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Poliorcetica
A poliorceticon ( el, πολιορκητικόν, also transliterated ''poliorketikon'', ''poliorketika'' in the plural) is any member of the genre of Byzantine literature dealing with manuals on siege warfare, which is formally known as poliorcetics. As with much Byzantine literature, the ''poliorcetica'' tend to be compendia of earlier guides illustrated with Biblical and Classical anecdotes. The extent to which they might be up-to-date or representative of actual experiences in the field is sometimes questionable and greatly depends upon the author. Composed as they were during the era immediately antecedent to the arrival of heavy artillery, the ''poliorcetica'' tend to focus less upon large machines and more upon techniques for bringing men close to fortifications, as well as on ways of undermining these once attacking forces are positioned. These Byzantine manuals also tend to give a good amount of insight on morale and advice on psychological defense employable by those bein ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hero Of Byzantium
Hero of Byzantium (or Heron of Byzantium or sometimes Hero the Younger) ( el, Ἥρων) is a name used to refer to the anonymous Byzantine Empire, Byzantine author of two treatises, commonly known as ''Parangelmata Poliorcetica'' and ''Geodesia'', composed in the mid-10th century and found in an 11th-century manuscript in the Vatican Library (Vaticanus graecus 1605). The first is a poliorketikon, an illustrated manual of siegecraft; the second is a work in practical geometry and ballistics, which makes use of locations around Constantinople to illustrate its points. The manuscript consists of 58 folios and 38 colored illustrations. Following a seventh-century defeat by the Arabs in the east and the barbarian powers in the west, the Byzantine Empire found itself gutted of much of its territory and needed to re-establish its military excellence. "Recent research has suggested that the empire first survived, and later expanded, by retaining and adapting military theories and practice ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Byzantine Military Manuals
This article lists and briefly discusses the most important of many treatises on military science produced in the Byzantine Empire. Background The Eastern Roman Empire was, for much of its history, one of the major powers of the medieval world. Continuing the institutions of the Roman Empire, throughout its history it was assailed on all sides by various numerically superior enemies. The empire therefore maintained its highly sophisticated military system from antiquity, which relied on discipline, training, knowledge of tactics and a well-organized support system. A crucial element in the maintenance and spreading of this military know-how, along with traditional histories, were the various treatises and military manuals. These continued a tradition of Greek-Hellenistic type of warfare and tacticians that stretched back to Xenophon and Aeneas Tacticus, late Hellenistic military manuals adapted and applied for the needs and realities of the Byzantine army, most of them deriving ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople. It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire remained the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe. The terms "Byzantine Empire" and "Eastern Roman Empire" were coined after the end of the realm; its citizens continued to refer to their empire as the Roman Empire, and to themselves as Romans—a term which Greeks continued to use for themselves into Ottoman times. Although the Roman state continued and its traditions were maintained, modern historians prefer to differentiate the Byzantine Empire from Ancient Rome ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siege Warfare
A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict characterized by one party holding a strong, static, defensive position. Consequently, an opportunity for negotiation between combatants is common, as proximity and fluctuating advantage can encourage diplomacy. The art of conducting and resisting sieges is called siege warfare, siegecraft, or poliorcetics. A siege occurs when an attacker encounters a city or fortress that cannot be easily taken by a quick assault, and which refuses to surrender. Sieges involve surrounding the target to block the provision of supplies and the reinforcement or escape of troops (a tactic known as "investment"). This is typically coupled with attempts to reduce the fortifications by means of siege engines, artillery bombardment, mining (also known as sapping), or the use ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poliorcetics
A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict characterized by one party holding a strong, static, defensive position. Consequently, an opportunity for negotiation between combatants is common, as proximity and fluctuating advantage can encourage diplomacy. The art of conducting and resisting sieges is called siege warfare, siegecraft, or poliorcetics. A siege occurs when an attacker encounters a city or fortress that cannot be easily taken by a quick assault, and which refuses to surrender. Sieges involve surrounding the target to block the provision of supplies and the reinforcement or escape of troops (a tactic known as "investment"). This is typically coupled with attempts to reduce the fortifications by means of siege engines, artillery bombardment, mining (also known as sapping), or the use ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heavy Artillery
