Cernida
Encyclopedia
The cernide or cernida were territorial armies of the Veneto
and Istria
that annually received some military training. The name cernida derives from the fact that the one or two young men were chosen (cerniti, or Italian for selections) for every ten from among the young men resident in these areas.
These units could thus be mobilized quickly, unlike the army, which was slower to recruit and slower moving. They were formed of soldiers on annual service, with an obligation to gather for brief training periods four times a year, and accounted in total for about 30,000 men.
Veneto
Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...
and Istria
Istria
Istria , formerly Histria , is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic between the Gulf of Trieste and the Bay of Kvarner...
that annually received some military training. The name cernida derives from the fact that the one or two young men were chosen (cerniti, or Italian for selections) for every ten from among the young men resident in these areas.
These units could thus be mobilized quickly, unlike the army, which was slower to recruit and slower moving. They were formed of soldiers on annual service, with an obligation to gather for brief training periods four times a year, and accounted in total for about 30,000 men.