02-17-2014, 12:59 PM
You can argue that Vegetius interests three types of scholar. The Late Romanists, who mutter about things like his date and the antiqua legio; Early Romanists who love him as The KIng of Cut'n'Paste, preserving lost scraps of 'proper' authors; and medievalists, who are apt to point out (with a wink) that there are over 200 manuscripts of Vegetius, and only one of the first six books of Tacitus Annals. Never mind the quality, feel the width!
Christopher Allmand's volume* on the medieval reception of Vegetius has just come out in paperback (or papperbok, as Monty Python would have it) and deserves a place on the shelf on anybody with an interest in ancient or medieval warfare. You can even stick it on your Kindle, should you feel the need.
Vegetius wrote the ultimate desk-based study and, as Allmand points out, it was later realised that it was a work to be studied before the battle, not on the battlefield!
Mike Bishop
*Allmand, C. 2011: The De Re Militari of Vegetius: The Reception, Transmission and Legacy of a Roman Text in the Middle Ages, Cambridge: CUP (paperback edition 2014) ISBN 978-1107000278
Christopher Allmand's volume* on the medieval reception of Vegetius has just come out in paperback (or papperbok, as Monty Python would have it) and deserves a place on the shelf on anybody with an interest in ancient or medieval warfare. You can even stick it on your Kindle, should you feel the need.
Vegetius wrote the ultimate desk-based study and, as Allmand points out, it was later realised that it was a work to be studied before the battle, not on the battlefield!
Mike Bishop
*Allmand, C. 2011: The De Re Militari of Vegetius: The Reception, Transmission and Legacy of a Roman Text in the Middle Ages, Cambridge: CUP (paperback edition 2014) ISBN 978-1107000278
