Asclepiodotus (philosopher)

Asklepiodotos in a Florentine Codex (Codex Laurentianus 55) and its derivative manuscripts named author of a tear on military tactics from the 1st century BC ( Asklepiodotou philosophou Taktika Kephalaia ).

Consisting of 12 chapters document deals in a concise form the tactical fundamentals of Hellenistic Macedonian phalanx. It is extensively quoted and must, if they in turn is not merely an excerpt of aelianischen treatise, have originated no later than the 1st century by Aelian. You would be the oldest surviving military scientific treatise in Greek language. Because of the strongly compressed representation and because the work is nowhere else mentioned, there is a presumption that it is at the transmitted text is an edited summary of Asklepiodotos a font or lecture of another author. Since Seneca mentioned several times a Asklepiodotos as a listener and facilitator of the lectures of the philosopher and polymath Posidonius ( Sen. nat quaest II 26, 6, .. VI 17, 3 et passim ), it might be at the Taktika of Asklepiodotos a summary the teachings of Posidonius act on this issue.

Text editions and translations

• Hermann Köchly and Wilhelm Rustow: Greek war writer. Volume 2, Part 1, Leipzig 1855 ( digitized )
• Military Essays: Aeneas Tacticus, Asclepiodotus, and Onasander. Harvard, 1987, ISBN 0-674-99172-9
• Lucien Poznanski (ed.): Asclépiodote. Traité de tactique. Paris 1992, ISBN 2-251-00394-0 (Greek text and French translation )