Stradioti

Stradioti
French painting of c. 1500 depicting stradioti of the Venetian Army at the Battle of Fornovo
Active	15th to 18th centuries
Type	Mercenary unit
Role	Light cavalry

The Stratioti or Stradioti (Italian: Stradioti, Stradiotti, Greek: Στρατιώτες/Stratiotes, Albanian: Stratiotët) were mercenary units from the Balkans recruited mainly by states of southern and central Europe from the 15th century until the middle of the 18th century.

The Greek term stratiotis/-ai (στρατιώτης/-αι) was in use since classical antiquity with the sense of "soldier" The same word was used continuously in the Roman and Byzantine period. The Italian term stradioti could therefore be a loan from the Greek word stratiotai (Greek: στρατιώται), i.e. soldiers Alternatively, it derives from the Italian word strada ('street'), meaning 'wayfarer'. The Albanian stradioti of Venice were also called capelletti (sing. capelletto) because of the small red caps they wore.

The stradioti were recruited in Albania, Greece, Dalmatia, Serbia and later Cyprus. Most of the names were Albanian, but a good number of the names particularly those of officers, were of Greek origin, such as Palaiologos, Spandounios, Laskaris, Rhalles, Comnenos, Psendakis, Maniatis, Spyliotis, Alexopoulos, Psaris, Zacharopoulos, Klirakopoulos, Kondomitis, etc. Others seemed to be of South Slavic origin, such Soimiris, Vlastimiris, and Voicha. Among their leaders there were also members of some old Byzantine noble families such as the Palaiologi and Comneni.

On various medieval sources Stradioti are mentioned either as Greeks or Albanians. This mainly happened because the bulk of stradioti rank and file were of Albanian origin from regions of Greece, but by the middle of the 16th century there is evidence that many of them had been Hellenized and in some occasions even Italianized. Hellenization was possibly underway prior to service abroad, since stradioti of Albanian origin had settled in Greek lands for two generations before their emigration to Italy. Moreover, since many served under Greek commanders and together with the Greek stradioti, this process continued. Another factor in this assimilative process was the stradioti's and their families' active involvement and affiliation with the Greek Orthodox or Uniate Church communities in the places they lived in Italy.