HTST 489 Lecture Notes - Byzantine Military Manuals, Western Roman Empire, Greek Fire
14 Feb 2014
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Last day: roman empire, created and maintained by force. Practice diplomacy with major powers to the east but not with tribal factions to the north. In strategic and operational terms, romans process intelligence well, building intelligence gathering into their system in ways that are more advance than any other state til that point. When the romans lose military superiority, records allow us to see how then they relied on diplomacy and subversion not enough to save them ultimately. In broad terms, find different strategy than that followed by the romans intel, diplomacy, subversion are all at least as important as use of armed force. Byzantines are earliest state we can document on systematic level the way intelligence and information are pursued on a day to day basis for the preservation of the polity. Argued that it stops and can"t go longterm because there"s a plague outbreak which may well have destroyed 40% of the urban population.
