by Onasander
The treatise consists of forty-two chapters upon various aspects of a commander’s duties, notably ethical considerations regarding the character, social status, bearing, behaviour, and attitude of a general towards his troops, the enemy, and his fellow-citizens; the morale of the troops, the effect of particular policies and tactics upon morale, and the like; together with much sound advice about elementary matters. In two respects Onasander differs markedly from other Greek and Roman military writers. He regards everything from the point of view primarily of the commanding officer, to the question of selecting whom he devotes a long and valuable passage, and he lays uncommon stress upon the imponderabilia, especially ethical and religious considerations. There is nothing very philosophic nor technically military in the treatise, which is intended to give merely the broad principles of generalship (στρατηγικαὶ ὑφηγήσεις, prooem. 3), and lays no claim to originality (ibidem).14
One feels no more inclined to extol the treatise as being “the most learned, concise, and valuable to be found upon the art of war,”15 than to decry it as “useless and pedantic,” and the author as one who “talks Greek like a doctor of the Sorbonne,”16 or to regard it as a mere “wilderness of general phrases,” whose “useful observations are but grains in the chaff of trivialities.”17 The truth, as often, lies here between extremes: κρατίστη δ’ αἵρεσις ἡ τοῦ μέσου, as Onasander himself says (Α.10).
Actual performance falls below the statement in the prooemium that the study has drawn merely upon those arts and practices employed by the Romans in the establishment of their empire, for specifically Roman institutions are regularly neglected even when appropriate, and in only one instance (Ch. 19) is a manoeuvre recommended, which, though perhaps not impossible in a Greek phalanx, is certainly suggestive of the Roman maniple tactics. Elsewhere only general principles are proposed which apply to almost any army at any time, or else, although very rarely, if ever, is a custom peculiar to the Greeks described.18 In particular many of the qualities which Onasander requires of a commander-in-chief, are, mutatis mutandis, quite as applicable to-day to higher officers in general, as they were in the reign of Claudius.
The burden of the treatise is really ethics, morale, and the general principles of success in arms. As such, a good deal of it will necessarily sound commonplace, some of it even trivial, for the principles of success in war have often been declared by experts to be very simple, and the difficult matter in war, as in many sports and occupations, is not the principles, but their application. Nevertheless every failure is easily traceable to the neglect of some important principle, and these can hardly be inculcated too often. If a manual expresses the principles of the art clearly and pointedly, one can hardly in fairness demand more of it. Estimates of value regarding a work of this kind will necessarily differ, but when so great a commander as Prinz Moritz von Sachsen, Marshal of France, and author likewise of a classic work on the art of war, Mes Rêveries, “declared with pleasure that he owed his first conceptions of the conduct of a commander-in-chief to Onasander” (Zur-Lauben, preface, ), no mere closet philologist, at all events, may deny the possibility that it may prove useful to the professional soldier. The little treatise is merely a plain tale simply told, and it is the better part of criticism to express appreciation of the work that is valuable and well done rather than to strain to find what is useless or inappropriate.
The style of Onasander is straightforward and not ill adapted to the subject matter. Although it is not so fluent and simple as that of Xenophon, whom he seems to have admired and followed,19 it nevertheless stands comparison with that of Polybius or Plutarch, but only an enthusiast like Zur-Lauben could speak of its “beauté majestueuse, élégance nerveuse, et clarté perçante.”
The influence of Onasander in antiquity was considerable. Most subsequent military writers are indebted to him, notably the so-called Mauricius and Leo, of whom the latter in a large measure paraphrases Onasander, turning him into “wretched Byzantine Greek.”20 In the Renaissance he enjoyed a remarkable popularity. Translations, beginning with that of Sagundinus in 1493, appeared in rapid succession in Latin, Spanish, German, French, Italian, and English, and such a demand, for these were no mere philological exercises, shows that many a practical soldier took to heart his counsel, and that much of it has passed thereby into the common body of military science. Towards the end of the next century the first Greek text appeared, a fairly good piece of scholarship, by Rigaltius, which held its place until Schwebel’s elaborate study, more than a century and a half later. Since that time Onasander has been known to few beside professional philologists, but it may be hoped that others outside the ramparts of scholarship may have their attention drawn to his work by the present unpretentious publication.
