At the end of the 15th century the city of Pisa had submitted to the neighboring and stronger Florence. The Pisates, taking advantage of the French invasion of Italy in 1495, had succeeded in regaining their independence. However, after the departure of the French, the position of Pisa became critical, as it could not alone face the power of Florence.
For this reason, the Pisates requested the assistance of Venice. The Venetians agreed to help the Pisans, securing trade exchanges at Pisa's port of Livorno and forming a small expeditionary force of mercenaries, including 300 Soldiers, under Mercurius.
Mercury with his light horsemen was the ears and eyes of the army.
After the Venetian force had arrived near Florence, at the suggestion of Mercurius, it remained encamped, so that men and horses could rest. The next day the Greeks undertook to scout the area. Mercurius moved with his men into enemy territory, trying to remain as invisible as possible. And he succeeded. The Greek section approached, without being noticed, the small town of Piombino controlled by the Florentines.
Mercurius seeing that the opponents had not noticed his presence decided to attack the city, by surprise, before the garrison could react. The Greeks moved like lightning and before the guards could close the gates, they were inside the city! They immediately neutralized any guards who tried to fight back and took the city without any loss of their own. This success especially exalted the Greek Soldiers in the eyes of their Italian comrades.
Enemy counterattack
But the loss of Piombino provoked a reaction from the Florentines, who raised an army of 3,000 men – of which around 1,000 were heavily armored knights – and moved to meet the Venetian division, which numbered no more than 2,000 men. Of these, however, 300 were Soldiers and in fact commanded by Mercury.
In the conflict that followed, Mercury and his Soldiers were again in the vanguard. When they saw the numerous Florentine soldiers before them, they resorted to a trick as old as war, feigned flight. Taking advantage of their agility, the Greek light cavalry initially advanced against the opponents.
But when they saw the Florentine knights counterattacking, they made a 180-degree turn and began galloping headlong in the opposite direction. In reality, however, they split into two sections and lined up on either side of the single route, through which the Florentine pursuers would necessarily pass.
The Florentines pursued the Greeks at a distance of 3km, approximately, when they suddenly received on both sides the Greek counterattack! Having "broken" their formations from the start - due to the pursuit - they were not capable of facing the Greek attack. Soon the 3,000 Florentines had formed a mass of horse and men, the former trampling the latter, and the Greeks galloping around spearing them, turning, and then coming back again for the final blow with the heavy head-crusher, at the stroke of which not even heavy armor could hold. Soon the conflict turned into a massacre. Panicked men were killing each other trying to escape. They didn't make it. Only 14 men escaped out of 3,000. The rest were killed or captured.