Generalship in Ancient Greece, Rome and Byzantium

Shaun Tougher is Professor of Late Roman and Byzantine History at Cardiff University. He has a BA from Queen’s University Belfast and a PhD from the University of St Andrews. He works especially on dynastic history (primarily the Constantinian and Macedonian dynasties) and on gender and society (notably eunuchs, but also imperial women and questions of masculinity). His publications include The Reign of Leo VI (886-912) (Leiden, 1997), Julian the Apostate (Edinburgh, 2007), The Eunuch in Byzantine History and Society (London and New York, 2008), and The Roman Castrati: Eunuchs in the Roman Empire (London and New York, 2021). Richard Evans taught at the University of South Africa and Cardiff University. In recent years he has been Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Biblical and Ancient Studies, University of South Africa. His research interests have encompassed much of the political and military history of Greece, the Roman Republic and especially Syracuse. He has also published on the histories of Sybaris, Asia Minor and Pergamum, and the works of Diodorus Siculus and Herodotus. Recent publications include: Ancient Syracuse: From Foundation to Fourth Century Collapse (Routledge, 2016) and A History of Pergamum: Beyond Hellenistic Kingship (Bloomsbury, 2012).

[Generalship in Ancient Greece, Rome and Byzantium] makes an important contribution towards rewriting the history of the development of archaic warfare: an exploration of the literary construct of the glorious defeat at Thermopylae, which turned a terrible defeat into an act of heroism; an examination of the absence of distinction between military and diplomatic skills among the early Seleucid court elite; and a fascinating exploration of how Middle Republican generals acquired the skills and knowledge to conduct their campaigns, despite their limited terms of office.

• Acknowledgements List of ContributorsAbbreviationsIntroduction: Generalship in Ancient Greece, Rome and Byzantium - Richard Evans and Shaun Tougher1. Kings, Tyrants and Bandy-Legged Men: Generalship in Archaic Greece - Cezary Kucewicz2. Commemorating Thermopylae: The andreia of Glorious Defeat as a Literary Construct - Richard Evans3. Plato on Military and Political Leadership - Nicholas Rockwell4. Reconstructing Early Seleucid Generalship, 301-222 BC - Alex McAuley5. Generalship and Knowledge in the Middle Roman Republic - Michael Taylor6. Command Assessment in the Bellum Gallicum: Fortuna and Caesar - David Nolan7. Remembering P. Quinctilius Varus: Opposing Perspectives on the Memory and Memorialization of the Failed General in the Annales of Tacitus - Daniel Crosby8. Decius and the Battle near Abritus - David Potter9. Ammianus and the Heroic Mode of Generalship in the Fourth Century AD - Conor Whately10. The Fine Line between Courage and Fear in the Vandal War - Michael Stewart11. The Generalship of John Troglita – Art in Artifice - Martine de Marre12. The Best of Men: Cross-Cultural Command in the 630s AD - Eve MacDonald13. Tian Yue Marshals His Tropes: Public Persuasion and the Character of Military Leadership in Late Tang China - David A. Graff14. The Ideal of the Roman General in Byzantium: The Reception of Onasander’s Strategikos in Byzantine Military Literature - Philip Rance15. Generalship and Gender in Byzantium: Non-Campaigning Emperors and Eunuch Generals in the Age of the Macedonian Dynasty - Shaun Tougher16. The Politics of War: Virtue, Tyche, Persuasion, and the Byzantine General - Dimitris KrallisEpilogueBibliographyIndex