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 85
... side of the sea—thereby including some actual Byzantine territory, important Byzantine dependencies in the Caucasus, Armenian client states, and central Asian lands that the Byzantines certainly never ruled but in which they had ...
... side, occupied the entire bank of this river with strongholds, and not the right bank of the stream alone, for in some parts of it they built towns and fortresses on its other bank. However, they did not so build these strongholds that ...
... side toward the archer—made of keratin, the outer and more elastic layer of horn, usually bovine; the multilayer sinew backing that provides much of the tension, added layer by layer as each one dries; the “ears,” straight extensions ...
... sides interact, and in which tactical achievements alone may not mean much. For example, in frontal combat, if the defenders of a particular sector are more tenacious than those on either side of them, they will only contrive their own ...
... side—commando teams as opposed to entire brigades or divisions in modern parlance. That, however, was not true of the Huns or of the other mounted archers of the steppe. Because of the enormous 2-to-1 speed advantage of all-cavalry ...
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 |