Oltremarini

The Oltramarini or Schiavoni regiments (Italian: Reggimenti Oltramarini/Schiavoni) comprised the overseas infantry of the Republic of Venice. They were a Dalmatian infantry corps organized within the Venetian navy as the elite infantry. They especially stood out in the wars against the Ottoman Empire throughout the Venetian overseas possessions, but also for their service in Terraferma, the Venetian possessions in the hinterland of Venice in northern Italy. In addition, they performed the duties of the bodyguard, first of the provveditore, and later as the personal guard of the Doge himself.

The Oltramarini were primarily filled from local people from the Venetian possessions on the eastern Adriatic coast, i.e. the Slavic (as well as Latin) catholic population from Dalmatia, the so-called Schiavoni, and later, to a lesser extent, members of other nations who came to these units were also recruited, i.e. Christian refugees and exiles from Venetian Albania and Greek countries under Venetian administration (Ionian duchy, Negroponte, Morea, Aegean duchy, Candia and Cyprus).

The command was in Zara/Zadar, while in Venice on the Riva degli Schiavoni there was a recruitment center for the new generations, after which the waterfront itself got its name.

In Venice, together with Dalmatian merchants and sailors, in 1451 they founded the Dalmatian Brotherhood or the Brotherhood of St. George and Tripuna (Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni), which was the primary gathering place of the Dalmatian/Croatian population in Venice, and which is still active today. In 1675, officers of the Oltramarini and Cappelletti (Croatian cavalry regiments) in Zadar founded the brotherhood of St. Jeronimo in Zadar.

They were led by local commanders. Officers were partly trained at military colleges throughout the Venetian Terraferma, and since 1740, officers have been trained at the Military College (Militar Collegio) in Zadar. The command language in the oltramarines was Dalmatian (lingua illirica). The soldiers called each other "brate" (brother in dalmatian/Croatian).

Due to constant Ottoman incursions after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the flare-up of the war between the Ottoman Empire and Venice, the Slavic Catholic population of Dalmatia, where the Venetian power with its center in Zadar was consolidated at the beginning of the 15th century, massively joined the units of the Venetian navy, including the naval infantry corps.

The naval infantry of the Venetian navy or Fanti da Mar were organized as far back as 1202 during the Fourth Crusade when they were the key to the conquest of Zadar and later Constantinople. The Slavic population of Dalmatia soon outnumbered members of Latin/Venetian origin, so that at the end of the century, the fanti da mar were exclusively recruited from Dalmatia, and the name schiavoni became a synonym for naval infantry.

It will have its first notable role in the failed defense of Negroponte in 1470 during the First Venetian-Ottoman War, when the entire Venetian crew was killed after a frantic defense. The Bailo of Negroponte, Paolo Erizzo, had under his command, in addition to the Venetian and Greek troops, a contingent of naval infantry from Dalmatia.