''Tactica'' of Emperor Leo VI the Wise

Tactica (Italian edition, 1586)

The Tactica (Greek: Τακτικά) is a military treatise written by or on behalf of Byzantine Emperor Leo VI the Wise in c. 895–908[1] and later edited by his son, Constantine VII.[2] Drawing on earlier authors such as Aelian, Onasander and the Strategikon of emperor Maurice,[2] it is one of the major works on Byzantine military tactics, written on the eve of Byzantium's "age of reconquest". The original Greek title is τῶν ἐν πολέμοις τακτικῶν σύντομος παράδοσις ("short instruction of the tactics of war"). The Tactica elaborates on a wide variety of issues, such as infantry and cavalry formations, drills, siege and naval warfare etc. It is written in a legislative form of language and comprises 20 Constitutions (Διατάξεις Diataxeis)[3] and an Epilogue and is concluded by 12 additional chapters, the latter mainly focusing on ancient tactics.

Text

The text of the Tactica is transmitted in several manuscript prototypes, of which the most authoritative date to within a generation of Leo himself. Leo mentions within the Tactica, that Christianity could adopt Islam's doctrine of a "holy war" for its military applications.[4]

An edition with English translation by G. T. Dennis (ed.), The Taktika of Leo VI. Text, Translation and Commentary ([CFHB 49] Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. 2010), was translated from a 10th-century Florentine manuscript.[5]

Contents

Additions from the Sylloge Tacticorum

References

  1. ↑ Religious service for Byzantine soldiers and the possibility of Martyrdom, c.400 - c.1000, Paul Stephenson: "Just Wars, Holy Wars, and Jihads: Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Encounters and Exchanges", ed. Sohail H. Hashmi (Oxford University Press, 2012), 35.
  2. 1 2 Edward N. Luttwak, The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire (Harvard University Press, 2009), 305.
  3. ↑ Shaun Tougher, The Reign of Leo VI (886-912): Politics and People (Brill, 1997), 169.
  4. ↑ Bernard Lewis, The Middle East:A brief history of the last 2000 years (Scribner, 1995), 234–235.
  5. ↑ George Dennis, The Taktika of Leo VI (Dumbarton Oaks, 2010), xiii.
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