Dumbarton Oaks Texts

This is a reprint of the second revised edition of the text and translation of the De Administrando Imperio written and compiled by Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus in the tenth century. The edition includes general and critical introductions, an index of proper names, and an extensive glossary, as well as grammatical notes and an index of sources and parallel passages.

The De Administrando Imperio, compiled by Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus in the tenth century, is one of the most important historical documents surviving from the middle Byzantine period, containing information on foreign relations and internal administration. Long out of print, this most authoritative study of the text is once again available.

Threatened on all sides by relentless enemies for a thousand years, the Byzantines needed ready armies and secure borders. To this end, experienced commanders compiled practical handbooks of military strategy. Three such manuals are presented here. These treatises provide information not only on tactics and weaponry but also on the motivations of the men who risked their lives to defend the empire.

Although he probably never set foot on a battlefield, the Byzantine emperor Leo VI (886–912) had a lively interest in military matters. He was expected to be victorious in war and to subject barbarian peoples to Rome, so he set out to acquire a solid knowledge of military equipment and practice. Leo presented an elementary handbook for his officers on how to prepare soldiers for war and how to move them on campaign and on the battlefield: The Tactical Constitutions, or Taktika. He included a chapter on naval warfare and explained Saracen (Arab) methods of war and how to defeat them. This is the first modern critical edition of the complete text of the Taktika; it includes a facing English translation, explanatory notes, and extensive indexes.

First published in 2010, and now available in this updated, revised paper edition, this is the first modern critical edition of the complete text of Byzantine emperor Leo VI’s military treatise, The Taktika. The volume includes a facing English translation and explanatory notes by George T. Dennis, as well as extensive indexes.

A window into the complex world of competing church factions, imperial powers, and the papacy, The Life of Patriarch Ignatius is the vivid account of two major ecclesiastical struggles of the ninth century. Critically edited with annotations, maps, and indexes, this important historical document is here translated into English for the first time.