Судан и Большой Ближний Восток

362 IV. Ближний Восток и его соседи To conclude these remarks on Leo’s Tactica, we could use Haldon’s summary assessment: “the treatise was indented to serve as both a corrective and a reminder of earlier ‘good practice,’ as well as a statement of imperial authority and power” and “the Taktika … is perhaps one of the best-known and least understood text of its type”. 1 T. Nakada, in evaluating Leo’s Taktika , underlines an interesting point, the fact that, in certain cases, the Emperor’s remarks ‘describe manoeuvres against raiding Arabs on the eastern frontier, which depict autonomous regional defence undertaken by local forces’; in the author’s view, this indicates that Leo VI ‘ratified the existing form of flexible response by local forces led by potentates, established over a long period of time’; this fact is interpreted as an indication that Leo recognized, that ‘it was both effective and indispensable to delegate power to these potentates in order to resist the incessant Arab razzias, despite the possible centrifugal effects on political andmilitary power’. 2 Indeed, traditional forms of armies’ deployment, guerilla strategies and similar tactics did exist before Leo’s reign and it’s true, as well, that transmitting ancient wisdom could indicate imperial authority in the Byzantine world. 3 However, contemporary material in Leo’s Taktika , if it is included in restricted extent, could be extremely valuable. Selected Bibliography 1. Antonopoulou Th. Emperor Leo VI the wise and the “first Byzantine humanism”: on the quest of renovation and cultural synthesis // TM 21/2 (2017). P. 187–233. 2. Bourdara K. A. LeModèle du bon souverain l’époque de Léon VI le sage et la vie de sainte Euphrosynè // Εὐψυχία — Mélanges offerts Hélene 1 Haldon, A Critical Commentary , 3. 2 K. Nakada, “The Taktika of Leo VI and the Byzantine eastern frontier during the ninth and tenth centuries”, Spricilegium , Online Journal of Japan Society for Medieval European Studies 1(2017), 17–27, esp. 26. 3 C. Holmes, “Byzantine Political Culture and Compilation Literature in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries: Some Preliminary Inquiries”, DOP 64(2010), 55–80; D. F. Sullivan, “ByzantineMilitaryManuals: Prescriptions, Practice and Paedagogy,” in Byzantine World , ed. P. Stephenson, New York 2010, p. 149–161.