Facts city Fun Facts and Trivia

Janissary(Turkish military) Agha of the Janissaries and a Bölük of the Janissaries by Lambert Wyts, 1573 Active 1363–1826 (1830 for Algiers) Allegiance  Ottoman Empire Type Infantry Role Standing professional military Size 1,000–1,400 7,841 (1484), 13,599 (1574) 37,627 (1609) Part of Ottoman army Garrisons Adrianople (Edirne) Constantinople (Istanbul) Colors Blue, Red and Green Equipment Various Engagements Battle of Kosovo, Battle of Kriva Palanka, Battle of Nicopolis, Battle of Ankara, Battle of Varna, Battle of Chaldiran, Battle of Mohács, Siege of Vienna, Great Siege of Malta and others Commanders Agha of the Janissaries  Janissary, also spelled Janizary, Turkish Yenıçerı (“New Soldier” or “New Troop”), member of an elite corps in the standing army of the Ottoman Empire from the late 14th century to 1826. Highly respected for their military prowess in the 15th and 16th centuries, the Janissaries became a powerful political force within the Ottoman state. During peacetime t...

 Knight knight, French chevalier, German Ritter, now a title of honour bestowed for a variety of services, but originally in the European Middle Ages a formally professed cavalryman. The first medieval knights were professional cavalry warriors, some of whom were vassals holding lands as fiefs from the lords in whose armies they served, while others were not enfeoffed with land. The process of entering knighthood often became formalized. A youth destined for the profession of arms might from the age of 7 or so serve his father as a page before joining the household of his father’s suzerain, perhaps at the age of 12, for more advanced instruction not only in military subjects but also in the ways of the world. During this period of his apprenticeship he would be known as a damoiseau (literally “lordling”), or varlet, or valet (German: Knappe), until he followed his patron on a campaign as his shield bearer, écuyer, or esquire, or as the bearer of his weapons (armiger). When he was a...

 Roman legion Roman Legionary  Map of Roman legions by 14 AD legion, a military organization, originally the largest permanent organization in the armies of ancient Rome. The term legion also denotes the military system by which imperial Rome conquered and ruled the ancient world. The expanding early Roman Republic found the Greek phalanx formation too unwieldy for fragmented fighting in the hills and valleys of central Italy. Accordingly, the Romans evolved a new tactical system based on small and supple infantry units called maniples. Each maniple numbered 120 men in 12 files and 10 ranks. Maniples drew up for battle in three lines, each line made up of 10 maniples and the whole arranged in a checkerboard pattern. Separating each unit was an interval equivalent to a maniple’s front of 18 m (60 feet), so that the maniples of the first line could fall back in defense into the intervals of the second line. Conversely, the second line could merge with the first to form a solid f...