Ancient Greek mercenaries in the context of "Psamtik I"

Xenophon of Athens (/ˈzɛnəfən, -ˌfɒn/; Ancient Greek: Ξενοφῶν; c. 430 – 355/354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian. At the age of 30, he was elected as one of the leaders of the retreating Greek mercenaries, the Ten Thousand, who had been part of Cyrus the Younger's attempt to seize control of the Achaemenid Empire. As the military historian Theodore Ayrault Dodge wrote, "the centuries since have devised nothing to surpass the genius of this warrior".

For at least two millennia, it has been debated whether Xenophon was first and foremost a general, historian, or philosopher. For the majority of time in the past two millennia, Xenophon was recognized as a philosopher. Quintilian in The Orator's Education discusses the most prominent historians, orators and philosophers as examples of eloquence and recognizes Xenophon's historical work, but ultimately places Xenophon next to Plato as a philosopher. Today, Xenophon is recognized as one of the greatest writers of antiquity. Xenophon's works span multiple genres and are written in plain Attic Greek, which is why they have often been used in translation exercises for contemporary students of the Ancient Greek language. In the Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, Diogenes Laërtius observed that Xenophon was known as the "Attic Muse" because of the sweetness of his diction.

The Battle of Cunaxa was fought in the late summer of 401 BC between the Persian king Artaxerxes II and his brother Cyrus the Younger for control of the Achaemenid throne. The great battle of the revolt of Cyrus took place 70 km north of Babylon, at Cunaxa (Greek: Κούναξα), on the left bank of the Euphrates. The main source is Xenophon, a Greek soldier who participated in the fighting. Despite the success in the battle achieved by the interaction of the Greek mercenaries and the Persian troops of Cyrus, the outcome of the battle and the death of the pretender to the throne led to the defeat of the entire uprising and forced Greeks to commit Anabasis.

The Altıkulaç Sarcophagus, or Çan sarcophagus, is an early 4th century BCE (400–375 BCE) sarcophagus. It is sometimes said to be in the Greco-Persian style. The sarcophagus was found in 1998 in a circular corbel-vaulted tomb within the Çingenetepe tumulus, in the village of Altıkulaç, near Çan, in the eastern Troad, about halfway between Troy and Daskyleion, in what was anciently Hellespontine Phrygia. It was looted and damaged in the process, but a large part of the reliefs remained intact. It is made of painted marble carved in low relief, and dated to the 1st quarter 4th century BCE. It was made at about the same time as the famous tombs in Lycia.

The sarcophagus can probably be attributed to an Anatolian dynast of Hellespontine Phrygia. The longer face of the sarcophagus is decorated with two hunting scenes, the hunting of a fallow buck on the left portion, and the hunting of a boar on the right portion. The shorter face of the sarcophagus is decorated with a battle scene, with a mounted, armoured warrior, accompanied by his henchman, spearing a fallen light-armed soldier, probably a Greek psilos. The rider was almost certainly the dynast to whom the sarcophagus belonged. His henchman, judging from his appearance, was probably a Greek mercenary in the service of the cavalryman, a common occurrence at the time.

Xanthippus (Ancient Greek: Ξάνθιππος) of Lacedaemon, or of Carthage, was a Spartan mercenary general employed by Carthage during the First Punic War. He led the Carthaginian army to considerable success, compared to previous failure, against the Roman Republic during the course of the war, training the army to a professional standard before defeating the Romans at the Battle of Tunis, where Carthaginian forces routed the Roman expeditionary force and captured the Roman consul Marcus Atilius Regulus in 255 BC.

Diodorus says that Xanthippus was the leader of a small band of Spartan mercenaries drafted by Carthage during the war. Xanthippus was hired as a Spartan drillmaster by the Carthaginians in 255 BC. Polybius tells us that he first came to the attention of the Carthaginian leaders when he criticized the behaviour of Carthage's generals, arguing that it was they, and not the Romans, who were causing setbacks. Having been summoned to explain himself to Carthage's elite, he successfully argued his case and was placed in command of the Carthaginian army. Despite initial concern amongst the Carthaginians that Xanthippus would not be up to the task, he swiftly proved himself by successfully drilling the Carthaginian army and gained the approval of the soldiery.