Mercenaries Through History: Xenophon's 10,000 to Wagner and Cyber Hires

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Under the 1977 additions to the Geneva Conventions, a fighter counts as a mercenary only if he meets all six criteria of Article 47, including private gain, pay well above regular troops, and non-residence in the conflict zone. Miss one and the label, with its legal consequences, falls away. This episode traces how the hired soldier went from the gold standard of ancient warfare to an outlaw and back again. It begins in 401 BC, when the Persian prince Cyrus the Younger bought 10,000 Greek hoplites for his coup, won at Cunaxa, and died, leaving Xenophon to march the stranded contractors north to the Black Sea. Carthage rented Balearic slingers, Byzantine emperors bought loyalty through distance with the Varangian Guard, and Italian city-states signed condotte with captains like Francesco Sforza, who took Milan for himself.

After the Treaty of Brétigny paused the Hundred Years War in 1360, unemployed free companies plundered France, and the horrors of the Thirty Years War pushed states toward standing armies, uniforms, and oaths of allegiance. The Hessians of the American Revolution were rented regiments, auxiliaries in the language of the era, and today's Gurkhas and Foreign Legion escape the label through integration into state command. Decolonization revived the soldier of fortune in Mad Mike Hoare and Bob Denard, then corporations took over: private military companies in Iraq and Afghanistan, Colombian veterans hired for Yemen, Russia's Wagner Group, and now hacking collectives hired for deniable cyber attacks.

• Balearic shepherds trained with slings from childhood could hurl lead projectiles with the force the episode compares to an early handgun.
• Harald Hardrada, the future king of Norway, served as a commander in the Byzantine Varangian Guard.
• Condottieri battles were often performative and low in casualties, since a rival captain might be next season's employer.
• American scout Frederick Russell Burnham, hired by the British South Africa Company, inspired the Boy Scouts and helped romanticize the adventurer archetype.
• Colombia's 1994 Decree 356 let private entities arm security units and turned the country into a recruiting hub for private military companies.