Asklepiodotos (military writer)
Asklepiodotos is the author of an outline of military tactics from the 1st century BC named in a Florentine Codex ( Codex Laurentianus 55 ) and the manuscripts derived from it. BC ( Asklepiodotou philosophou taktika kephalaia ).
The 12-chapters document briefly deals with the tactical principles of the Hellenistic Macedonian phalanx . It is quoted extensively by Aelian and, if it is not simply an extract from the Aelian treatise, must have been written by the 1st century at the latest. It would be the oldest surviving military science treatise in the Greek language . Because of the highly compressed representation and because the work is not mentioned anywhere else, it is presumed that the text that has survived is a short version of a text or lecture by another author edited by Asklepiodotos. Since Seneca repeatedly mentions an Asklepiodotos as a listener and mediator of the lectures of the philosopher and polymath Poseidonios ( Sen. nat.quaest. II 26, 6; VI 17, 3, etc. ), the tactics of Asklepiodotus could be a summary act of the teachings of Poseidonios on this subject.
Text editions and translations
- Hermann Köchly and Wilhelm Rustow : Greek war writers. Volume 2, part 1, Leipzig 1855 ( digitized version )
- Military Essays: Aeneas Tacticus, Asclepiodotus, and Onasander. Harvard 1987, ISBN 0-674-99172-9
- Lucien Poznanski (ed.): Asclépiodote. Traité de tactique. Paris 1992, ISBN 2-251-00394-0 (Greek text and French translation)
- Kai Brodersen : Arrianos / Asklepiodotos: The art of tactics. Greek and German, Tusculum Collection , De Gruyter, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-11-056216-3 (new edition with German translation and detailed introduction)
literature
- Francesco Fiorucci: Asklepiodotos. In: Bernhard Zimmermann , Antonios Rengakos (Hrsg.): Handbook of the Greek literature of antiquity. Volume 2: The Literature of the Classical and Hellenistic Period. CH Beck, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-406-61818-5 , pp. 608-610
- Richard Goulet: Asclépiodote le Tacticien . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Volume 1, CNRS, Paris 1989, ISBN 2-222-04042-6 , pp. 632-633
- Karl Konrad Müller : Asklepiodotos 10 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume II, 2, Stuttgart 1896, Sp. 1637-1641.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Asklepiodotos |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | ancient Greek author |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 2nd century BC BC or 1st century BC Chr. |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1st century BC BC or 1st century |