Introducing the Bloomberg story on the big money that escaped any repercussions for their foolish trust in Silicon Valley Bank I said:
I am very close to changing my political affiliation from anarcho-capitalist to condottieri populist....
Today what with Wagner and all I am having second thoughts. First up, from Britannica:
Condottieri, leader of a band of mercenaries engaged to fight in numerous wars among the Italian states from the mid-14th to the 16th century. The name was derived from the condotta, or “contract,” by which the condottieri put themselves in the service of a city or of a lord....
....MUCH MORE
I was thinking in particular of one of the most famous of these captains, Sir John Hawkwood, known to fans of Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror, by way of chapter 10, Sons of Iniquity. (search in book: Hawkwood, 23 hits):
But now with Prigozhin being shown to be rather stupid and grandiose at the same time I think it would be better if I dropped the first part of "condottieri populist" and pursue the career that Hawkwood slid into in his later years, Capitano del popolo, Captain of the People:
popolo, (Italian: “people”), in the communes (city-states) of 13th-century Italy, a pressure group instituted to protect the interests of the commoners (actually, wealthy merchants and businessmen) against the nobility that up to then had exclusively controlled commune governments. It was one of a number of groups competing for power in the commune and in some cities succeeded in dominating the government in the late 13th century.
The popolo was organized either on a territorial basis (by quarters or districts) or on a corporative basis (by guilds); in some cities, notably Florence, a combination of both types developed. It gradually developed its own officials, who paralleled those of the commune. In the mid-13th century the office of capitano del popolo (“captain of the people”) became prominent....
Yeah, that's me, Captain of the People. Plus most of them had a palazzo included in the compensation package along with a pretty decent salary. What's not to like?
And with that longer than usual introduction, here's Niccolò:
....His Chapter XII (“How Many Kinds of Soldiery There Are, And Concerning Mercenaries”), for example makes these forceful points:
I say, therefore, that the arms with which a prince defends his state are either his own, or they are mercenaries, auxiliaries, or mixed.
Mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous; and if one holds his state based on these arms, he will stand neither firm nor safe; for they are disunited, ambitious and without discipline, unfaithful, valiant before friends, cowardly before enemies; they have neither the fear of God nor fidelity to men, and [one’s own] destruction is deferred only so long as the attack is; for in peace one is robbed by them, and in war by the enemy. The fact is, that they have no other attraction or reason for keeping the field than a trifle of stipend, which is not sufficient to make them willing to die for you. They are ready enough to be your soldiers whilst you do not make war, but if war comes they take themselves off or run from the foe….
I wish to demonstrate further the infelicity of these arms [i.e., mercenaries]. The mercenary captains are either capable men or they are not; if they are, you cannot trust them, because they always aspire to their own greatness, either by oppressing you, who are their master, or others contrary to your intentions; but if the captain [i.e., the leader of the mercenaries] is not skillful, you are ruined in the usual way [i.e., you will lose the war]....
....MUCH MORE - TheHistoryFiles
HT: Moon of Alabama
If interested, NBC News seems to be doing a good job with their live updates on Wagner (scroll down), while the Ukrainian bloggers/tweeters, including Lt. Col. (ret.) Alexander Vindman are positively gleeful.
The Russian bloggers/tweeters seem to be somewhere on the perplexed to disbelieving continuum.
