This man, as I have said, made head of the army by the Syracusans, soon found out that a mercenary soldiery, constituted like our Italian
condottieri, was of no use; and it appearing to him that he could neither keep them not let them go, he had them all cut to pieces, and afterwards made war with his own forces and not with aliens.
Then I traced back a course of life for this latest scion of a race of
condottieri, tracking down his misfortunes, looking for the reasons of the deep moral and physical degradation out of which the lately revived sparks of greatness and nobility shone so much the more brightly.
My opinion is, that all these old podestas, these ancient
condottieri, -- for the Cavalcanti have commanded armies and governed provinces, -- my opinion, I say, is, that they have buried their millions in corners, the secret of which they have transmitted only to their eldest sons, who have done the same from generation to generation; and the proof of this is seen in their yellow and dry appearance, like the florins of the republic, which, from being constantly gazed upon, have become reflected in them.
Condottieri e uomini d'arme nell'Italia del Rinascimento.
Castruccio hace uso del engano con aquellos que, en algun sentido, pueden considerarse sus pares--como era el caso de los
condottieri.
The author concludes in the future the institutional military will more closely resemble the
condottieri of pre-Westphalia (a return to the natural condition) than the national armies dominating modern times.
Paid assassins, small-scale
condottieri, never wanted for business.
68) In practice, however, service could and did lead to material rewards, from ordi soldiers' pay to the land, houses and monuments granted to the great Venetian
condottieri.
The side which possesses most is likely to become the stronger, particularly in a conflict where many recruits are
condottieri rather than converts.
The objectives of [private military companies] and their clients will differ, just as those of the
condottieri and the provveditori did in the Middle Ages.
Much like the
condottieri, bloated with impossibly heavy armor, the Spanish Navy was perfectly insulated from internal risk and completely vulnerable to a lighter, more maneuverable adversary actually capable of making decisions.
In more recent times, the equestrian portraits of famous
condottieri such Donatello's Gattamelata, Verrrochio's Bartolomeo Colleoni, and the Paolo Savelli monument offered telling exempla (fig.
