Who is publius flavius vegetius renatus

Military art and science Vegetius Renatus, Flavius. Public Domain Mark 1. Courtesy of Science History Institute. Roy G. Neville Historical Chemical Library. View in library catalog.

He seems to have been a man of high social rank, but admittedly had no military experience. The 'Epitoma rei militaris' or 'De rei militari' is rather unprofessionally compiled and can be confusing, but is nevertheless an invaluable resource on the art of Roman warfare.

The first book paints a vivid picture of the state of the Roman army in the 4th century AD, and is a plea to those in power to reform the decadence that prevailed.

Some of the maxims may be mentioned here as illustrating the principles of a war for limited political objectives with which he deals:. Famine is more terrible than the sword. His 'seven normal dispositions for battle,' once in honor among European students of the art of war, are equally useful if applied to more modern conditions.

His book on siegecraft is important as containing the best description of Late Empire and Medieval siegecraft. From it, among other things, we learn details of the siege engine called the onager , which afterwards played a great part in sieges, until the development of modern cannonry.

The fifth book is an account of the materiel and personnel of the Roman navy. Its rules of siegecraft were much studied in the Middle Ages.

In reality, Vegetius probably describes an ideal rather than the reality. The army of the early Empire was a formidable fighting force but it probably was not in its entirety quite as good as Vegetius describes. In particular, the five foot ten inches minimum height limit identified by Vegetius would have excluded the majority of the men in Roman times the Roman foot was less than the English foot, at The emperor Valentinian lowered the height limit to 5' 7" Roman which equals 5.

Despite the romanticism extolling the idealized virtues of the Roman legion of an earlier time, Vegetius' De Re Militari remains a reliable and useful insight into the success of the early Roman Empire. Vegetius is among other ancient historians and personalities, particularly Roman and Greek historical figures, quoted during pre-battle loading periods in Rome: Total War.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Cambridge University Press. Military Wiki Explore. Popular pages. Project maintenance.