The Prosopography of Cyrus the Younger's Mercenaries: Officers of Recruiter

Cyrus the Younger in his unsuccessful attempt to to get the royal throne and crown from his brother Artaxerxes II, enlisted a great body of mercenaries with help of his friend Greek officers. The study of these officers using the prosopography approach shows that the geographical origin of the absolute majority of them was the city-states located in the Peloponnesse Peninsula or the Peloponnessian League. The present article, in addition to proposing the hypothesis mentioned above, aims to analyze its reasons using a descriptive-analytical method and based on library sources. A survey of primary sources of that period shows that change in Darius II's diplomacy during the Peloponnesian Wars and in particular practical actions of Cyrus the Younger as ruler of Asia Minor caused quantitative and qualitative superiority of Peloponnesians among friends and mercenaries of Achaemenid prince.