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10 - The Military Situation, 491–610

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2019

Hugh Elton
Affiliation:
Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario
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The Roman Empire in Late Antiquity
A Political and Military History
, pp. 304 - 330
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2018

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References

Further Reading

Although the classicizing histories of Procopius, Agathias, and Theophylact provide a narrative, we have no memoirs or works written by serving soldiers or commanders, even if Procopius occasionally gives us a snapshot of their discussions. For a good survey, see Greatrex, G., “Perceptions of Procopius in Recent Scholarship,” Histos 8 (2014), 76121. For the later sixth century, see Whitby, M., The Emperor Maurice and His Historian: Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan Warfare (Oxford, 1988).Google Scholar
Overviews are provided by Elton, H. W., “Army and Battle in the Age of Justinian,” in Erdkamp, P., ed., A Companion to the Roman Army (Oxford, 2007), 532550, Haldon, J. F., Warfare, State and Society in the Byzantine World, 565–1204 (London, 1999), and Whitby, Michael, “The Army c.420–602,” Cambridge Ancient History 14 (Cambridge, 2000), 286–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
For particular campaigns, see Greatrex, G., Rome and Persia at War, 502–532 (Leeds, 1998), Rance, P., “Narses and the Battle of Taginae (Busta Gallorum) 552: Procopius and Sixth-Century Warfare,” Historia 54 (2005), 424–472, Sarantis, A., “War and Diplomacy in Pannonia and the North-west Balkans during the Reign of Justinian: The Gepid Threat and Imperial Responses,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 63 (2009), 15–40, and Sarantis, A., “Military Encounters in the Northern Balkans from Anastasius to Justinian,” in Sarantis, A. and Christie, N., eds., War and Warfare in Late Antiquity: Current Perspectives (Late Antique Archaeology 8.2) (Leiden 2013), 759–808.Google Scholar
On Roman equipment, see Chevedden, P. E., “The Invention of the Counterweight Trebuchet: A Study in Cultural Diffusion,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 54 (2000), 71116, Coulston, J. C., “Later Roman Armour, 3rd–6th Centuries AD,” Journal of Roman Military Equipment Studies 1 (1990) 139–160, and Haldon, J. F., “Some Aspects of Byzantine Military Technology from the Sixth to the Tenth Centuries,” Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 1 (1975), 11–47. On fortifications and sieges, see Crow, J. and Croke, B., “Procopius and Dara,” Journal of Roman Studies 73 (1983), 143–159, and Petersen, L. I. R., Siege Warfare and Military Organization in the Successor States (400–800 AD): Byzantium, the West and Islam (Leiden, 2013).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
On organizational matters, see Casey, P. J., “Justinian, the limitanei, and Arab–Byzantine Relations in the Sixth Century,” Journal of Roman Archaeology 9 (1996) 214222, Greatrex, G., “Dukes of the Eastern Frontier,” in Salway, B. and Drinkwater, J. F., eds., Wolf Liebeschuetz Reflected (London, 2007), 87–98, and Haldon, J. F., Byzantine Praetorians (Bonn, 1984).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
On tactics, see Rance, P., “The Fulcum, the Late Roman and Byzantine testudo: The Germanization of Late Roman Tactics?” Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 44 (2004), 265326, Rance, P., “Simulacra Pugnae: The Literary and Historical Tradition of Mock Battles in the Roman and Early Byzantine Army,” Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 41 (2000), 223–276, and Rance, P., “Elephants in Warfare in Late Antiquity,” Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 43 (2003), 355–384, and Trombley, F. R., “The Operational Methods of the Late Roman Army in the Persian War of 572–591,” in Lewin, A. and Pietrina, P., eds., The Late Roman Army in the East from Diocletian to the Arab Conquest, BAR S1717 (Oxford, 2007), 321–356.Google Scholar
On manpower and recruitment, see Whitby, Michael, “Recruitment in Roman Armies from Justinian to Heraclius (ca. 565–615),” in Cameron, Averil, ed., The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East 3: States, Resources and Armies (Princeton, 1995), 61124, Keenan, J. G., “Evidence for the Byzantine Army in the Syene Papyri,” Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 27 (1990), 139–150, Parnell, D. A., “A Prosopographical Approach to Justinian’s Army,” Medieval Prosopography 27 (2012), 1–75, Parnell, D. A., “The Careers of Justinian’s Generals,” Journal of Medieval Military History 10 (2012), 1–16, Sarantis, A., “The Justinianic Herules: From Allied Barbarians to Roman Provincials,” in F. Curta, ed., Neglected Barbarians (Turnhout, 2011), 361–402, and Teall, J., “The Barbarians in Justinian’s Armies,” Speculum 40 (1965), 294–322.Google Scholar
On the Persians, see Rubin, Z., “The Reforms of Khusro Annushirwan,” in Cameron, Averil, ed., The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East 3: States, Resources and Armies (Princeton, 1995), 227298, and Inostrancev, C. A., “The Sasanian Military Theory,” translated by Bagdanov, L., K.R. Cama Oriental Institute 7 (1926), 7–52.Google Scholar

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