Editing Vegetius (section)

== ''Epitoma rei militaris'' ==
{{main|De re militari}}

Vegetius' [[epitome]] mainly focuses on military organization and how to react to certain occasions in war. Vegetius explains how one should fortify and organize a camp, how to train troops, how to handle undisciplined troops, how to handle a battle engagement, how to march, formation gauge and many other useful methods of promoting organization and valour in the legion.

As G. R. Watson observes, Vegetius' ''Epitoma'' "is the only ancient manual of Roman military institutions to have survived intact". Despite this, Watson doubts its value, for Vegetius "was neither a historian nor a soldier: his work is a compilation carelessly constructed from material of all ages, a congeries of inconsistencies".<ref>Watson, ''The Roman Soldier'', pp. 25f</ref> These antiquarian sources, according to his own statement, were [[Cato the Elder]], [[Cornelius Celsus]], [[Frontinus]], [[Tarruntenus Paternus|Paternus]] and the imperial constitutions of [[Augustus]], [[Trajan]], and [[Hadrian]] (1.8).<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Vegetius|volume=27|page=968}}</ref>

The first book is a plea for army reform; it vividly portrays the military decadence of the Late Roman Empire. Vegetius also describes in detail the organisation, training and equipment of the army of the early Empire. The third book contains a series of military maxims, which were (appropriately enough, considering the similarity in the military conditions of the two ages) the foundation of military learning for every European commander from [[William the Silent]] to [[Frederick the Great]].<ref name="EB1911"/>

His book on [[siege]]craft contains the best description of Late Empire and [[Medieval]] siege machines. Among other things, it shows details of the siege engine called the ''[[Onager (siege weapon)|onager]]'', which afterwards played a great part in sieges until the development of modern cannonry. The fifth book gives an account of the materiel and personnel of the [[Roman navy]].<ref name="EB1911"/>

According to the [[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition|''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition]], "In manuscript, Vegetius' work had a great vogue from its first advent. Its rules of siegecraft were much studied in the [[Middle Ages]]." N.P. Milner observes that it was "one of the most popular Latin technical works from Antiquity, rivalling [[Pliny the Elder|the elder Pliny]]'s ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'' in the number of surviving copies dating from before AD 1300."<ref>Milner, ''Vegetius'', p. xiii</ref> It was translated into English, French (by [[Jean de Meun]] and others), Italian (by the Florentine judge [[Bono Giamboni]] and others), Catalan, Spanish, Czech, and Yiddish before the invention of printing. The first printed editions are ascribed to Utrecht (1473), Cologne (1476), Paris (1478), Rome (in ''Veteres de re mil. scriptores'', 1487), and Pisa (1488). A German translation by Ludwig Hohenwang appeared at Ulm in 1475.<ref name="EB1911"/>

However, from that point Vegetius' position as the premier military authority began to decline, as ancient historians such as [[Polybius]] became available. [[Niccolò Machiavelli]] attempted to address Vegetius' defects in his ''[[The Art of War (Machiavelli)|L'arte della Guerra]]'' (Florence, 1521), with heavy use of [[Polybius]], [[Frontinus]], and [[Livy]], but [[Justus Lipsius]]' accusation that he confused the institutions of diverse periods of the Roman Empire and [[G. Stewechius]]' opinion that the survival of Vegetius' work led to the loss of his named sources were more typical of the late [[Renaissance]].<ref>Milner, ''Vegetius'', pp. xiiif.</ref> While as late as the 18th century a soldier such as [[Marshal Puysegur]] based his own works on this acknowledged model,<ref name="EB1911"/> in Milner's words, Vegetius' work suffered "a long period of deepening neglect".<ref>Milner, ''Vegetius'', p. xiv.</ref>