Walter Emil Kaegi, Jr.

Some Thoughts on Byzantine Military Strategy

© Hellenic College Press, Brookline, Massachusetts, 1983

 

Page 16

The author advises that, "One must avoid letting the enemy know your tactical dispositions." Other advice includes prudent and conservative reminders: "It is safe and useful to win over the enemy by good counsel and strategy instead of by brawn and force. For the one who brings a result without harm while the other brings it with losses." [22]

[22. Ibid. 8.1.7.]

"Courage and order can do more good than the mass of combatants, because often the situation of the land helps the weaker." [23]

[23. Ibid. 8.2.8. 24.]

"What is advantageous to you is disadvantageous to the enemy, and what is helpful to him is what you should oppose." [24]

[24. Ibid. 82.81.]

"Not all peoples use the same tactics and strategy. One cannot lead an army with a single plan, but one must use experience, the nature of things, and make decisions according to the possibility of developments. There are many forms of attack." [25]

[25. Ibid. 11, pr.]

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