Originally Posted by
QuintusSertorius
Soldiers weren't "common people", because the majority of the population couldn't afford the free time to train in the arts of war, nor the money to purchase their own arms and armour. Most soldiers were at the poorest of the yeoman farmer class, men who owned their own farm and could likely afford slaves to work their land for them.
Indeed, arming and training men at the state's expense was one of Philip of Macedon's innovations, and the reason he was able to field such large armies. It was also Marius' innovation much later on when the Roman state had depleted its traditional source of citizen-militia.
Those "ancients" are in the Bronze Age, up to thousands of years before the period covered by Europa Barbarorum.