The formal definition of large-calibre artillery used by the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms (UNROCA) is "guns, howitzers, artillery pieces, combining the characteristics of a gun, howitzer, mortar, or multiple-launch rocket system, capable of engaging surface targets by delivering primarily indirect fire, with a calibre of 75 millimetres and above". This definition, shared by the Arms Trade Treaty and the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, is derived from a definition in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 46/36L, which set a threshold of 100mm. Several grammatical changes were made to that latter in 1992 and the threshold was lowered in 2003 to yield the current definition, as endorsed by UN General Assembly Resolution 58/54. Historically, large-calibre weapons have included bombards and siege guns. Late Middle Ages In the context of late medieval siege warfare the term superguns applies to stone-firing bombards with a ball diameter of mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Investment (military)
Investment is the military process of surrounding an enemy fort (or town) with armed forces to prevent entry or escape. It serves both to cut communications with the outside world and to prevent supplies and reinforcements from being introduced. A contravallation is a line of fortifications, built by the attackers around the besieged fortification facing towards an enemy fort to protect the besiegers from sorties by its defenders and to enhance the blockade. The contravallation can be used as a base to launch assaults against the besieged city or to construct further earthworks nearer to the city. A circumvallation may be constructed if the besieging army is threatened by a field army allied to an enemy fort. It is a second line of fortifications outside the contravallation that faces away from an enemy fort. The circumvallation protects the besiegers from attacks by allies of the city's defenders and enhances the blockade of an enemy fort by making it more difficult to smuggle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kekaumenos
Kekaumenos ( el, Κεκαυμένος) is the family name of the otherwise unidentified Byzantine author of the '' Strategikon'', a manual on military and household affairs composed c. 1078. He was apparently of Georgian-Armenian origin and the grandson of the '' doux'' of Hellas. Despite relevant suppositions, there exists no concrete evidence that he is the famous 11th century general Katakalon Kekaumenos, or his son. His father-in-law was Nikulitzas Delphinas, a lord of Larissa who took part in the revolt of Bulgarians and Vlachs "Vlach" ( or ), also "Wallachian" (and many other variants), is a historical term and exonym used from the Middle Ages until the Modern Era to designate mainly Romanians but also Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians, Istro-Romanians and other Easter ... in 1066. References Sources "Byzantine Siege Warfare in Theory and Practice"by Eric McGeer from ''The Medieval City under Siege'' ''Logos Nouthetetikos, or Oration of Admonition to an Emperor''by W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Strategikon Of Kekaumenos
The ''Strategikon of Kekaumenos'' ( el, Στρατηγικὸν τοῦ Κεκαυμένου, la, Cecaumeni Strategicon) is a late 11th century Byzantine manual offering advice on warfare and the handling of public and domestic affairs. The book was composed between 1075 and 1078 by a Byzantine general of partly Armenian descent. In it, he offers advice, based on his own personal experience and drawing upon numerous historical examples from the events of the 11th century. It is divided in six parts: * Part 1 (Chapters 1-8) survives incomplete, as its beginning has been lost. It concerns the duties and services due to a superior lord. * Part 2 (Chapters 9-34) is the ''Strategikon'' proper, and contains advice to a general. * Part 3 (Chapters 35-71) contains advice on domestic matters, the rearing of children, management of the house and the family and social relations. * Part 4 (Chapters 72-76) contains advice on the proper course of action in the event of a revolt against the Emp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nikephoros Ouranos
Nikephoros Ouranos ( el, Νικηφόρος Οὐρανός; fl. c. 980 – c. 1010), Latinized as Nicephorus Uranus, was a high-ranking Byzantine official and general during the reign of Emperor Basil II (r. 976–1025). One of the emperor's closest associates, he was active in Europe in the wars against the Bulgarians, scoring a major victory at Spercheios, and against the Arabs in Syria, where he held command during the first decade of the 11th century as Basil's virtual viceroy. A well-educated man, he wrote a military manual (''Taktika'') and composed several surviving poems and hagiographies. Biography Very little is known of Ouranos's origin, his early years or his family, and the chronicles represent him very much as a " new man". A '' prōtospatharios'' and '' asēkrētis'' Basil Ouranos, possibly an elder relative, is attested, and we know from Nikephoros's letters that he had a brother named Michael. Nikephoros Ouranos himself first enters history in the early 980s, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tactica Of Nikephoros Ouranos
Nikephoros Ouranos ( el, Νικηφόρος Οὐρανός; fl. c. 980 – c. 1010), Latinized as Nicephorus Uranus, was a high-ranking Byzantine official and general during the reign of Emperor Basil II (r. 976–1025). One of the emperor's closest associates, he was active in Europe in the wars against the Bulgarians, scoring a major victory at Spercheios, and against the Arabs in Syria, where he held command during the first decade of the 11th century as Basil's virtual viceroy. A well-educated man, he wrote a military manual (''Taktika'') and composed several surviving poems and hagiographies. Biography Very little is known of Ouranos's origin, his early years or his family, and the chronicles represent him very much as a " new man". A '' prōtospatharios'' and '' asēkrētis'' Basil Ouranos, possibly an elder relative, is attested, and we know from Nikephoros's letters that he had a brother named Michael. Nikephoros Ouranos himself first enters history in the early 980s, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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