A few words seem to be necessary by way of explaining this edition. It would have been much easier to reprint Köchly’s text, but inasmuch as only one of the four old and really valuable MSS. of Onasander was adequately known (namely the Parisinus 2442), the great Laurentian MS. of the Tacticians had never been really collated, and the Vatican and the Neapolitan MSS. never examined at all, it would have been scarcely proper merely to reproduce an old and occasionally imperfect, though in the main most admirable, text. The apparatus aims to give all the MS. readings that have any critical value, or may throw light upon the tradition of the text, and all the valuable emendations of modern scholars, especially those of Köchly. Knowledge of the inferior MSS. and readings of earlier editors have been drawn generally from Köchly, whose work in this respect is most exact and thorough, although we have been able to use the work of Rigaltius from the edition of 1600 in a privately owned copy, as well as Schwebel’s edition of 1762, and that of Koraes, 1822, lent by the courtesy of the libraries of Harvard University and Princeton University respectively. Departures from Köchly’s text have generally been recorded except in matters of elision (where Köchly nearly always elided with or without MS. authority), and of movable nu (which Köchly added somewhat arbitrarily). In these points the best MS. authority (F, and frequently FGH) has been followed. Cases where FGH merely run preposition and substantive together have not been recorded, or where iota subscript (without indication of a different construction) has been omitted, or movable nu has been added or left off (except for F), or compound words written as two (unless such a usage is occasionally recognized), or obviously erroneous accents or breathings occur, or where GH have trivial misspellings. The punctuation of FGH has likewise not been recorded, although it has been duly regarded in constructing the text.
The bibliography, which is more complete perhaps than any to be found elsewhere, has been drawn up with especial care, and omits, we trust, no title of substantial value for the criticism of Onasander.
Editions
Nicolaus Rigaltius: Ὀνοσάνδρου Στρατηγικός. Onosandri Strategicus. Sive de imperatoris institutione. Accessit Οὐρβικίου Ἐπιτήδευμα. Paris, 1598 and 1599. This is the editio princeps.21 It was republished in 1600 at Heidelberg by the Commelin Press with the notes of Portus and Gruterus, and again in 1604 with the notes of Portus, with which edition the more elaborate observations of Gruterus, published separately in the same year, were sometimes bound. See below.
[Henricus Monantholius: Onosandri et Aristotelis Mechanica cum commentariis. Paris, 1599. Fabricius, Bib. Graeca, vol. IV.339, quotes this entry from a Leyden catalogue, but the title itself is absurd, and the entries in the catalogues of the Brit. Mus. and the Bibl. Nat. under the Monantholius edition of Aristotle do not mention Onasander. We have here probably a cataloguer’s error, due possibly to two different works being bound together. The Onasander was probably the edition of Rigaltius.]
Aemilius Portus and Janus Gruterus: Ὀνοσάνδρου Στρατηγικός. Accedit seorsim in eundem Onosandrum Jani Gruteri uberior commentarius. Item Aemilii Porti . . . breues . . . observationes. Ex Officina Commeliniana [Heidelberg], 1600; also the work of Rigaltius and Por
tus alone, ibidem, 1604. Gruterus’ notes were published also by the same firm in Varii discursus, sive prolixiores commentarii ad aliquot insigniora loca Taciti et Onosandri, Part I, 1604, and Part II, 1605.22 These observations of Gruterus seem to have been bound occasionally with the edition of Rigaltius, and also with the notes of Portus, but not always, since the latter combination alone was used by Schwebel (preface). On the somewhat complicated relations of these three works see Schwebel, loc. cit.; Fabricius, op. cit. 338; Haase: 1835, 98. The copy of the edition of 1600 owned by Mr. A. S. Pease, although its title-page professes to have Gruterus’ notes, does not contain them. The notae of Rigaltius are dated in both preface and colophon 1598.
Joannes à Chokier de Surlet: Onosandri Strategicus, sive de imperatoris institutione . . . , without place or date, but the preface is dated Rome, 1611. It contains the text and translation of Rigaltius. Its only value lies in the “political dissertations” added by Chokier. The Thesaurus (containing Onasander) was republished at Mainz, 1613 and 1619 (third ed.; Cat. Bibl. Nat.); Frankfurt, 1615; Liége, 1643; Köln, 1649, 1653, and 1687. The editions of Liége and Köln do not contain the Greek text (Cat. Bibl. Nat.)
Nicolaus Schwebelius: Onosandri Strategicus, sive de imperatoris institutione liber, etc., . . . notis perpetuis criticis emendatus. . . . Accedunt duo indices, etc. . . . Nürnberg 1762. This is commonly bound with the translation of Zur-Lauben, Paris, 1757.
