Polyaenus
Polyaenus or Polyenus (
Stratagems
This work is divided into eight books: the first six contain accounts of the
The book has survived in a single copy made in the 13th century, although there exist five abridged versions, which will be discussed below. The full copy once belonged to
There are no less than five Byzantine abridgments of this work, the most important one of which is held in the same library of the original, the Laurentian. This compendium, titled Ὑπoθέσεις ἐκ τῶν στρατηγικῶν πράξεων, contains 58 chapters and 354 stratagems, and is useful to elucidate and explain many passages of the original, lost or not. Despite the existence of the abridgements, Polyaenus' treatise was not popular in the Middle Ages. The original is rarely cited by Byzantine sources, which suggests that it had ceased to circulate, and that the abridgements had replaced it. To this it must be added that only the Ὑπoθέσεις derives directly from the original, while the other four versions seem to be summaries of the first.
Polyaenus was first printed in a
Other works
Polyaenus also wrote several other works, all of which have perished. The Suda has preserved the titles of two, On Thebes (Περὶ Θηβῶν) and Tactics, in three books (Τακτικά).
Notes
- ^ Suda π 1955, Πολύαινος
- ^ Polyaenus, praef. lib. ii, praef. lib. viii
- ^ Polyaenus, praef. lib. i
- ^ Polyaenus’ Stratagems, ELINEPA, 2019
- ^ Stobaeus, xlviii. 43
- ^ Stobaeus, xlviii. 53
- ^ Polyaenus, praef. lib. vi
Further reading
- Bayle, Pierre (1740). "Polyænus". Dictionnaire historique et critique. Amsterdam.[permanent dead link]
- ISBN 978-3-938032-39-8.
- ISBN 978-3-11-053664-5.
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 17.
- Dain, A. "Les Cinq adaptations Byzantines de les Stratagèmes de Polyen". Revue des études anciennes: 321–346.
- "Polyen: Ruses de guerre". Site de Philippe Remacle (in French). Retrieved 9 October 2018. — Gui-Alexis Lobineau (traducteur), Paris, (1840)
- Seyffert, Oskar (1894). "Polyænus". Dictionary of Classical Antiquities.
- Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Polyaenus (4) the Macedonian". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 3.
External links
- Livius, Polyaenus by Jona Lendering
- Polyaenus, Stratagems of War, Translated by E. Shepherd, 1793 (excerpts: those stratagems concerning Alexander and some of the Diadochi)
- Stratagems of War (complete translation)
- Eduard von Woelffin 1887 edition at the Internet Archive