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:
  • Part 1 survives incomplete, as its beginning has been lost. It concerns the duties and services due to a superior lord.
  • Part 2 is the Strategikon proper, and contains advice to a general.
  • Part 3 contains advice on domestic matters, the rearing of children, management of the house and the family and social relations.
  • Part 4 contains advice on the proper course of action in the event of a revolt against the Emperor.
  • Part 5 contains the admonitions to the Emperor on the governance and defence of the state.
  • Part 6 contains advice to the autonomous local ruler on his dealings with the Emperor.
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.

Editions, Translations, and Commentaries

  • Maria Dora Spadaro, ed. and transl., Kekaumenos. . Alessandria 1998.
  • Dimitris Tsougarakis, ed., comm., and transl. Κεκαυμένου Στρατηγικόν. Athens 1993 .
  • Paolo Odorico, Kekaumenos. Conseils et récits d'un gentilhomme byzantin, Toulouse, Anacharsis, 2015.
  • Hans-Georg Beck, Vademecum des Byzantinischen Aristokraten, Graz/Vienna/Cologne, Verlag Styria, 1956