A. Koraes (Korais, Corais, or Coray): Ὀνοσάνδρου Στρατηγικὸς καὶ Τυρταίου τὸ πρῶτον Ἐλεγεῖον, μετὰ τῆς Γαλλικῆς ἑκατέρου μεταφράσεως. Παρέργων Ἑλληνικῆς βιβλιοθήκης τόμος πέμπτος, Paris, 1822. The French translation is that of Zur-Lauben, which Koraes reproduces even when it is based upon readings different from those which he prints.
Arminius Koechly: Ὀνοσανδρουº Στρατηγικός. Onosandri de imperatoris officio liber. Leipzig, 1860. This is the most valuable edition of the text. It completely supplants the earlier editions, using all the critical materials previously collected, and adds new manuscript readings, especially from one of the oldest MSS., Paris. 2442.
Translations
Latin
Nicolaus Sagundinus: Onasander ad Q. Verānium de optimo imperatore eiusque officio per Nicolaum Sagundinum (sic),23 e Graeco in Latinum traductus. Rome, 1494.24 This publication was in the well-known and frequently reprinted Rei militaris scriptores, which included among others Vegetius, Frontinus, Modestus, and Aelian. Only the 1494 edition, however, contains Onasander. This translation of Onasander was reprinted at Paris, 1504 (colophon) or 1506 (preface); at Basel, 1541, 1558, and 1570.25
Joachimus Camerarius: Onosandri Graeci autoris de re militari commentarius in Latinum sermonem conversus . . . Nürnberg, 1595. This was an independent work made from a mutilated MS. It was published after the death of Camerarius by his sons. Max Jähns, Gesch. der Kriegswiss. 93, is certainly in error in speaking of this edition as containing also the Greek text.
Nicolaus Rigaltius. For his translation and reprints of it, see under Editions, Rigaltius, Portus, and Chokier. The Latin translation by itself was published at Helmstadt in 1619.26
Spanish
Al. de Palencia: Tratado de la perfeçion del triunfo militar. Printed about 1495, but without indication of place or date. The translation was composed in 1459.27
Iac. Dieg. Gracian de Aldarete: Onosandro Plátonicoº de las calidades y partes que ha de tener un excellente capitan general y de su officio y cargo. Barcelona, 1567.
German
Anon.: Onexanderº von den Kriegsshandlungen und Räthen der hocherfarn guten Hauptleut sampt iren Zugeordenten. Mainz, 1524 and 1532.28
A. H. Baumgärtner: Onasanders Unterricht eines Feldherrn, übersetzt und mit Anmerkungen erläutert; in Vollständige Sammlung aller Kriegschriftsteller der Griechen. Mannheim, 1777,29 and separately in 1786. This is said to be a poor piece of work, based on Schwebel’s text.
French
Jehan Charrier: L’art de la guerre composé par Nicolas Machiavelli; l’éstat aussi et charge d’un lieutenant géneral d’armée, par Onosander, ancien philosophe platonique . . ., Paris, 1546.30
Blaise de Vigenère: L’art militaire d’Onosender,º autheur grec, où il traicte de l’office et devoir d’un bon chef de guerre, etc., Paris, 1605. The translation seems to have been completed in 1593, but was not published until after the author’s death (Jähns, op. cit., 93). The commentary and essays were so extensive as to make the whole work extremely bulky.31 It by means of this translation that Prinz Moritz von Sachsen made his acquaintance with Onasander (Zur-Lauben, preface, 5).
Baron de Zur-Lauben: Le général d’armée, par Onosander. Ouvrage traduit du Grec, etc. Paris, 1754 and 1757. The reprint of 1757 is bound with Schwebel’s edition of 1762. Another edition appeared in vol. I of Zur-Lauben’s Bibliothèque militaire historique et politique, Cosmopolis [Paris], 1760. It was also reprinted by A. Koraes in his edition, Paris, 1822, q.v.
Charles Guischardt:32 Les institutions d’Onosandre pour servir à l’instruction d’un général. Traduites du Grec. In his Mémoires militaires sur les Grecs et les Romains, vol. II, 49-106. The Hague, 1757,33 and Lyon, 1760. This translation was reprinted by Liskenne and Sauvan; see below.
[A. Koraes: Paris, 1822. See Editions.]
F. C. Liskenne et J. B. B. Sauvan: Bibliothèque historique et militaire. In eight vols. Paris, 1835-46; and 1851 ff. The translation of Onasander, by Guischardt, is in vol. III, 405-35.
