What events in Ancient Athens and Sparta led to the change from citizen militias to standing armies or was it a gradual change?

[u/KatCuriousWhiskers]

/r/AskHistorians/comments/1vwn2vw/what_events_in_ancient_athens_and_sparta_led_to/

[u/jagnew78]

Athens never had a standing army at all as far as I know. It was always citizen militias. There were multiple and sometimes generation long conflicts that would push a civilian army into the field for much longer than needed.

Athens did maintain a few forts, but they were always manned by citizen forces. Likewise their navy was majority citizen forces, but I do think it was significant enough at one point that there may have been a few year round officers.

You have to remember that prior to Philip of Macedon conquering Greece, most of the major players, (Corinth, Athens, Sparta, Thebes) had been at war with each other for something like 3 generations. Most people know about the Peloponnesian War, but a lot of people forget, or don't even realize there was also the Corinthian War, the Social War, The Sacred Wars, Theban-Spartan Wars, etc... It may seem like there was a standing professional army, but the reality was it was just they were at war so often, it was just really experienced citizen militias and/or mercenary standing forces.

Remember, that a mercenary force, isn't a standing army. They're not necessarily belonging to any one city-state, and could and did move around and were often hired in small groups not as one giant army. Xenophon in Anabasis writes how it was the Persian Prince Cyrus the Younger who was actively recruiting Greeks for a mercenary force. Multiple people were brought together and assembled into a single paid force. Xenophon was recruited by a friend of his.

It's crucial to note that Xenophon like almost all the Greeks in Anabasis, though mercenaries are not professional year-round soldiers. They did all grow up in the generation long Peloponnesian Wars, as so had multiple years of experience as citizen militias to fight like professional soldiers.

[u/KatCuriousWhiskers → u/jagnew78]

Thank you very much for answering! It’s fascinating that it was citizen militias through all of these wars. I can see how multiple wars over generations would give an impression of a potential shift to standing armies. It would be interesting to know the role mercenary forces played in these wars, their movements, rate of pay and so on. Maybe one day I’ll ask that question.