The cernide or cernida (also known as the cranide in

Dalmatia Dalmatia (; hr, Dalmacija ; it, Dalmazia; see #Name, names in other languages) is one of the four historical region, historical regions of Croatia, alongside Croatia proper, Slavonia, and Istria. Dalmatia is a narrow belt of the east shore of ...

) were territorial armies of the

Veneto Veneto (, ; vec, Vèneto ) or Venetia is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about five million, ranking fourth in Italy. The region's capital is Venice while the biggest city is Verona. Veneto was part of the Roman Empire unt ...

and

Istria Istria ( ; Croatian language, Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; ist, Eîstria; Istro-Romanian language, Istro-Romanian, Italian language, Italian and Venetian language, Venetian: ; formerly in Latin and in Ancient Greek) is the larges ...

that annually received some military training. The name ''cernida'' derives from the fact that the one or two young men were chosen (cf. it, cernere 'to choose, select') for every ten from among the young men resident in these areas.Tratto da: Lino Ertani. La Valle Camonica attraverso la storia. Esine, Tipolitografia Valgrigna, 1996. 168 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.

Notes

{{reflist Military history of the Republic of Venice Militias