De re militari

This article is about a work by Vegetius. For the work of the same name by Roberto Valturio, seeDe re militari (Valturio).

De re militari(Latin"Concerning Military Matters" ), alsoEpitoma rei militaris,is a treatise by theLate LatinwriterPublius Flavius Vegetius RenatusaboutRoman warfareand military principles as a presentation of the methods and practices in use during the height of theRoman Empireand responsible for its power. The extant text dates to the 5th century AD.

De re militari
"Concerning Military Matters"
Amoroccobound copy of the 1494 edition
Also known as	Epitoma rei militaris,Epitoma institutorum rei militaris
Author(s)	Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus,though the work was revised a number of times afterwards
Dedicated to	Emperor Valentinian
Language	Late Latin
Date	383 x 450, possibly in the reign ofTheodosius I(r. 378-395)
First printed edition	Epithoma rei militaris.Utrecht, 1473.
Genre	military treatise
Subject	military leadership, training, discipline, tactics, logistics, organisation of the army, etc.
Period covered	purports to describe the army in the heydays of the Roman Empire
Sources	includeCato the Elder,Cornelius Celsus,Frontinus,Paternus,Imperial Constitutions of Augustus,Trajan,Hadrian

Ship with armed soldiers - De re militari (15th century), f.231v - BL Add MS 24945

Vegetius emphasized things such astrainingof soldiers as a disciplined force, orderlystrategy,maintenance ofsupply linesandlogistics,quality leadership and use oftacticsand evendeceitto ensure advantage over the opposition. He was concerned about selection of good soldiers and recommended hard training of at least four months before the soldier was accepted into the ranks. The leader of the army (dux) had to take care of the men under his command and keep himself informed about the movements of the enemy to gain advantage in the battle.

De re militaribecame a military guide in theMiddle Ages.Even after the introduction ofgunpowdertoEurope,the work was carried by general officers and their staffs as a field guide to methods. Friends and subordinates customarily presented embellished copies as gifts to leaders. It went on into the 18th and 19th centuries as a source of policy and strategy to the major states of Europe. In that sense,De re militariis a projection ofRoman civilizationinto modern times and a continuation of its influence on its cultural descendants.

Authorship and composition

The author ofDe re militariwasPublius Flavius Vegetius Renatus,who lived in the late 4th century and possibly the early 5th century AD. The name of the work has a number of variants, includingEpitoma Rei Militaris,but there are other problems with accepting it at face value as the verbatim work of Vegetius. Some of the manuscripts have a note that the text was revised for the 7th time inConstantinoplein the consulate of Valentinian, who must have beenValentinian III,reigning 425-455.

Vegetius' dates are not known, nor are the circumstances under which the work was revised. The year 450 is taken as the latest possible time the work could have been written, assuming he did all seven revisions in just a few years. The initial date of the window is established by Vegetius' own statement that he wrote covering the timeusque ad tempus divi Gratiani,"up to the time of the divine Gratian."As emperors did not become gods generally until they died, the statement sets the initial possible date (terminus post quem) at 383, the yearGratiandied. If the earlier date is preferred, it is unlikely Vegetius did all seven revisions or even one of them. There is no reason to question his general authorship, however.

The work is dedicated to a mysterious emperor, whose identity is unknown but whom Vegetius must have assumed to have been known to his intended readership. It may be that he wrote on behalf ofmilitary reformunder the patronage ofTheodosius I.In that case he would have been alive in the window 378-395, the dates of Theodosius' reign. This article adopts that point of view and assigns an approximate date of 390 to the work, which would not be, then, word for word the same as what Vegetius wrote, accounting for the title variants.

Sources

Vegetius based his treatise on descriptions of Roman armies, especially those of the mid to lateRepublic.As G.R. Watson observes, Vegetius'Epitoma"is the only ancient manual of Roman military institutions to have survived intact." Despite this, Watson is dubious of its value, for he "was neither a historian nor a soldier: his work is a compilation carelessly constructed from material of all ages, acongeriesof inconsistencies. "These antiquarian sources, according to his own statement, wereCato the Elder,Cornelius Celsus,Frontinus,Paternusand the imperial constitutions ofAugustus,TrajanandHadrian(1.8).

