The condottieri company commanders selected the soldiers to enlist; the "condotta" was a consolidated contract, and, when the (service period) elapsed, the company entered an (wait) period, wherein the contracting city-state considered its renewal. If the expired definitively, the condottiere could not declare war against the contracting city-state for two years. This military–business custom was respected because professional reputation (business credibility) was everything to the condottieri; a deceived employer was a reputation ruined; likewise for maritime mercenaries, whose (contract of assent) stipulated naval military-service terms and conditions; sea captains and sailors so-contracted were called . Their principal employers were Genoa and the Papal States, beginning in the fourteenth century, yet Venice considered it humiliating to so employ military sailors, and did not use naval mercenaries, even during the greatest danger in the city's history.