Vegetius

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Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus was a celebrated military writer of the 4th century. Nothing is known of his life, station and military experience.

His treatise, Epitoma rei militaris (also referred to as De Re Militari), was dedicated to the reigning emperor (possibly Theodosius the Great ). His sources, according to his own statement, were Cato, Cornelius Celsus, Frontinus, Paternus and the imperial constitutions of Augustus, Trajan, and Hadrian.

The first book is a plea for army reform and vividly portrays the military decadence of the Late Empire. He also describes in detail the organisation training and eqipment of the army of the early Empire. The third contains a series of military maxims, which were (rightly enough, considering the similarity in the military conditions of the two ages) the foundation of military learning for every European commander from William the Silent to Frederick the Great. When the French Revolution and the "nation in arms" came into history, we hear little more of Vegetius. Some of the maxims may be mentioned here as illustrating the principles of a war for limited political objectsives with which he deals:

"All that is advantageous to the enemy is disadvantageous to you, and all that is useful to you, damages the enemy"
"the main and principal point in war is to secure plenty of provisions for oneself and to destroy the enemy by famine. Famine is more terrible than the sword."
"No man is to be employed in the field who is not trained and tested in discipline"
"It is better to beat the enemy through want, surprises, and care for difficult places (i.e., through manoeuvre) than by a battle in the open field"
"Let him who desires peace prepare for war."

These are maxims that have guided the leaders of professional armies for most of recorded history, as witness the Chinese generals Sun Tzu and Wu. His "seven normal dispositions for battle," once in honor among European students of the art of war, are equally useful if applied to more modern conditions. His book on siegecraft is important as containing the best description of Late Empire and Medieval siegecraft, etc.,;and from it, among other things, we learn details of the siege engine called the onager, which afterwards played a great part in sieges, until the development of modern cannonry. The fifth book is an account of the materiel and personnel of the Roman navy.

In manuscript, Vegetius's work had a great vogue from its first advent; and its rules of siegecraft were much studied in the Middle Ages. It was translated into English; French (by Jean de Meun and others); Italian (by Bono Giamboni and others); Catalan; Spanish; Czech; and Yiddish before the invention of printing. The first printed editions are asrcribed to Utrecht (1473), Cologne (1476), Paris (1478), Rome (in Veteres de re mil. scriptores, 1487), and Pisa (1488). A German translation by Ludwig Hohenwang appeared at Ulm in 1475. Vegetius's position as the premier military authority was thenceforward assured. As late as the 18th century we find so eminent a soldier as Marshal Puysegur basing his own works on this acknowledged model, and the famous Prince de Ligne wrote "C'est un livre d'or." The most reliable modern edition is that of Michael D. Reeve (Oxford, 2004). An early English version (via French) was published by Caxton in 1489. For a detailed critical estimate of Vegetius's works and influence, see Max Jahns, Gesch. der Kriegswissenschaften, i. 109-125.

Vegetius is keen to stress the shortcomings of the Roman Army in his lifetime. In order to do this he eulogises the Army of the early Empire. In particular he stresses the high standard of recruit and the excellence of the training and the officer corps. In reality Vegetius probably describes an ideal rather than the reality. The Army of the early Empire was a formidable fighting force but it probably was not in its entirety quite as good as Vegetius describes. In particular the five foot eight minimum height limit would have excluded the vast majority of the working classes in Roman times.

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.