Contents of the treatise

Vegetius' epitome mainly focuses on military organisation and how to react to certain occasions in war. Vegetius explains how one should fortify and organise a camp, how to train troops, how to handle undisciplined troops, how to handle a battle engagement, how to march, formation gauge, and many other useful methods of promoting organisation and valour in the legion. The treatise is carefully laid out in subsections. They are organized into four books:

Book I

The first book, headedPrimus liber electionem edocet iuniorum, ex quibus locis uel quales milites probandi sint aut quibus armorum exercitiis imbuendi[The first book will teach the choice of the young men, from what places, or what kind of soldiers they are to be tested, or with what exercises of arms they are to be imbued], explains the selection of recruits, from which places and what kinds (of men) are soldiers to be authorised and with what exercises of arms they are to be indoctrinated. Vegetius also describes in detail the organisation, training and equipment of the army of the early Empire. Portraying the military decadence of the Late Roman Empire, it is a plea for army reform.

Book II

The second book,Secundus liber ueteris militiae continet morem, ad quem pedestris institui possit exercitus[The second book of ancient warfare contains the manner in which an army may be organized on foot.], contains traditional military practices with which infantry can be created.

Book III

The third book,Tertius liber omnia artium genera, quae terrestri proelio necessaria uidentur, exponit,"sets forth all types of arts that appear to be necessary for fighting on land." It concludes with a series of military maxims or "general rules of war" ( "regulae bellorum generales," 3.26). While some scholars contend that these rules are later interpolations, others consider them to have been included at an early date.Some of these rules were translated into Greek in theStrategikon of Maurice,8.2, and they became influential in western Europe, fromPaul the DeacontoWilliam the Silent,Machiavelli,andFrederick the Great.Some of the maxims may be mentioned here as illustrating the principles of a war for limited political objectives with which he deals:

• "All that is advantageous to the enemy is disadvantageous to you, and all that is useful to you, damages the enemy"
• "the main and principal point in war is to secure plenty of provisions for oneself and to destroy the enemy by famine. Famine is more terrible than the sword."
• "No man is to be employed in the field who is not trained and tested in discipline"
• "It is better to beat the enemy through want, surprises, and care for difficult places (i.e., through manoeuvre) than by a battle in the open field"
• "Let him who desires peace prepare for war," also paraphrased assi vis pacem, para bellum( "If you want peace, prepare for war" )

The book also includes the "seven normal dispositions for battle" ( "depugnationum septem...genera," 3.20 and summarized at 3.26.18-24).

Book IV

The fourth book,Quartus liber uniuersas machinas, quibus uel obpugnantur ciuitates uel defenduntur, enumerat; naualis quoque belli praecepta subnectit,enumerates "all themachineswith which cities are besieged or defended "(chapters 1-30) and adds also the precepts ofnaval warfare(chapters 31-46). It contains the best description of siegecraft in the Late Roman Empire. From it, among other things, we learn details of the siege engine called theonager,which until recently was thought to have been common in medieval sieges. The onager was replaced by theMangonelin the 6th Century AD.

Vegetius is keen to stress the shortcomings of the Roman Army in his lifetime. In order to do this he eulogises the army of the early Roman Empire. In particular he stresses the high standard of thepydarsand the excellence of the training and the officer corps. In reality, Vegetius probably describes an ideal rather than the reality. The Army of the early Empire was a formidable fighting force. Some argue that the army was not in its entirety quite as good as Vegetius describes. The reason given is that Vegetius says that recruits should be 5 Roman feet 10 inches tall (Epitoma1.5), the equivalent of 172 cm. The average height of adult male skeletons buried in Italy between 500 BCE and 500 CE was 168 cm,so it would probably have been hard to meet Vegetius' height standards. But this is to misunderstand what he says, as in the same section the author is clear that height is one factor and other attributes are of equal value and make up for those who do not fit the height criteria

Transmission and influence

Heavily used in its own time,De re militaribecame a popular manual on warfare in theMiddle Ages,especially between the 9th and 16th centuries, even if some of the information was unsuitable to later times and circumstances. N.P. Milner observes that it was "one of the most popular Latin technical works from Antiquity, rivallingthe elder Pliny'sNatural Historyin the number of surviving copies dating from before AD 1300. "

The early English historianBedecites Vegetius in his prose Life of StCuthbert.The earliest extant manuscript from England to contain Vegetius' text isCotton CleopatraD.I (of the 11th, possibly late 10th century).

