A Tenth-Century Byzantine Military Manual: The Sylloge Tacticorum

Georgios Chatzelis, Jonathan Harris (Autoren)

Buch | Hardcover

182 Seiten

2017
Routledge (Verlag)
978-1-4724-7028-7 (ISBN)

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The Sylloge Tacticorum is a mid-Byzantine example of the literary genre of military manuals or Taktika which stretches back to antiquity. It was one of a number produced during the tenth century CE, a period when the Byzantine empire enjoyed a large measure of success in its wars against its traditional enemy, the Arabs. Compiled to record and preserve military strategies, know-how, and tactics, the manual discusses a wide variety of matters: battle formations, raids, sieges, ambushes, surprise attacks, the treatment of prisoners of war and defectors, distribution of booty, punishment of military offences, how to mount effective espionage, and how to send and receive envoys. There is even advice on the personal qualities required by generals, on how to neutralize enemy horses, and on how to protect the troops against poisoned food. The work culminates in an account of the stratagems employed by great Greek and Roman military commanders of the past. While, like so much of Byzantine literature, the Sylloge often simply reproduces material found in earlier texts, it also preserves a great deal of information about the military tactics being developed by the Byzantine army during the tenth century. It is the first Byzantine source to record the reappearance of a specialized heavy cavalry (the kataphraktoi) and of a specialized infantry (the menavlatoi) used to repel the attacks of the opposing heavy cavalry. There is also a great deal of information on new infantry and cavalry formations and on the new tactics that required them.

This is the first complete translation of the Sylloge into English. It is accompanied by a glossary of the specialised Greek military vocabulary used in the work and by footnotes which explain obscure references and identify the author’s classical and Byzantine sources. An introduction places the work in its historical and literary context and considers some of the questions that have remained unanswered over the centuries, such as its authorship and the date of its composition.

Georgios Chatzelis is a PhD student at Royal Holloway University of London, UK. Jonathan Harris is Professor of the History of Byzantium at Royal Holloway University of London, UK.

Acknowledgements

List of abbreviations

Glossary

Conventions used in the translation

Introduction

Translation

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Erscheinungsdatum	15.07.2017
Reihe/Serie	Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Studies
Verlagsort	London
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 234 mm
Gewicht	453 g
Themenwelt	Schulbuch / Wörterbuch ► Wörterbuch / Fremdsprachen
	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Altertum / Antike
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Militärgeschichte
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung
ISBN-10	1-4724-7028-1 / 1472470281
ISBN-13	978-1-4724-7028-7 / 9781472470287
Zustand	Neuware