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 73
... enemies, and induce potential enemies to attack one another. Moreover, when they did fight, the Byzantines were less inclined to destroy enemies than to contain them, both to conserve their strength and because they knew that today's enemy ...
... enemy as if it were a game.14 Like their modern counterparts, and unlike traditional warriors, Byzantine soldiers were normally trained to fight in different ways, ac- cording to specific tactics adapted to the terrain and the enemy at ...
... enemies went into combat with a characteristic weapon or two, whether thrusting spear, sword, throwing javelin, dart, sling, lance, or composite reflex bow, by the sixth century Byzantine troops were trained to fight with all of them ...
... enemy are guarding against wounds from the sharp [sword] points, they throw strips of cloth plaited into nooses over their opponents and so entangle them that they fetter their limbs and take from them the power of riding or walking.11 ...
... enemy cavalry , especially in broken terrain . But Hun riders were lightly equipped , as Ammianus Marcellinus noted , having neither metal armor nor heavy lances , so they could outrun fleeing cavalry as well as defeated enemies on foot ...
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 |