Classical Studies

Aineias Tacticus (mid-fourth century BC) is not only the earliest but also the most historically interesting of ancient military writers. Uniquely important, too, as a social commentator, he sheds valuable light on the nature of life and the psychological and strategic preoccupations of a typical Greek city-state (polis) at a time dominated by two extraordinarily atypical ones, Athens and Sparta. In Aineias' work we see what conditions were like in a polis obliged to play a minor and much more passive role in the history of its age - not laying siege like the big players but suffering it. His practical recommendations derive clearly from accumulated personal experience in the first place; but at the same time he also draws copious illustrative material from both Herodotus and Thucydides.
This volume, originally published by Oxford University Press in the Clarendon Ancient History Series in 1990, is re-issued in a new edition with some correction and updating. It has the Greekless reader firmly in mind, providing a fresh modern translation of How to Survive Under Siege, a comprehensive introduction to Aineias and his work, and a full historical commentary.