Walter Emil Kaegi, Jr.

Some Thoughts on Byzantine Military Strategy

© Hellenic College Press, Brookline, Massachusetts, 1983

 

Page 10

Another contemporary source on war, one that was written after Belisarios' campaigning in Italy, was an anonymous manual of strategy, entitled Peri Strategikes ("On Strategy"), which provides an account of warfare that is consistent with that of Procopios. The strategist emphasized defensive warfare, not conquest. His manual was permeated with the realization that there were situations in which the Byzantines might find themselves inferior to their opponents. He attempts to advise his readers on how to cope with an enemy who enjoys a superiority in numbers to one's own forces. He also praised other stratagems that avoided heavy casualities, for example, the wisdom of Belisarios in destroying the supplies of his enemies because they were thus compelled to disperse their own soldiers. The anonymous strategist recommended that, "If the enemy attacks and we are unable to respond," the Byzantines should raise up other nations to force the enemy to call off his incursions. Implicit in his manual is confidence that intelligence can help to bring success in warfare despite an adverse numerical balance, yet also implicit is a recognition that numbers are usually important in war, and especially for its eventual outcome; and that the Byzantine Empire was now entering a period in which it did not have satisfactory numbers of soldiers. Especially valuable is the manual's information about the effect of campaigning against the Ostrogoths in Italy (during the reign of Justinian I) and Byzantine strategic and tactical assumptions. [11]

[11. Byz. Anon. Kriegswissenschaft 33.7-8 (162-164 Koechly and Rustow). See. A. Pertusi, "Ordinarnenti militari, guerre in Occidente e teorie de guerra dei Bizantini (secc. 6-10), Settimane di Studio del Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo, vol. 15, T.2 (Spoleto 1968) 631-700.]

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