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How Did Carthage Raise its Mercenary Armies?
🕑 Added 2023-02-25 18:04:27 +0000 UTCWe continue exploring ancient Carthage. While prior episodes have looked at its social structure or military campaigns, this episode looks at both, seeing how Carthage raised its mercenary armies.
We begin with a brief history of Carthage and the Punic military, starting in its early colonial years when the small town boasted a small, unremarkable militia. Within a few centuries, however, the city would blossom and begin to deploy more formidable forces of infantry, cavalry, and chariots. It would be these which fought the early Punic Wars against the Greeks in Sicily. Upon facing devastating losses of citizen life in these conflicts, however, Carthage reformed its military to rely more on its auxiliaries, allies, and mercenaries. It would be this new army that would win it a vast Empire and come face to face with the Romans.
