Byzantine Military Manuals as Literary Works and Practical Ha... - 9781138596016

Taylor & Francis

Byzantine Military Manuals as Literary Works and Practical HandbooksThe Case of the Tenth-Century Sylloge Tacticorum\nAuthor(s): Georgios Chatzelis\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd, United Kingdom\nImprint: Routledge\nISBN-13: 9781138596016, 978-1138596016\nSynopsis\nThis book studies the Sylloge Tacticorum, an important tenth-century Byzantine military manual. The text is used as a case study to connect military manuals with the challenges that Byzantium faced in its wars with the Arabs, but also with other aspects of Byzantine society such as education, politics, and conventions in the productions of literary texts and historical narratives. \n\nThe book explores when the Sylloge was written and by whom. It identifies which passages from classical or earlier works were incorporated in the Sylloge and explains the reason why Byzantines imitated works of the past. The book then studies the extent to which the Sylloge was original and how innovation and originali.