Authorship in Byzantine Military Literature

In 1937 Alphonse Dain identified the so-called Anonymus Byzantinus as Syrianus Magister. However, who was Syrianus Magister and what did he actually write? Was it only a treaty on strategy or a compendium also containing the precepts on naval tactics and theories of military rhetoric? To whom did emperor Nikephoros II Phokas entrust the writing of the De velitatione bellica? Why did emperor Leo VI the Wise compose the Tactica? We know the names of some military authors writing between the 6th and 10th centuries, but not who they really were, if they were armchair generals, commanders or officials engaged on the field of battle. Some works are attributed to emperors such as Maurice or Nikephoros II Phokas, who defeated the enemies of the Eastern Roman Empire, or to Leo VI the Wise and Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos, who were protagonists of important cultural enterprises. Other texts are anonymous: compendiums, epitomes, sylloges, which interest scholars more as testimonies to the indirect tradition of other writings than the writings themselves, which were written or compiled by a single hand in a precise moment. The problem of authorship in Byzantine military literature not only regards identification – identifying who and what – but involves a more complex issue related to the actors, authors and readers, the times in which these actors lived, the modes of production and circulation of a type of technical literature which embraced and elaborated the precepts of the classical tradition to satisfy the cultural needs of a profoundly militarized ad multiethnic society. This essay aims to deal with these questions to outline a general picture of Byzantine military literature and focus attention on the pivotal role which Byzantium played in the transmission of Greek and Latin military literature in Western Europe.