| May 23, 2013 |
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| Biographies
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|  STYMFALOS (Ancient city) CORINTHIA |
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Aeneias Tacticus
Man of the army, 4th cent. BC.
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Aeneas (Aineias), surnamed Tacticus (ho Taktikos), a Greek writer, whose precise
date is not known. Xenophon (Hell. vii. 3.1) mentions an Aeneas of Stymphalus,
who about the time of the battle of Mantineia (362, B. C.) distinguished himself
by his bravery and skill as general of the Arcadians. Casaubon supposes this Aeneas
to be the same, and the supposition is confirmed by a passage (Comment. Poliorc.
27) where he speaks familiarly of an Arcadian provincialism. But, however this
may be, the general character of this work, the names he mentions, and the historical
notices which occur, with other internal evidence, all point to about this period.
He wrote a large work on the whole art of war, strategika biblia, or peri ton
strategikon hupomnemata(Polyb. x. 40; Suidas, s. v. Aineias), consisting of several
parts. Of these only one is preserved, called taktikon te kai poliorketikon hupomnema
peri tou pos chre poliorkoumenon antechein, commonly called Commentarius Poliorceticus.
The object of the book is to shew how a siege should be resisted, the various
kinds of instruments to be used, man?uvres to be practised, ways of sending letters
without being detected, and without even the bearers knowing about it (c. 31,
a very curious one), &c. It contains a good deal of information on many points
in archaeology, and is especially valuable as containing a large stock of words
and technical terms connected with warfare, denoting instruments, &c., which are
not to be found in any other work. From the same circumstance, many passages are
difficult. The book was first discovered by Simler in the Vatican library. It
was edited first by Isaac Casaubon with a Latin version and notes, and appended
to his edition of Polybius (Paris, 1609). It was republished by Gronovius in his
Polybius, vol. iii. Amsterdam, 1670, and by Ernesti, Leipzig, 1763. The last edition
is that of J. C. Orelli, Leipzig, 1818, with Casaubon's version and notes and
an original commentary, published as a supplement to Schweighaeuser's Polybius.
Besides the Vatican MS. there are three at Paris, on which Casaubon founded his
edition, and one in the Laurentian library at Florence. This last is, according
to Orelli, the oldest of all. The work contains many very corrupt and mutilated
passages. An epitome of the whole book, not of the fragment now remaining, was
made by Cineas, a Thessalian, who was sent to Rome by Pyrrhus, 279, B. C. (Aelian,
Tact. 1). This abridgclment is referred to by Cicero (ad Fam. ix. 25).
| This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Sep 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks |
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