Abstract
Codex Constantinopolitan 36 (fi rst third of the 15th century) mentions the long title of the Byzantine “Tactica-Strateguca” by Nicephorus Uranus (ca. 1000), the Byzantine magister and the doux of Antioch, and indicates the sources of this treatise. Seventeen authors are mentioned in this title. These authors wrote in Greek, and their works date from the third and second centuries BC to the tenth century AD. These were both military treatises of various genres (Onasander, Aelian, Arrian, Polyaenus, Maurice, Syrianus Magister, Nicephorus Phocas), and historical works (Polybius, Diodorus Siculus, Plutarch, Cassius Dio). Some of the authors are attributed presumably (Hannibal), and some cannot be precisely indicated (Alcibiades, Alexander, Heraclitus, Pelops). Artaxerxes is the only author on this list with a Persian name. He is also an unknown author. The article proposes to identify this author with the founder of the Sasanian Empire, Ardashir I (224–242), whose name “Fihrist” is associated with a treatise on military aff airs. This treatise in Persian has not survived, but it was translated into Arabic and ended up in the possession of Nicephorus Uranus. The treatise dealt with the conduct of wars in general, storming fortifi cations, sending spies, detecting ambushes, establishing garrisons on the borders, etc. However, the Arabic version of the treatise has also not survived.
Keywords
Ardashir I, Nicephorus Uranus, Byzantine military theory, Sasanian military theory.
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