De velitatione bellica
De velitatione bellica is the conventional Latin title for the Byzantine military treatise on skirmishing and guerrilla-type border warfare, composed circa 970. Its original Greek title is (Peri Paradromēs, "On Skirmishing"). The original author is unknown but likely to have been a high-ranking army officer close to the Phokas family. The work describes tactics used previously against Muslim opponents but the author notes that due to recent Byzantine successes they might "not find application in the eastern regions at the present time" but might be useful for future campaigns. The author is critical of the bureaucracy of the Constantinople-based government. Historical context In the mid-7th century, the Byzantine Empire had lost most of its lands in the East to the Arab conquests. Following the repulsion of two Arab sieges of Constantinople, the imperial capital, the situation was stabilized, and the border between Byzantium and the Muslim Caliphate was established along the Taurus Mountains defining the eastern edge of Asia Minor. For the next several centuries, warfare would assume the pattern of larger or smaller raids and counter-raids across this barrier. For the Arabs, these raids (razzias) were carried out as part of their religious obligation against their major infidel enemy, and assumed an almost ritualized character. The Byzantines remained generally on the defensive, organizing Asia Minor into combined civil-military provinces called themata. On the mountainous border, smaller districts, the kleisourai (singular: kleisoura meaning "defile, enclosure"), were established. From the late 9th century, however, the fracturing of the Muslim world and the increasing strength of Byzantium caused a shift in the balance of power, as Byzantine campaigns penetrated into Cilicia, Armenia, northern Mesopotamia, and northern Syria. The last major enemy to face the Byzantines in the region was the Hamdanid Emir of Aleppo, Sayf ad-Dawla. For ten years, from 944 to 955, he conducted raids into Asia Minor, inflicting several heavy defeats on the Byzantines in the process. In the next decade, however, the situation was reversed, as the brothers Leo and Nikephoros Phokas (soon to be proclaimed emperor Nikephoros II) inflicted several defeats on his forces and proceeded to invade and occupy northern Syria in the late 960s. Book Purpose and authorship The De velitatione was composed as a treatise on this type of border fighting, but ironically at a time when this type of warfare became obsolete, due to Byzantine successes. The author himself was aware of that, and notes at the beginning of the work that Muslim power had been "greatly cut back", and that his instructions might "not find application in the eastern regions at the present time", but that they would be "readily available" should a need for them arise in the future. The De velitatione is thus a backward-looking work, unique among the contemporary treatises, dedicated to codifying and preserving the experience gathered during the previous centuries. Although the work has been attributed to Nikephoros Phokas himself, the real author is unknown. He was certainly an experienced and high-ranking officer, close to the Phokas family,