This volume is unique in addressing a key aspect of ancient warfare across a broad chronological and cultural span, focusing on generalship from Archaic Greece to the Byzantine Empire in the twelfth century AD. Across this broad span, it explores a range of ideas on how to be a successful general, showing how the art of generalship – a profession that has been occupied variously by the political elite, the mercenary soldier and the eunuch – evolved and adapted to shifting notions of how a good military leader should act.
Highlighting developments and continuities in this age-old profession across the Graeco-Roman world, this volume brings together the latest research on generalship from both established and new voices. The chapters examine both ideals of generalship and specific examples of generals, considering the principles underpinning the roles they played and the qualities desired in them. They discuss in particular the intersection between military and political roles, the addresses delivered by generals to their troops, the virtue of courage and the commemoration of victory as well as defeat. In addition, contributors consider cross-cultural comparisons of generalship, with specific chapters devoted to Persian, Arab and Chinese views.
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).
