Strategikon of Kekaumenos


The Strategikon of Kekaumenos is a late 11th century Byzantine manual offering advice on warfare and the handling of public and domestic affairs.
The book was composed between 1075 and 1078 by a Byzantine general of partly Armenian descent. In it, he offers advice, based on his own personal experience and drawing upon numerous historical examples from the events of the 11th century. It is divided in six parts:
The book is valuable to historians for its portrayal of the mindset of the Byzantine provincial aristocracy in the closing decades of the 11th century, and especially the social relations, as revealed in the third part. It also contains much otherwise unknown information about historical events, and is the first book to record the presence of the Vlachs in Thessaly.

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