A Tenth-Century Byzantine Military Manual

The Sylloge Tacticorum

Georgios Chatzelis, Jonathan Harris

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Hardback

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English

Routledge
23 June 2017

Classical history & classical civilisation; Military history; Combat & defence skills & manuals

Series: Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Studies

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.

Translated by: Georgios Chatzelis, Jonathan Harris
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Volume: 22
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
Weight: 453g
ISBN: 9781472470287
ISBN 10: 1472470281
Series: Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Studies
Pages: 182
Publication Date: 23 June 2017
Audience: College/higher education , College/higher education , Primary , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Acknowledgements List of abbreviations Glossary Conventions used in the translation Introduction Translation Notes Bibliography Index

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.

Reviews for A Tenth-Century Byzantine Military Manual: The Sylloge Tacticorum

"""As the first complete English translation of this text, this book is a welcome addition to the canon of accessible medieval Byzantine military manuals ... The book is also a welcome resource in part because the sources of each section are clearly cited and because it is also explained when there is no source or the author of the manual makes an unsubstantiated claim ... What makes this translation especially useful for historians of the tenth century is its status as a record of transitional tactical thought at a time when the Byzantines were adapting strategies in response to raids across territorial boundaries against both the Arabs and the Bulgars. Additionally, because some of the material here is based on a lost source or sources, it presents information and details new to the growing domain of English-language scholarship on Byzantine military manuals ... a pleasure to read."" - Meredith L.D. Riedel, Duke University, USA, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2018"