Before Aeneas Tacticus

[Sean Manning]

Some of Xenophon's writings are probably earlier than Aen. Tact. right? And the on Sieges is not really on strategy and tactics in the sense the Prussians used those terms (Aeneas' other treatises, the lost ones, may have covered those topics) Its specifically a booklet on the specific practical problem of how to defend a typical Greek polis.

Aeneas' works have intriguing similarities to the Hittite instructions for the border guards. I suspect that there were very long lived traditions of mostly oral instruction about these practical things. But I never had time to do my deep dive into ancient military literature in Hittite, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.