Onasander
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Onasander or Onosander ( Onesandros or Ὀνόσανδρος Onosandros; fl. 1st century AD) was a Greek philosopher. He was the author of a commentary on the Republic of Plato, which is lost; as well as of the Strategikos ( ) - a short but comprehensive work on the duties of a general, which was dedicated to Quintus Veranius. The Strategikos was the main source used for the military writings of emperors Maurice and Leo VI, as well as of Maurice of Saxony, who consulted it in a French translation and expressed a high opinion of it.
Onasander or Onosander ( Onesandros or Ὀνόσανδρος Onosandros; fl. 1st century AD) was a Greek philosopher. He was the author of a commentary on the Republic of Plato, which is lost; as well as of the Strategikos ( ) - a short but comprehensive work on the duties of a general, which was dedicated to Quintus Veranius. The Strategikos was the main source used for the military writings of emperors Maurice and Leo VI, as well as of Maurice of Saxony, who consulted it in a French translation and expressed a high opinion of it.
Legacy
According to Oldfather, the influence of Onasander in antiquity was considerable. Most subsequent military writers are indebted to him, notably Maurice and Leo VI, of whom the latter in a large measure paraphrases Onasander. In the Renaissance he enjoyed a remarkable popularity. Translations, beginning with the Latin translation by Niccolò Sagundino in 1493, appeared in rapid succession in 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 edition of the Greek text, by Rigaltius, appeared.
Editions and translations
Further reading
Alphonse Dain, Les manuscrits d’Onésandros (Paris 1930) Marco Formisano, "The Strategikós of Onasander: Taking Military Texts Seriously", Technai 2 (2011) 39–52 Philip Rance,"The Ideal of the Roman General in Byzantium: the Reception of Onasander's Strategikos in Byzantine Military Literature", in: S. Tougher and R. Evans (eds.), Generalship in Ancient Greece, Rome and Byzantium (Edinburgh 2022) 242-263 Christopher J. Smith, "Onasander on How to Be a General", in: M. Austin, J.D. Harries and C.J. Smith (eds), Modus Operandi: Essays in Honour of Geoffrey Rickman (London 1998) 151–166
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