SOURCE: “Arrian's Tactica,” in Aufstieg und Niedergang der röminschen Welt, edited by Wolfgang Hasse and Hildegard Temporini, Walter de Gruyter, 1993, pp. 312-37.

In the following essay, Devine examines Arrian's treatise on the military tactics of the Roman army, Tactica, discussing the content, originality, and textual history of the work.

I. L. Flavius Arrianus: the Author and His Career

Of all the ancient tactical authors, the career and personal history of Arrian is by far the best known, even though much of his early military career has to be conjectured from geographical or historical allusions in his surviving works. Lucius Flavius Arrianus was born and educated at Nicomedia (Izmit), the capital of the province of Bithynia in north-western Asia Minor. Although the date of his birth is not attested, the fact that he held the consulship around 130 implies that he was born between A. D. 85 and 90, the normal...