The De Re Militari of Vegetius: The Reception, Transmission and Legacy of a Roman Text in the Middle Ages

412 Pages·2011·3.05 MB·English

by  Christopher Allmand

The De Re Militari of Vegetius
Vegetius’ late Roman text became a well-known and highly respected
‘classic’intheMiddleAges,transformedbyitsreadersintotheauthority
onthewagingofwar.ChristopherAllmandanalysesthemedievalafter-
lifeoftheDeremilitari,tracingthegrowinginterestinthetextfromthe
CarolingianworldtothelateMiddleAges,suggestinghowthewritten
wordmayhaveinfluencedthedevelopmentofmilitarypracticeinthat
period. While emphasising that success depended on a commander’s
ability to outwit the enemy with a carefully selected, well-trained and
disciplinedarmy,theDeremilitariinspiredotherunexpecteddevelop-
ments,suchasthatofthe‘national’army,andhelpedcreateacontextin
whichtheroleofthesoldierassumedgreatersocialandpoliticalimpor-
tance.Allmandexploresthesignificanceofthetextandthechangesit
broughtforthosewhoacceptedtheimplicationsofitscentralmessages.
  isEmeritusProfessorofMedievalHistory
at the University of Liverpool. He has published widely on the
historyofwarandmedievalsociety,includingTheHundredYearsWar:
England and France at war c.1300–c.1450 (Cambridge, 1988) and The
NewCambridgeMedievalHistory,VolumeVII:c.1415–c.1500(aseditor,
Cambridge,1998).
Frontispiece: AcopyofVegetius’workispresentedtoaking(left),while
the importance of training is underlined (right). (BL Royal 20 B xi,
fo.3)
The De Re Militari of Vegetius
The Reception, Transmission and Legacy of a
Roman Text in the Middle Ages
Christopher Allmand
EmeritusProfessorofMedievalHistory,
UniversityofLiverpool
  
Cambridge,NewYork,Melbourne,Madrid,CapeTown,
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Firstpublished2011
PrintedintheUnitedKingdomattheUniversityPress,Cambridge
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationdata
Allmand,C.T.
TheDeremilitariofVegetius:thereception,transmissionandlegacyofa
RomantextintheMiddleAges/ChristopherAllmand.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-1-107-00027-8(hardback)
1.Militaryartandscience–History–Medieval,500–1500. 2.Militaryart
andscience–Europe–History. 3.Europe–History,Military. 4.Military
history,Medieval. 5.VegetiusRenatus,Flavius.Deremilitari. 6.Military
artandscience–Rome–Earlyworksto1800. 7.Rome–Army–Earlyworks
to1800. I.Title.
U37.A45 2011
355.020937–dc23 2011031352
ISBN978-1-107-00027-8Hardback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceor
accuracyofURLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredto
inthispublication,anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuch
websitesis,orwillremain,accurateorappropriate.
Contents
Listoffigures pagevii
Preface ix
Listofabbreviations xii
Introduction 1
PartI Themedievalreception
1 Generalremarksonthemanuscripts 13
2 Analysisofthemanuscripts 17
BookI 17
BookII 26
BookIII 33
BookIV 41
3 AparticularresponsetotheDeremilitari...and
itsinfluence 47
4 Bedfellows 56
5 Ownersandtheirtexts 63
PartII Thetransmission
6 ParticularusesoftheDeremilitari 83
JohnofSalisbury,Policraticus 84
GuillaumeleBreton 92
TheSietePartidasofAlfonsoX 96
GilesofRome,Deregimineprincipum 105
Theliteratureofcrusade 112
ChristinedePisan 121
JeanJuve´naldesUrsins 128
TheBurgundianmilitaryordinances,c.1470 132
DenistheCarthusian 137
Machiavelli 139
v
vi Contents
7 Translations 148
France 152
Italy 168
Iberia 175
England 185
Germany 193
8 Texts,drawingsandilluminations 197
9 Excerpts 213
Latin 213
French 226
German 229
Italian 233
Castilian 234
Scottish 235
10 Vegetiusinprint 239
PartIII Thelegacy:theDeremilitariinmedieval
militarythoughtandpractice
11 ThedevelopmentofVegetianinfluence 251
Introduction 251
Warandreason 254
Thesoldier 261
Leadership 269
Chivalry,nobilityandthearmy 277
Thestatistarmy 287
Provisioningandlogistics 304
Armour 310
Strategyandbattle 314
Waratsea 321
Conclusion 329
AppendixI: Tableofselecttermsusedintranslations
oftheDeremilitari 349
AppendixII: ListofmanuscriptsoftheDeremilitari 354
Bibliography 367
Index 394
Figures
Frontispiece:AcopyofVegetius’workispresentedtoaking
(left),whiletheimportanceoftrainingisunderlined(right).
(BLRoyal20Bxi,fo.3) pageii
1 Intwoscenestheauthorisshownpresentingaspectsofhis
teaching:cavalryadvancingingoodorder;trainingintheuse
ofswords;soldiersmountinghorses.(BnFfr.1604,fo.2) 161
2 Intwoscenes,Vegetiusisshowngivinginstruction:how
armiesmaybedrawnup,andhowacampshouldbebuilt.
(BnFfr.1604,fo.27v) 162
3 Threesoldiers,aslinger,aspearmanandamountedknight,
practiseagainstatarget.(BnFfr.1229,fo.5) 163
4 Akingpreparestoleadanarmy.(BnFlat.7242,fo.41) 200
5 AFrenchkingleadshisarmytowar.(BnFlat.7470,fo.15) 201
6 Anofficeronhorsebackholdswhatisprobablyabaton,
symbolofhispromotiontocommand.(BnFSmith-Lesoue¨f
13,fo.23v) 202
7 Vegetius’recommendationthatsoldiersshouldbeableto
swimisemphasisedinthisvignette.(BnFSmith-Lesoue¨f13,
fo.6) 203
8 Aslingerreadyforaction.(BnFSmith-Lesoue¨f13,fo.8) 204
9 Aspypeepssurreptitiouslyintoatent.(BnFSmith-Lesoue¨f
13,fo.32) 205
10 Acommanderpondersthepossibilitiesbeforehim.
(BnFSmith-Lesoue¨f13,fo.36v) 206
11 Suppliesarebroughttoawalledtownabouttobebesieged,
whileitsdefencesarestrengthened.(BnFSmith-Lesoue¨f13,
fo.52v) 206
12 Awomancutsherhairtoprovidesinewsforabroken-down
torsionengine.(BnFSmith-Lesoue¨f13,fo.55v) 207
13 Amancutswoodforthebuildingofships.(BnFSmith-
Lesoue¨f13,fo.63v) 323
14 Soldierssailawaytofightatsea.(BnFlat.7470,fo.101) 324
vii

