A _professional_ army will march even though there is booty and drunkenness to be had in a sacked town, but there were a few professional armies in the time of the Punic wars. It's not that good mercenary companies who keep their men from pillaging have moral objections per se, although that's presumably a consideration for at least some mercenary captains. No, in this case, bad discipline can get you killed, because if soldiers are too busy pillaging to fight, they can't respond to a surprise attack or pursue a routed enemy to deal with them before they regroup. Mercenary captains are generally in the business of keeping their people alive so they can fight and make money another day, and they don't lose sight of that because they're professionals. Doing the job and not letting emotions get the better of you is the definition of professionalism, isn't it? This phenomenon shows up in fiction a fair amount. The Black Company by Glen Cook & The Traitor Son Cycle by Miles Cameron are is more inspired by the [Rise of the Free Companies](https://www.factinate.com/editorial/free-companies/) era in Europe, for example. ## Related - [[The Tyrants of Syracuse by Jeff Champion#p120 example of why discipline matters for armies]] - [[Review of the Traitor Son Cycle by Miles Cameron]] - [[2022.04.13a Mercenaries make for a strange army]]