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Warfare has been a constant throughout human history and conflict can certainly be traced back to our hominid ancestors in our evolutionary past. While technology today is often used as the distinguishing characteristic of warfare, the development of the professional army, that is fulltime soldiers and formations of a standing army, was also an important factor in making warfare an affair conducted throughout the year and allowed the establishment of large-scale states and empires to be possible.<ref>For general information about the history of war and armies, see: Chaliand, Gérard, ed. 1994. ''The Art of War in World History: From Antiquity to the Nuclear Age''. Berkeley: University of California Press.</ref> This also paved the way for early states and empires to compete more with each other, helping to develop a variety of other social and technical innovations, including shaping our own world.
==Early Origins of Professional Armies==
In early warfare, from what we can tell when textual sources first become available to us at around the 3rd millennium BC, men would be conscripted for specific campaigns or years when kings were fighting neighboring kingdoms, where the conscripted soldiers would not be required to serve for very long periods and would simply return to their previous employment/professions after the campaign would finish.<ref>For information about early conscription in warfare in city-states, see: Trigger, Bruce G. 2007. ''Understanding Early Civilizations: A Comparative Study''. 1. paperback ed. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.</ref> By the mid 3rd millennium BC, there were attempts to create standing armies of professional soldiers.<ref>For information on early professional armies in Mesopotamia, see Bauer, S. Wise. 2007. ''The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome''. 1st ed. New York: W.W. Norton, pg. 167.</ref>
Key to military reforms were reforms to the infrastructure of empire. Rapid transport along long-distance roads, intelligence provided by fast riding horseman and scout teams, and armories provided a way for armies to be mobilized quickly, respond to new and emergent threats where needed, and be properly equipped. Satellite imagery, in fact, shows that these road systems, amazingly still visible, emerged from the great Assyrian capitals and connected to far-away regions. In essence, the development of the concept of military logistics was also critical for making military forces professionals. Officials and military officers were charged with maintaining this infrastructure and ensuring it can be used for authorized and appropriate purposes. These officials also had a large degree of independence in decision-making, further removing the king from key military decisions. This process contributed to making the military another center of gravity for power in addition to the royal authorities.<ref>Altaweel, Mark. 2008. The Imperial Landscape of Ashur: Settlement and Land Use in the Assyrian Heartland. Heidelberger Studien Zum Alten Orient, Bd. 11. Heidelberg: Heidelberger Orientverlag.</ref>
==Later Adoptions==
The key development of the Neo-Assyrian Empire now became adopted by later armies, as new states began to realize the advantages of having a full-time army able to march as needed. The Achaemenid Empire (550-330 BC) in particular utilized many innovations by the Neo-Assyrians and even more greatly utilized different ethnic groups into its formations as the empire expanded.<ref> For a history of the Achaemenid Empire and its armies, see: Sekunda, Nick. 1992. ''The Persian Army: 560 - 330 BC''. Edited by Simon Chew. Elite Series 42.
see: pg. 3.</ref>
The Roman Empire in the Late Republic and Imperial phases began to also adopt a professional army composed of many units that were able to fight at any given time of year.<ref> For further details of how the late Republic and Imperial Roman armies functions as a professional fighting force, see: Southern, Pat. 2007. ''The Roman Army: A Social and Institutional History''. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.</ref> Initially, both ancient Greece and Rome armies consisted of soldiers that were conscripted for short periods, similar to ancient Mesopotamia; however, this was not sustainable for the Romans as they expanded their realm. The Roman army of the Imperial period heavily relied on volunteers and eventually created a much larger military bureaucracy and system where many legions or units simultaneously existed and composed of many nationalities. Many more units and specialized roles developed in the Roman army, where non-Romans found the army as one potential way to work up the Roman social ladder. For example, many emperors were of non-Roman origin and had advanced using the military.<ref>For information about some of the non-Roman emperors within the Roman Empire, see: Plutarch, Robin Seager, and Rex Warner. 2005. ''Fall of the Roman Republic''. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books.</ref> A key development in this period was basing, on a permanent basis, legions in distant provinces and creating an elaborate system of forts and infrastructure that facilitated the presence of the army for long periods in distant areas. The presence of foreigners within Roman armies may have mitigated the presence of the army in places, helping to make their presence more tolerable.<ref>Southern, Pat. 2007. The Roman Army: A Social and Institutional History. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
</ref> Nevertheless, the key basic structure utilized by the Neo-Assyrians, which made soldiers full-time and developing a true officer core, was largely maintained and was essentially continued by the Romans.
==Conclusion==
Although the first professional armies were likely founded in the 3rd millennium BC, what we can see is that by the 2nd millennium BC the use of foreigners, elite soldiers, and officers were used within military units. By the 2nd millennium BC, warfare was also happening in increasingly diverse places, including war conducted by navies as they battles to control important sea lanes and trade or communication routes. By the first half of the 1st millennium BC, armies became more consistently professional with full time soldiers and specialized troops. This professionalization facilitated warfare by not making it bound by the agricultural cycles that would have limited when armies could fight.
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