The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine EmpireIn this book, the distinguished writer Edward N. Luttwak presents the grand strategy of the eastern Roman empire we know as Byzantine, which lasted more than twice as long as the more familiar western Roman empire, eight hundred years by the shortest definition. This extraordinary endurance is all the more remarkable because the Byzantine empire was favored neither by geography nor by military preponderance. Yet it was the western empire that dissolved during the fifth century. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 40
... Danube coalesced into mighty warrior confederations, while in the east formidable Sasanian Persia replaced its weaker predecessor Arsacid Parthia, Roman armies were still strong enough to contain them effectively with a new strategy of ...
... Danube frontier against successive invaders from the great Eurasian steppe—Huns, Avars, Onogur-Bulghars, Magyars, Pechenegs, and finally Cumans—all of them mounted archers inherently more dangerous than the Germanic enemies of the ...
... [Danube] and the Hebrus [Maritsa, Meric]. That was a direct threat, because the three rivers mark the route to Constantinople along the steppe corridor that runs north of the Black Sea.10 Sometimes the empire's military strength was ...
... Danube frontiers had protected the European provinces of the Roman empire for almost four centuries. Thousands of watchtowers, connected by palisades or even stone walls where there was no river barrier, with patrols to link them and ...
... Danube frontier—men, women, and children—some Iranic Alans but mostly Germanic Gepids and much more numerous Tervingi and Greuthungi Goths, all begging to be admitted within the safety of imperial territory. There were many formidable ...
Contents
1 | |
The Myth and the Methods
| 95 |
III The Byzantine Art of War
| 235 |
Grand Strategy and the Byzantine Operational Code
| 409 |
Was Strategy Feasible in Byzantine Times? | 421 |
Emperors from Constantine I to Constantine XI
| 423 |
Glossary
| 427 |
Notes
| 433 |
Works Cited
| 473 |
Index of Names
| 491 |
General Index
| 495 |