De re militaricame to the forefront in the late Carolingian period throughHrabanus Maurus(d. 856),who used the text for his own manualDe Procincta Romaniae Militiae[On the Preparations of the Roman Militia], composed forLothair II of Lotharingia(r. 855-869).

Vegetius' notes aboutsiegecraftbecame especially obsolete when the technology advanced andgunpowderweapons such ascannoncame into widespread use. Vegetius' suggestion of a soldier's religious oath to God and to the realm might have influenced knightly practices. Still, because of the lack ofliteracy,as a guide it was probably accessible only to aristocracy, clergy and royalty.Machiavellivery likely read Vegetius and incorporated many of his ideas into his ownThe Prince.

To the modern day, 226 Latin copies of the book have survived, not including translations to various other European languages. Many of them have a copious amount of personal notes on them, pointing at matters that have interested their contemporary owners.

The first printed editions are ascribed to Utrecht (1473), Cologne (1476), Paris (1478), Rome (inVeteres de re mil. scriptores,1487), and Pisa (1488). A German translation by Ludwig Hohenwang appeared at Ulm in 1475. It was translated into English, French (byJean de Meunand others), Italian (by the Florentine judgeBono Giamboniand others), Catalan, Spanish, Czech, and Yiddish before the invention of printing. An early English version (via French) was published byCaxtonin 1489.

However, after the first printed editions, Vegetius' position as the premier military authority began to decline, as ancient historians such asPolybiusbecame available.Niccolò Machiavelliattempted to address Vegetius's defects in hisL'arte della Guerra(Florence, 1521), with heavy use of Polybius, Frontinus and Livy, butJustus Lipsius' accusation that he confused the institutions of diverse periods of the Roman Empire andG. Stewechius' opinion that the survival of Vegetius' work led to the loss of his named sources were more typical of the late Renaissance.While as late as the 18th century we find so eminent a soldier asMarshal Puysegurbasing his own works on this acknowledged model, and the famousPrince de Lignewrote "C'est un livre d'or"[This is a book of gold]. In Milner's words, Vegetius' work suffered" a long period of deepening neglect ".

Title

The work is known by a number of variant titles. Here are some titles from among theincunabula,books printed before 1501:

• Epithoma (sic) rei militaris(1474)
• Epitoma de re militari(1475)
• Epitoma institutorum rei militaris(1487)
• Epitoma rei militaris(1488)
• De re militari(1496)

The common element of all the names are the two cases ofres militaris(nominative case):rei militaris(genitive case) andre militari(ablative case). The classical form would have been the ablative. Vegetius usesepitomata,plural of the Greek epitoma, in his other surviving work on doctoring mules.

English translations precede printed books. Manuscript 18A.Xii in the Royal Library, written and ornamented forRichard III of England,is a translation of Vegetius. It ends with a paragraph starting: "Here endeth the boke that clerkes clepethe in Latyne Vegecii de re militari." The paragraph goes on to date the translation to 1408. The translator is identified in Manuscript No. 30 of Magdalen College, Oxford, asJohn Walton,1410 translator ofBoethius.

See also

• Castra
• The Art of War

References

Notes

Editions and translations

Tony Robinsonreading to ProfessorMick Astonan excerpt of N.P. Milner'sVegetius: Epitome of Military Scienceduring a 1994 episode of the British archaeology television programmeTime Team.Robinson had become enamoured with the book after being introduced to it by the show's historianRobin Bush

