Generally, a collected volume released some twelve years following its conference might be quickly dismissed as irrelevant. But in Greek Taktika the editors have brought together extraordinary scholarship on an important, yet largely unknown genre of military writing. So extraordinary is the collection, and so great its value that it escapes the potential for irrelevance given its publication date. Instead, it offers a collection of deeply considered papers that speak to both classical scholars and the much larger, but linguistically challenged audience keenly interested in military history.
The editors have brought together fifteen articles focused on tactics (taktika) rather than on operations or strategy. The substantial introduction (pp. 9–64) serves as an historiographical, philological and literary orientation to the field, tracing trends of academic interest and influence sufficient to give near-perfect context to the articles. A significant portion of the introduction (pp. 51–64) comprises an up-to-date bibliography, a fine springboard for further study. The introduction itself would make this work notable, dancing with grace on the fine edge of the jargon and archaic language that distinguishes the field: their language choice successfully draws in the non-specialist reader. It is this, the potential of the work to introduce the field to a new generation of young scholars and enthusiasts, that represents the volume's most precious contribution. It is erudite, yet it communicates across academic boundaries.
In general, Greek writing began the long tradition of preserving both theoretical and practical knowledge (technê) in books. While the works of Herodotus, Thucydides and Xenophon have long been staples of military study, they are usually selected because of their transferable, fundamental and seemingly timeless observations about war, culture and governance. Surveys often move from them all the way forward to the Roman Vegetius, whose De re militari was adapted manifold during the later medieval period until it was cribbed and expanded by Niccolò Machiavelli for his own landmark L'Arte della Guerra. From there, in the sixteenth century, military manuals exploded as urbanisation and professionalisation (or perhaps better, specialisation) once again overtook the battlefield.
Over the past 20 years there has also been a rise in the popularity of interest in late medieval fighting treatises, the so-called Fechtbücher, together with other texts on technê, such as works by the fifteenth-century engineer Conrad Keyser. These manuals on military technê – as opposed to those on operations or strategy – arose as the late medieval and early Renaissance societies of Western Europe urbanised and as battlefield practice incorporated less chivalric and more bourgeois elements into the conduct and conceptions of war. This change brought about a shift in the way in which the military arts were learned and transmitted; a shift seemingly quite similar to that described in the very first article by B. Meißner, ‘Early Greek Strategic and Tactical Teaching and Literature’, which, in an excellent survey of literature on military technê, concludes it was the result of professionalisation occurring in the post-Hoplite world as warfare became more incessant.
The next group of articles focus on Aeneas ‘the tactician’, so influential on later writers. Owing to his towering influence, two writers discuss him to establish his historical and practical credibility. H.M. Schellenberg, in ‘Reflections on the Military Views of the “Military Writer” Aeneas Tacticus’, challenges the use of Aeneas as a historical source, citing primarily examples from his advice – the use of ‘curved shields’ to detect tunnelling operations; the use of chariots or wagons as transit vehicles, a sort of mechanised infantry of the era; and his innovative signalling system, using water-clocks and fire-signals. In ‘Tactical Issues in Aeneas’ “Tacticus”’ B. Burliga challenges Aeneas’ epithet, ‘the tactician’, noting that, while Aeneas did not explicitly deal with tactical matters, such things were implicit in his descriptions of siege warfare.
The enigmatic role of cavalry is treated by three authors. In ‘The Classification of Greco-Macedonian Cavalry in Ancient Taktika and in Modern Literature’ A. Nefedkin attempts a synthesis to offer a new cavalry taxonomy, finding only medium and heavy cavalry in the sources, apart from cataphracts. This will doubtlessly spawn lively debate, as ‘this taxonomy does not completely agree with that of the modern period’ (p. 113), but he offers a clear, concise and compelling argument. Co-editor Sekunda, in ‘Cavalry Organisation in the Taktika: the Tarantinarchia’, re-examines the thorny difficulties relating to the Tarantinarchia, an organisation of 256 men, noted in Posidonius but curiously missing from Ptolemaic and Seleucid writing. R.A. Gawroński continues the cavalry theme in ‘The Javelins used by the Roman Cavalry of the Early Principate in Archaeological Contexts and Written Sources’, noting the use of both wide-bladed and ‘awl’ tipped javelins in distinct contexts, but also highlighting difficulties with terminology between Greek and Latin.
In his second contribution Burliga enters the long-standing debate about the organisation of the Hellenistic phalanx, its tactics and the length of the sarissai. In particular, he focuses on the ‘pushing’ of the fifth and rearmost ranks noted by successive classical writers, concluding that ‘from the passages quoted above it can be inferred that pushing-tactics were sometimes employed by phalanxes’, though he notes that ‘How often this tactic was employed … [and it] cannot be discussed here … exactly which stage of battle othismos was employed or how long it lasted’ (p. 129).
Issues of translation and transmission are examined by Schellenberg in ‘A Short Biographical Note on the Arabic Translation of Aelian's Tactica Theoria’. This is an interesting connection of Greek studies with Latin and Arabic, speaking to the alluring possibility of more classical Greek texts lying undiscovered within Arabic texts, much as Aristotle was preserved.
This idea of ‘connections’ is continued in J. Rzepka's ‘Polyaenus and the Creation of Hellenistic Monarchy’, since although Polyaenus’ text was composed for Marcus Aurelius, it remains ‘the third most extensive ancient authority of the fifty-year period following the death of Alexander the Great’ (p. 143). He addresses a broad debate, concluding that ‘Polyaenus was inclined to describe the status of his actors in real, if not in legal terms’ (p. 150), and that in certain contexts the text remains a useful historical source.
Polyaenus takes centre stage once more in S. Sprawski's ‘Alexander at Tempe: Polyaenus, Strategemata 4.3.23’. Sprawski questions the oft-told sequence, where the conqueror uses a stratagem to surprise the Thessalians by cutting stone steps into the steep Mt Ossa and sneaking around. He makes an interesting and well-argued case that the author combined what was likely an achievement of another Alexander (II).
Looking at physical culture, P.O. Juhel's ‘The Rank Insignia of the Officers of the Macedonian Phalanx: the Lessons of Iconography and an Indirect Reference in Vegetius’, continues Gawroński's straddling of Greek and Roman practice, connected through the Greek writers considered here. Juhel argues for the use of a cross-mounted crest atop Macedonian officers’ helmets, to organise the phalanx better, parallel with Roman practice.
W. Brillowski, in ‘The Principles of ars tactica: Roman Military Theory and Practice in Arrian's Acies contra Alanos’, examines the ‘structural conditions that could have influenced Arrian's battle plan’ (p. 213), concluding that Greek tactical writings played a role, highlighting some impact on Roman military practice.
The continued resonance of ancient taktika is treated in the last three chapters: co-editor Rance's discussion of ‘Maurice's Strategicon and “the Ancients”: the Late Antique Reception of Aelian and Arrian’, K. Robert's ‘The Practical Use of Classical Texts for Modern War in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries’ and R. Brzezinski's ‘The Influence of Classical Military Texts in Early Modern Poland: a Survey’. Each of these three valuable contributions traces the resonating influence of Greek writings on Taktika in Byzantine, Dutch and Polish writing to the early modern period.
The volume offers a clear road map for the next generation of scholars from literary, historical and philological disciplines. More importantly, it offers a bridge over the chasm between classical scholars and other disciplines, potentially inviting enthusiasts to acquire the skills needed for original scholarship and contribution. Given the paucity of available works on the subject and their relative obscurity, this bridging function may turn out to be even more valuable than the already precious technical contributions of the worthy editors and contributors. Anyone who reads it will wish they had been at the 2005 conference.
