What was the dominant social class of soldiers in the ancient era?

[nvm]

While contemplating a "proper" historical troop composition for my armies, I had realized that I have no idea about how social class troop composition would fit with M2TW gameplay. Logically, you would expect the lower class soldiers to be more more easily levied and numerous if necessary. But of course that does not mean that armies mostly consisted of poor or lower-class people, right? Not to mention that fighting itself was actually mostly a prerogative of people who weren't dirt poor. However, at the same time I have little knowledge of this subject, so I would like to put these questions forward:What was the social composition of troops in most ancient armies? Was it a common thing to draft numerous low quality troops in desperate situations, or overall?

[Rad]

Like many things - it depends on the exact time, region and culture.
I helped, didn't I?

[Stannis Baratheon]

Not an actual answer to your question, but there's a really good file for historical army compositions for various factions that should help you out.

[Rosbjerg]

In the broadest historical terms, the use of poor levy troops, fitted and paid by the state, seems to be a development that happens later in the lifespan of empires - whereas the use of a social class of troops seems more widespread earlier and in general.

One could draw the conclusion that it requires a great deal of centralization to levy poor troops. And it seems 'easier' to have a class of troops that train, equip and forage by themselves, but this leaves a sprawling empire vulnerable to a shortage of manpower and power concentration.

[QuintusSertorius]

Firstly, all societies in this period were predominantly agrarian, most of the population were involved with the land. The urban population was a tiny minority, and most of them tended to own land as well.

It wasn't a coincidence that the majority of soldiers came from those affluent enough to afford their own equipment and training. This was the citizen-militia model, common everywhere in settled societies. Greek hoplites, pre-Marian Roman legionaries, Carthaginian citizens are some prominent examples. They served in the summer, for the most part, in between sowing and harvesting, and rarely too far from home. These were at least small landowners who could afford to employ other labour besides themselves, all the way up to nobles owning vast estates.

A notable exception to this model, which grew in significance in our period, was the full-time professional, ie mercenaries. They might start as militia, but for various reasons not go home.

The other exception was the levy - who tended to be called out only in emergencies for brief periods. Philip II of Makedon used his discovery of gold to fund the equipping, training, support and provisioning of the traditional levy, turning it from little better than a mob into a year-round professional force.