Preface
It is now some forty years since I first became aware of the name
Vegetius, and of how often I was meeting it in a variety of medieval
texts, in particular in those concerned with war. It is getting on for
thirty-fiveyearsthatIfirstspokeabouthimandother‘veteresscriptores
de re militari’ at a meeting at the University of Nottingham. For years,
thereafter, I copied down information on odd bits of paper which came
to hand. Elsewhere, unbeknown to me, historians of late Antiquity and
theMiddleAgeswereworkingmorescientificallyonaspectsofhiswork,
the classicists being interested in his sources and contemporary context
and relevance, the medievalists rather more in showing the influence of
histextuponthepracticeofwarduringthelongMiddleAges.Thepast
generationhasseenamarkedgrowthofinterestinVegetius,witnessedto
byneweditionsand,notleast,bytranslationsofhiswork.Furthermore,
the medieval translations of his text have provided not only historians,
but philologists and those interested in the development of European
vernacular languages, with evidence useful to more than a single disci-
pline.In1998,PhilippeRichardotpublishedthefirsthistoricalstudyof
Vegetius’text,whichhelpedmeinanumberofwaysasIapproachedthe
subjectfromsometimesratherdifferentdirections.
From the start, it seemed important to appreciate how Vegetius’
medieval readers had responded to the texts which they read. The lim-
itationsofmicrofilms,howevercarefullymade,soonbecameobviousto
onewantingtoreadandstudysuchresponses,mostlywritteninthemar-
gins of manuscripts. In the end, I handled more than 200 manuscripts
oftheLatintextandalmost100ofthoseofvernaculartranslations.Itis
pleasanttorecordthatthestaffinlibrarieswhereitispolicytoofferthe
researcherafilmofamanuscriptbeingstudiedunderstoodtheproblem,
andwerewillingtomodifytheirpracticestohelpme.
I have been constantly accompanied on my travels by the invaluable
Handlist of extant manuscripts of the De re militari, published in 1979, a
copyofwhichitsauthor,CharlesR.Shrader,kindlygavememanyyears
ago, and which became a well-used and annotated companion. More
ix