De Rebus Bellicis

"De Rebus Bellicis" is a 4th or 5th century anonymous work about war machines used by the Roman army of the time.

Date of the writing

"De Rebus Bellicis" was surely written after the death of Constantine I (337; explicitly states that Constantine was dead when the work was written), and before the fall of the Western Roman Empire (476). Some researchers suggest that it may refer to the Battle of Adrianople (378; speaks about the serious threat posed by the barbarian tribes to the empire), or even the death of Emperor Theodosius I (395; in many cases it uses the plural form of the word "princeps", the title of the emperor, which may refer to the split of the Empire between Honorius and Arcadius after the death of Theodosius).

Editions

*"Anonymi Auctoris De Rebus Bellicis". recensvit Robert I. Ireland (Bibliotheca scriptorvm Graecorvm et Romanorvm Tevbneriana), Lipsiae, 1984.

* "Anónimo Sobre Asuntos Militares", Edited, trans. and comm. by Álvaro Sánchez–Ostiz (EUNSA), Pamplona, 2004.

tudies

* J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz, "Realism and Phantasy: The Anonymous "De Rebus Bellicis" and Its Afterlife," in Idem. "Decline and Change in Late Antiquity: Religion, Barbarians and their Historiography" (Aldershot, Ashgate, 2006) (Variorum Collected Studies).

ee also

* Flavius Vegetius Renatus
* Paddle steamer
* Pseudo-Hyginus