• Reeve, Michael D. (ed.).Epitoma rei militaris.Oxford Medieval Texts. Oxford, 2004.ISBN0-19-926464-3
• Lang, C. (ed.).Vegetius. Epitoma Rei Militaris.Stuttgart, 1872. 2nd ed: Leipzig, 1885.
• Vegetius Renatus, Flavius."Epitome Rei Militaris".The Latin Library.Ad Fontes Academy.Latin language.Searchable by book.
• Vegetius Renatus, Flavius(1767)."The Military Institutions of the Romans (De re militari)".Digital Attic 2.0.Translated by John Clarke. Brevik, Mads. Archived fromthe originalon 2020-04-21.Retrieved2013-04-28.Books I-III only. The unknown editor altered the translation "to conform to modern usage" and abbreviated the text. Access is by subtitle. Search only within subsection.
• Milner, N.P. (tr.).Vegetius: Epitome of Military Science.Liverpool, 1993.ISBN0-85323-228-8.Second revised edition 2011.
• Meijer, Fik (tr.).Vegetius, 'Het Romeinse leger'.Amsterdam: Polak/Van Gennep, 2004. Dutch translation.

Secondary sources

• Bachrach, Bernard S."A 'Lying Legacy' Revisited. The Abels-Morillo Defense of Discontinuity."Journal of Medieval Military History5 (2007). 153 ff.
• Barnes, T.D. (Autumn 1979). "The Date of Vegetius".Phoenix.33(3). Phoenix, Vol. 33, No. 3: 254–257.doi:10.2307/1087436.JSTOR1087436.First page no charge.
• Ebert, Friedrich Adolf(1830).Allgemeines Bibliographisches Lexikon: Zweiter Band M-Z.Leipzig: F.A. Brockhaus. pp. 1013–1014.Downloadable Google Books.
• Madden, Sir Frederic;Henry Shaw(1833).Illuminated Ornaments selected from Manuscripts and Early Printed Books from the Sixth to the Seventeenth Centuries.London: William Pickering. pp.13–14.de re militari.Downloadable Google Books.
• Teuffel, Wilhelm Sigismund(1892). Schwabe, Ludwig (ed.).History of Roman Literature: V. II The Imperial Period.Warr, Charles Winter (trans.). London: G. Bell & Sons. Article 432 pages 400–404.Translated from the German 5th edition, revised and enlarged. Downloadable from Google Books.

Further reading

• Christopher Allmand,The 'De Re Militari' of Vegetius. The Reception, Transmission and Legacy of a Roman Text in the Middle Ages.Cambridge: UP, 2011.ISBN978-1-107-00027-8.(A preview can be seen in Google Books:[1]
• Charles, Michael B.Vegetius in Context. Establishing the Date of the Epitoma Rei Militaris.Historia, Einzelschriften 194. Stuttgart, 2007.
• Rogers, Clifford J. (2003). "The Vegetian 'Science of Warfare' in the Middle Ages".Journal of Medieval Military History.1:1–19.
• Jahns, Max.Geschichte der Kriegswissenschaften.Vol. 2. pp. 109–125.
• Richardot, Phillipe.Végèce et la culture militaire au Moyen Âge (Ve-XVe síecles).Paris, 1998.
• Shrader, Charles R. "The Influence of Vegetius'De re militari."Military Affairs45.4 (1981).

External links

• Latin editions:
  • Mediaeval manuscript:I•II•III•IV•index,Leiden University.
  • Vegetius Renatus, Flavius. De re militari.•I•II•III•IV,Cologne Nicolaus Goetz, ca. 1475. From theRare Book and Special Collections Divisionat theLibrary of Congress.
  • Annotated 1767 edition•I•II•III•IV•V• with French translation:I•II•III•IV•V(In this edition book IV has been split because the editor thought the chapterPraecepta belli naualiswas intended as a prologue, starting a new book.)
• English translation:
  • Clarke, Lieutenant John."The Military Institutions of the Romans".Text written in 390 A.D. British translation published in 1767. Copyright Expired.Digital Attic.Doesn't include book IV.
• German translation:
  • Vegetius Renatus, Flavius. De re militari.•I•II•III•IV•glossary,Augsburg, Johann Wiener, ca. 1475.
• Illustrations fromVier Bücher der Ritterschafft,a 1529 German-language edition published by Heinrich Stayner with woodcuts variously depicting underwater diving suits, siege equipment, cannons, and air mattresses for the comfort of soldiers in the field. All 121 full-page woodcuts and 2 half-page woodcuts freely available for download in a variety of formats fromScience History InstituteDigital Collections.