6
Cawkwell, , CQ
1963, 123,Google Scholar stresses the usually prolonged time required by the Persian king to raise land and naval forces from the empire at large, and Diodorus (16.44.5) attests that ‘during the King’s delay the Sidonians had taken much care in their preparations’ for the siege. Artaxerxes’ lengthy preparations, however, are utterly irrelevant to how many months in advance he would have sought the aid of Greek mercenaries. The beds, cloaks, tents, robes, couches, bowls, weapons, pack animals and other supplies enumerated by
Theopompus, (FGrH
115 F 263)Google Scholar could have been collected by the king for a considerable time before he requested aid from the Greek cities. Greek mercenaries were abundant at this time, and easily obtained. Isocrates repeatedly warns of the threat to private property of the large numbers of unemployed mercenaries ‘wandering about’.Greece at this time (see
Fuks, A., ‘Isocrates and the Social-Economic Situation in Greece’, Ancient Society
3 [1972], 17–44, esp. 26–30).Google Scholar For the abundance of mercenaries available immediately after Philip’s solution of the Sacred War, see Isoc. 5.96, who contraststheir plentiful numbers with their greater scarcity in the time of Cyrus. Thus, if six months was sufficient time for Cyrus to collect Greek mercenaries in 402, the same period would have been more than enough time for Ochus in 344/3. See also Isoc. 5.120–3, Ep. 9.8–10.