with the longbow and the lance, and they terrified opponents with their lightning-quick surprise attacks and willingness to do battle during harsh weather or even at night. Hawkwood and his company fought under several banners, often changing sides and exploiting shifting alliances for his benefit. He was known for exploiting both sides of a conflict, accepting a contract from one side, demanding payment from the other not to attack them, changing sides and keeping the payment from both, or even accepting bribes not to work for the enemy. Nonetheless, Hawkwood was a successful and popular Condottiere at the head of a disciplined company. 

One of the reasons that George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones is so compelling is that, as the author freely admits, he bases so much of his narrative on historical figures and events. So it is with his band of free companies who carry names such as the Golden Company, the Second Sons, and the Brave Companions. 

Speaking of Italy, if you have visited the Vatican in Rome, you have probably seen a real-life mercenary, as we shall illustrate later. But mercenaries could also be used as bodyguards, not as an invading or conquering army.  

Historian Peter Preskar writes, “It was common in the Roman Republic to hire non-Romans as bodyguards. Even Julius Caesar had Germanic bodyguards. The first Roman Emperor Augustus, created the Imperial German Bodyguard, balancing the power of the Praetorian Guard. He temporarily disbanded his Germanic bodyguards after the catastrophic Roman defeat by the Germanic tribes in the Teutoburg Forest in 9 CE. But his descendants restored Germanic warriors as their bodyguards.

The Imperial German Bodyguard was abolished by Emperor Galba in 68 CE, reasoning they were a bit too loyal to Emperor Nero, whom Galba had overthrown. The Batavi, the primary Germanic tribe providing these guards, found this a major insult and instigated the Batavi Revolt 69–70 CE. Not only will mercenaries switch sides for greater pay, but they will also take it badly if you do not hire them.  

The early Imperial regime was not the last Roman entity to use Northerners for imperial protection. Historian Kaleena Fraga notes, “Vikings are perhaps best known for plundering Western Europe and being the first Europeans to set foot in North America. But they also played a crucial role in the Byzantine Empire, where a select group of warriors called the Varangian Guard protected the Emperor in Constantinople for hundreds of years.”

Around 980 CE, a dispute arose between the sons of Prince Sviatoslav I and his brothers for the throne of Kyiv. To fight his brothers, Vladimir I of Kyiv called up 6,000 warriors from nearby Sweden. Not only did these soldiers help him conquer the region, but they also laid the foundation for the Varangian Guard.

Vladimir later converted to Greek Orthodox Christianity and lent his powerful Guard to the Byzantine Emperor. 

Less than a decade later, Basil II of the Byzantine Empire contacted Vladimir for military aid. He needed help to defeat two would-be usurpers to his throne. Basil offered his sister’s hand in marriage to sweeten the pot — as long as Vladimir was willing to convert to Christianity.

That was not the last time the Byzantines hired mercenaries; first, organized in 1302 by the adventurer Roger de Flor, the Catalan Grand Company was primarily composed of rugged Spanish veterans of the War of the Sicilian Vespers in Italy. Left unemployed at the conflict’s end, De Flor and his mercenaries contracted themselves to the Byzantine Emperor Andronicus II, who brought them to the Eastern Mediterranean to fight off invading Ottoman Turks. The 6,500-strong Catalans succeeded in sweeping the Turks away from Constantinople, but their penchant for wanton sacking and looting also drew the ire of the Byzantines. In 1305, De Flor and some 1,300 men were ambushed and killed by other mercenaries in the Emperor’s employ.

And visitors to the Vatican in Rome can see mercenaries. A small contingent of 150 Swiss soldiers of fortune began serving as papal bodyguards in 1506, and the unit endured as the official watchmen of the Vatican even after Switzerland banned its citizens from working as mercenaries. Still clad in their brightly colored Renaissance-era uniforms, the Swiss Guards of today must be Roman Catholics, stand at least 5 foot 6 inches tall, and have a military background. Their role is often ceremonial, but in the past, they have been required to fight to protect the pontiff. During one attack on Rome in 1527, nearly four-fifths of the Swiss Guard were slain while defending Pope Clement VII from capture.

And Mercenaries feature in some notable moments in US history. In the 18th century, Conflicts within the German states and with the other European powers created a body of well-trained and experienced soldiers but hurt the feudal economy. To alleviate this, the princes of the small German states often hired out their armies to supplement their income. German troops saw combat during the War of Spanish Succession from 1701-1714 and during the Jacobite Rebellion in 1715, fighting for Great Britain under George I. In perhaps the best example of the peculiarities of the German states, during the War for Austrian Succession, 1740-1748, German troops fought on both sides, some hired by Great Britain and others by France.

