Florentine military reforms

The military reforms of the Florentine Republic were initiated by Florentine politician and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli during the short-lived Republic of Florence that lasted from 1498 to 1512 under the priest Girolamo Savonarola. In the pursuit of the republican spirit which pervaded Florence at the time, Machiavelli sought to establish a military establishment that was similar to that of ancient Rome.[1][2][3] He was specifically focused upon the establishment of an army possessed with the discipline of the Roman legions. He sought to establish a citizen-infantry capable of taking the field against the Italian Condottieri of the day, who largely terrorized the peninsula, in addition to the chronic foreign invasions which occurred on a regular basis at this time.[4][2] Broadly speaking Machiavelli would institute a series of reforms in 1506 that would create a citizen army of 20,000 men, and establish a system that would keep this citizen army in a state of readiness.[2]

  1. ^ Machiavelli, Niccolo (1908). The Prince. New York: Everyman's Library. ISBN 978-0-679-41044-7.
  2. ^ a b c Delbrück, Hans (1990) [1920]. The Dawn of Modern Warfare. History of the Art of War. Vol. IV. Transl. Walter J. Renfroe, Jr. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-6586-8.
  3. ^ Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Discourses. England: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-044428-5.
  4. ^ Machiavelli, The Prince, p. ??