Судан и Большой Ближний Восток

357 Dimitrios G. Letsios. Leo VI the Wise and the Saracens... warfare as whole, was not composed as re-elaboration or rephrasing as other constitutions of the compendium. In addition, it seems that Leo’s recommendations on sea engagement were composed at the final stage of composing the Taktika collection, possibly around 907. 1 The material collected and conveyed in this chapter puts together information aboutmany generalmilitary issues, such as communication, weather forecast, food and water supplies, training, military moral etc. Out of it, a good part is dealing with war and transport ships; horses’ transport being an important means for the confrontation. The dromon , a termused with reference to some Romano-Byzantine war galleys, its construction, the crew, its training and other aspects of its role in naval warfare are treated. 2 Leo considers the size of the ships decisive for a naval engagement. After commenting on various naval engagement formations, he concludes the presentation with a comparison between Saracens and Scythians and he addresses the following advice to the naval commander: “Get large and small dromons ready that match the kind used by hostile ethnic forces. For the fleet of ships of the barbarian Saracens is not the same as that of those called Northern Scythians. For the Saracens make use of larger and slower <ships called> koumbaria , whereas the Scythians use ships that are smaller, lighter, and faster. Because they come into the Euxine Sea from rivers, they cannot use larger vessels”. 3 The crew and its armament is decisive concerning war tactics; with reference to the Saracens, Leo advised: “The Saracens bear up under the force of a barrage and when they see that their opponents are getting weary and running out of weapons, whether arrows, stones, or other 1 Dimitroukas, Ναυμαχικά , 30. 2 D. G. Letsios, Νόμος Ῥοδίων Ναυτικός. Das Seegesetz der Rhodier (Institut der Ägäis für das See- und Schiffahrtsrecht, Veröffentlichungen zum Schiffahrtsrecht 1), Rhodos 1966, 103f.; Pryor — Jeffreys, The Age of the ΔΡΟΜΩΝ , 175ff. 3 Taktika 19, 77, 425–430 (p. 532f.). Dimitroukas, Ναυμαχικά , 269f.; Koumbaria is from the Arabic, christides, Two Parallel Naval Guides (1982), 62, 97; Pryor — Jeffreys, The Age of the ΔΡΟΜΩΝ , 513, n. 61. Northern Scythians, in this case, designate the people known as Rhos who sailed down the Dnieper to the Black Sea in small ships. Cf. Dennis, Leonis VI Taktika , 533, n . 16.