Guest flextone Posted April 3, 2006 Report Share Posted April 3, 2006 I just finished reading "the grand strategy of the roman empire" by e.luttwak, and wanted to hear your opinions abiut it. it`s a good book but i can`t agree with the claim that the romans had such strategic understanding. you can really sense that luttwak is a political-scienteist and not an historian, theres no references to latin or greek sources at all. what do you guys think? flextone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sextus Tempanius Posted April 3, 2006 Report Share Posted April 3, 2006 I just finished reading "the grand strategy of the roman empire" by e.luttwak, and wanted to hear your opinions abiut it. it`s a good book but i can`t agree with the claim that the romans had such strategic understanding. you can really sense that luttwak is a political-scienteist and not an historian, theres no references to latin or greek sources at all.what do you guys think? flextone I started reading it but have not finished it yet. I think that it was great book that tried to derrive parralles from the Roman Empire to teh modern United States and in that sense i can see your point about poli-sci. I dont there ever was a primary source on the national aims and management techniques of the empire. I think that the system developed out of events and was circumstance driven. One of the things that i did find very interesting was the discusion on client states and how they were intergral to the defense of the empire. That total roman domination of the region was not always the best solution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Furius Venator Posted April 3, 2006 Report Share Posted April 3, 2006 It's years since I read it and I can't find my copy at the moment. My recollection is that it divided the empire into distinct phases of strategic policy, a rather flawed concept as each emperor would have his own ideas, and might change their minds from time to time... I tend to agree with Flextone, I doubt that the Romans saw strategy as anything particularly long term but took opportunities and adjusted to setbacks as they came along. That said, books like this are really good because if you don't agree with the central thrust they do make you think about why it is you don't agree. Political scientists are the bane of my life (or at least one of the banes) so maybe I'm biased. Mybe I'll dig out my copy and re-read it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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