When the war clouds of the American Revolution began to gather, Great Britain turned to the German states to provide much-needed manpower. After the Seven Years’ War, Britain demobilized to alleviate the massive debt caused by the war. Many of these budget cuts came from the army to maintain the powerful navy that Britain relied on to protect its Empire. When the Revolution began, Britain needed trained soldiers to fight in North America and throughout its Empire.

In North America, the German troops are often called “Hessian Mercenaries,” but this is somewhat inaccurate. Great Britain hired 34,000 German soldiers, of which more than half, 18,000, were from the Principality of Hesse-Kassel, which resulted in all German soldiers being generalized as “Hessians.” It was many German states upon which these soldiers emanated.

In this case, the term “Mercenary” is also misleading. In the modern sense, mercenary implies a soldier for hire who makes a large amount of money from their service. The German soldiers had no choice; they were still in the army of their prince, who had decided to rent their services to a foreign power without the individual soldier’s approval. While the German troops were well paid, they received no bonuses for service with Great Britain.

As I have written many times, troops often do not fight for ideals, and some for little pay. The one thing they do fight for is each other, the man next to them. But they also can fight for the country, and though the Hessians could prove effective, as in the battles around New York in the Revolutionary War, they could also be bested at Trenton and Saratoga. What I find especially interesting is that between 40 and 50 percent of the German troops did not return home. Many of these were casualties, but some chose to stay in the United States, drawn by the opportunity and freedom offered by the new nation. We talk prominently of immigrants such as Irish, Italian, and, more recently, Latinos. But Germans were the first non-English immigrants. Take a look at prominent companies ranging from Merck to Levi’s or city place names. We have 26 Berlins in the US. And under the Wilson administration, German Americans were discriminated against during World War I. As Wilson led on progressivism, he also led on discrimination paving the way for the more famous Japanese internment under FDR in World War II. But I digress.  

And today, to the North of the old Byzantine Empire is Russia. And under the Tsars, they featured His Majesty’s Own Cossack Escort. At the Battle of Leipzig in the Napoleonic Wars, soldiers from the regiment saved then-Emperor Alexander I of Russia from being captured by French forces under Napoleon Bonaparte. But technically, were these mercenaries as they were part of the Russian Empire at the time? This is the same blurring of lines we see with auxiliaries summoned by the Persian Great Kings to serve in the Achaemenid times.  

And with our introduction to Russia, let us now talk about mercenaries not in faraway times like medieval Italy but last week in Russia. The Wagner group was first identified in 2014 when it started backing pro-Russian separatist forces in eastern Ukraine. It is thought to have helped Russia annex Crimea in the same year. Wagner forces have also been active in Africa and the Middle East.

Before the war in Ukraine, Wagner was believed to have about 5,000 fighters - primarily veterans of Russia’s elite regiments and special forces.

However, its numbers have since grown considerably. How? By recruiting prison inmates from Russia for frontline combat. When announcing his “march for justice” in Moscow just last Saturday, June 24, Yevgeny Prigozhin said he commanded 25,000 troops. Although mercenary forces are technically illegal in Russia, Wagner registered as a company in 2022. The US said it would designate the group as a “transnational criminal organization” in January 2023. Prigozhin has repeatedly accused defense minister Sergei Shoigu and the head of armed forces in Ukraine, Valery Gerasimov, of incompetence.

He also refused an order from the Russian defense ministry to sign a contract that would have put Wagner directly under its control. On June 23, Prigozhin said top Russian defense officials had bombed Wagner troops in Ukraine. A day later, his troops seized control of the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and began their march to Moscow to remove the military leadership. This march was aborted when Putin’s puppet, the purported leader of Belorussia, Alexander Lukashenko, brokered a deal. 

The plan is for Wagner to be integrated into mainline Russian armies.  

Sean McFate. He’s a professor at the National Defense University and the author of “The Modern Mercenary.” “Mercenaries are the second-oldest profession, and there’s a long history of mercenaries turning on their masters. This is indeed the problem of nation-states hiring mercenaries. The problem of private warfare is control and accountability. And you have very little of it, especially in a conflict zone.” This is a lesson known by Machiavelli and now learned by Putin as well.