venice’s maritime empire in the early modern period 203
that was supposed to put an end to the piratical activities of the Tunisian
pirates, Angelo Emo, the commander of the Venetian fleet, was awarded
in Zante a golden sword and a medal coined in his honor.295
Venice’s Defensive Forces in the stato da mar
Venice’s most acute defense problems, especially on the Ottoman front,
were the lack of manpower, the cost of employing a large army of
salaried soldiers, and the time needed to reach the overseas territories.
The Venetian standing army was mostly comprised of Italian soldiers
and commanders, with some reinforcements of non-Italian mercenaries,
overseen by civil commissioners (provveditori).296 Military garrisons were
stationed in all towns and fortresses, but when a war broke out, the main
fighting force had to be brought from outside. For example, there were
about 2500 salaried soldiers stationed in the Dalmatian colonies, but in
times of war their number rose to 10,000.297 In the last two wars with
the Ottomans, a greater number of non-Italian soldiers and officers was
employed.
It has been estimated that around the middle of the 16th century, the
military forces of the Venetian Republic, on land and sea, numbered
about 11,000–13,000 men in active service and 30,000–35,000 who could
be enrolled in case of emergency, not including the militias of the stato
da mar. During the war of Cyprus there were more than 30,000 soldiers
( fanti) in Venice’s overseas possessions and navy, out of a total of 55,000
fighting men. Lucio Pezzolo estimates the number of militiamen in the
overseas territories in the period following the Cyprus war at around
10,000 men, out of a comprehensive number of 35,000 militiamen, whose
number continued to rise during the 17th century.298
Like in the rest of Europe, feudal forces occupied an increasingly mar-
ginal role in Venice’s military organization. Where the feudal system
existed, as it did in Crete, in the Aegean, in Cyprus, and in the Ionian
Islands, holders of feudal estates were required to show up in periodical
295 Romanin, Storia documentata, 8:190–96.
296 Michael Mallett, “Part I: c.1400 to 1408,” in Michael E. Mallett and John R. Hale,
The Military Organization of a Renaissance State: Venice c.100–1617 (Cambridge, 1984),
pp. 168–76; Hale, “Part II: 1509–1617,” in Mallett and Hale, The Military Organization of a
Renaissance State, pp. 277–79, 315–17.
297 Praga, History of Dalmatia, p. 172.
298 Luciano Pezzolo, “Stato, guerra e finanza nella Repubblica di Venezia fra medioevo
e prima età moderna,” in Rossella Cancila, ed., Mediterraneo in armi (secc. XV–XVIII), 2 vols
(Palermo, 2007), 1:67–112 [Quaderni-Mediterranea. Ricerche Storiche, 4/1–2], pp. 92–93.