Italian
Fabio Cotta: Onosandro platonico dell’ ottimo capitano generale e del suo offizio. Tradotto di Greco in lingua volgare Italiana. Venezia, 1546 and 1548. This work was translated into English by Peter Whytehorne. It was republished by G. Daelli in Biblioteca rara, Milano, 1863, vol. IV.
English
Peter Whytehorne: Onosandro Platonico, of the generall captaine and of his office, translated out of Greke into Italyan by Fabio Cotta, a Romayne; and out of Italyan into Englysh by Peter Whytehorne. London, 1563.
Modern Greek
G. Apostolos Skalasteras: Bucharest, 1832. M. Konstantiniades (see next item) claims that this version was not made from the original Greek, but only from a translation.
Michael Konstantiniades: Ὀνησάνδρου Στρατηγικός, μεταφράσεις ἐκ τῆς ἀρχαίας εἰς τὴν καθ’ ἡμᾶς Ἑλληνικήν. Athens, 1897.
Criticism
Anon.: Acta litteraria, vol. I, part I, 22-8; Nova acta erudita, 1763, 201-11; ibid., 1768, 313-19. The last two articles are devoted to a critique of Schwebel’s edition. The first is not accessible to me.
H. Delbrück: Geschichte der Kriegskunst in Rahmen der politischen Geschichte. Berlin, 1921, vol. II, 200.
Christ-Schmid-Stählin: Griechische Literaturgeschichte, 6th ed., München, 1921, vol. II, 422.
Th. Crenius: De eruditione comparanda. Leyden, 1699, 470, 570 ff. Crenius seems to have added some observations of his own to the work of Naudaeus which he republished. See Schwebel, pref.
J. A. Fabricius: Bibliotheca Graeca. Leipzig, 1795, vol. IV, 336-40.
Fr. Haase: “Über die griechischen und lateinischen Kriegsschriftsteller,” Jahrb. für Philol., 1835, 14: 86-118.
De militarium scriptorum Graecorum et Latinorum omnium editione instituenda. Berlin, 1847.
M. Haupt: Varia (including a brief note on Onasander). Hermes, 1871, 5:175. Reprinted in Opuscula, 1876, vol. III, 518 f.
Max Jähns: Geschichte der Kriegswissenschaften, etc., München und Leipzig, 1889, vol. I, 5-10; 90-94.
Herman Köchly: Index lectionum in literarum universitate. Zürich, 1854. A discussion of MSS. of Onasander, principally Bern. 97 and Paris. 2522.
H. Köchly and W. Rüstow: Griechische Kriegsschriftsteller, Leipzig, 1855, vol. II, 1, 84 f.
K. K. Müller: “Ein griechisches Fragment über Kriegswesen,” in Festschrift für L. Urlichs, Würzburg, 1880, 106-38. On th
e Laurentian MS. of Onasander.
“Eine griechische Schrift über Seekrieg”, in Festgabe zur dritten Säcularfeier der Universität Würzburg, Würzburg, 1882. On the general classification of the MSS.
Gabr. Naudaeus: Syntagma de studio militari. Rome, 1637. Republished as Naudaei bibliographia militaris, Jena, 1683 and included in Thomas Crenius, De eruditione comparanda, Leyden, 1699.
G. Rathgeber: Article “Onosandros,” in Ersch and Grüber’s Encyklopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste, series III, vol. IV, 9-12.
H. von Rohden: “Quas rationes in hiatu vitando scriptor de sublimitate et Onesander secuti sint,” in Commentationes in honorem F. Bücheleri et H. Useneri . . . Bonn, 1873, 68-94.
Cl. Salmasius: De re militari Romanorum, Leyden, 1657. Republished in J. G. Graevius: Thesaurus antiquitatum Romanarum. For Onasander see vol. X, 1389.
Manuscripts
The MSS. of Onasander are much more numerous than those of the other Greek military writers, and thus testify to his abiding influence throughout antiquity, but only a few of them, and these mainly copies from existing codices, have ever been collated, and two of the very oldest seem not to have been used at all prior to this edition.34 As K. K. Müller has observed (Festgabe, etc.), the MS. tradition of Greek military authors falls into three main groups, the first of which is composed of the Florentinus LV. 4, s. X, and its descendants (especially A and B, see below); the second, of the Parisinus 2442, s. XI, the Vaticanus Graecus 1104, s. XI, and the Neapolitanus III C 26, s. XI, and their descendants (e.g., M and Vat. 2201 are direct copies of the Vaticanus) or closely related MSS.; the third, of the Ambrosianus 139 (old no. B 119), s. X (or XI according to an older dating).