"In this book, the distinguished writer Edward Luttwak presents the grand strategy of the eastern Roman empire we know as Byzantine, which lasted more than twice as long as the more familiar western Roman empire, eight hundred years by the shortest definition. This extraordinary endurance is all the more remarkable because the Byzantine empire was favored neither by geography nor by military preponderance. This book is a broad, interpretive account of Byzantine strategy, intelligence, and diplomacy over the course of eight centuries that will appeal to scholars, classicists, military history buffs, and professional soldiers." -- $c (Source of summary not specified) Publisher.

Includes maps of: Division of the Empire after the Death of Theodosius I in 395; Great Eurasian Steppe; Defenses of Constantinople; Empire ar the Accession and Death of Justinian, 527-565; Empire in 1025 at the Death of Basil II; Muslim Offensives, 662-740; Empire in 668, after the Slav, Lombard, and Muslim Invasions; Empire in 780, after the Muslim Conquests and the Bulghar Settlement; Empire in 1081 at the Accession of Alexios I Komnenos; Empire in 1143 at the Death of John II Domnenos; Empire at the Death of Michael VIII Palaiologos in 1282; Sasanian Empire, ca. 226-ca. 651; Empire in 565, 1025, and 1360. Chief of Staff's Professional Reading List

pt. 1. The invention of Byzantine strategy -- Attila and the crisis of empire -- The emergence of the new strategy -- pt. 2. Byzantine diplomacy : the myth and the methods -- Envoys -- Religion and statecraft -- The uses of imperial prestige -- Dynastic marriages -- The geography of power -- Bulghars and Bulgarians -- The Muslim Arabs and Turks -- pt. 3. The Byzantine art of war -- The classical inheritance -- The strategikon of Maurikios -- After the strategikon -- Leo VI and naval warfare -- The tenth-century military renaissance -- Strategic maneuver : Herakleios defeats Persia -- Conclusion: Grand strategy and the Byzantine "operational code" -- Appendix: Was strategy feasible in Byzantine times? -- Emperors from Constantine I to Constantine XI -- Glossary.