Aeneas Tacticus was one of the earliest Greek writers on the art of war

War

War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...

.

According to Aelianus Tacticus

Aelianus Tacticus

Aelianus Tacticus was a Greek military writer of the 2nd century, resident at Rome.Aelian's military treatise in fifty-three chapters on the tactics of the Greeks, titled "On Tactical Arrays of the Greeks" , is dedicated to Hadrian, though this is probably a mistake for Trajan, and the date 106...

 and Polybius

Polybius

Polybius , Greek ) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic Period noted for his work, The Histories, which covered the period of 220–146 BC in detail. The work describes in part the rise of the Roman Republic and its gradual domination over Greece...

, he wrote a number of treatises (Hypomnemata) on the subject. The only extant one, How to Survive under Siege (Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

: ), deals with the best methods of defending a fortified city. An epitome of the whole was made by Cineas

Cineas

In Roman history, Cineas was a minister of Thessaly and friend of King Pyrrhus of Epirus.In the war with Rome, after his victory in the Battle of Heraclea, Pyrrhus sent Cineas to Rome to sue for peace...

, minister of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus

Pyrrhus of Epirus

Pyrrhus or Pyrrhos was a Greek general and statesman of the Hellenistic era. He was king of the Greek tribe of Molossians, of the royal Aeacid house , and later he became king of Epirus and Macedon . He was one of the strongest opponents of early Rome...

. The work is chiefly valuable as containing a large number of historical illustrations.

Aeneas was considered by Casaubon

Casaubon

Casaubon may mean:Real people:* Isaac Casaubon , French classical scholar* Méric Casaubon , French-English classical scholar, son of Isaac* Josh Casaubon American actor in One Life to Live...

 to have been a contemporary of Xenophon

Xenophon

Xenophon , son of Gryllus, of the deme Erchia of Athens, also known as Xenophon of Athens, was a Greek historian, soldier, mercenary, philosopher and a contemporary and admirer of Socrates...

 and identical with the Arcadian general Aeneas of Stymphalus, whom Xenophon (Hellenica, vii.3) mentions as fighting at the Battle of Mantinea

Battle of Mantinea

Battle of Mantinea may refer to one of three battles fought at Mantinea:*Battle of Mantinea *Battle of Mantinea *Battle of Mantinea...

(362 BC).

Further reading

• Aeneas Tacitus, Asclepiodotus, and Onasander. Translated by Illinois Greek Club. Loeb Classical Library. ISBN 0-674-99172-9
• Whitehead, David. 2002, Aineias Tacticus. How to Survive Under Siege. Second edition (First edition 1990). Bristol Classical Press. ISBN 978-1-85399-627-6.
• Jenkins, Thomas E. 2006. "Epistolary Warfare" in Intercepted Letters: Epistolarity and Narrative in Greek and Roman Literature. Lexington Books. pp. 51–59. ISBN 978-0-7391-1714-9.

External links

• AeneasTacticus.net (includes full text in English translation)