As no military regulations have been preserved until today, including Roman commands from the period of the republic or empire, most of the commands are adapted from “Strategikon”. Scientists suspect that the author of the work is the Byzantine emperor himself – Maurice – and this is the most popular view. Some, however, think that the real creator may be his brother Peter or other member of the Byzantine military staff.

“Strategikon” was written in simple Greek in the late sixth century CE. The work sums up the military reforms implemented by the Emperor Maurice. XII books describe various aspects of the tactics of the Byzantine army of the 6th century CE: cavalry, infantry, sieges, supplies, marches, etc. The author certainly knew the work of Aelianus Tacitus (II century CE) – “On Tactical Arrays of the Greeks” or Onasander’s “Strategikos” (I century CE). After being translated into Latin, it is the oldest known Latin military regulation.

Below are gathered military commands in Latin – collected from “Strategikon”. Some of those commands certainly date back to Roman legions and were then in use. The Byzantine army relied heavily on Roman models – it was not so different in regards to military terminology and commands. Therefore, we can confidently consider them in the case of the Romans.

Military commands