The Reception of Aineias’ Poliorketika in Byzantine Military Literature

What is it about?

This study examines the textual transmission and reception of Aineias’ Poliorketika, the sole surviving component of his military compendium (c.350s BC), within Byzantine military literature, principally of the ninth to tenth centuries. Analysis of the unique manuscript witness, Laurentianus Plut. 55.4 (c.950), detects aspects of the prior majuscule tradition and emphasises the crucial role of court-centred scholarship and book production in the preservation of classical military treatises. Investigation of indirect traditions via excerpts and/or adaptations traces the current interests and paraphrastic techniques of Byzantine editor-copyists and authors, and demonstrates the continuing applicability of selected material from Aeneas’ work, even when detached from original contexts and successively recast in a new idiom.

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