Lieutenant John Clarke's On Roman Military Matters

On Roman Military Matters was written, according to Lieutenant John Clarke’s translation, in the fifth century by Flavius Vegetius Renatus, better known only as Vegetius. Vegetius wrote to abridge earlier military treatises on the training, organization, and use of the Roman Legions for Emperor Valentinian III and appears to hope that his writings would help to enact changes in the legions that would ultimately lead them to success against the invading Germanic tribes. The abridgments were written for Valentinian’s convenience, so that the emperor would not need to look through older works in order to look for insights on training and utilizing his army.
There is a debate over whether or not Vegetius was writing to Emperor Valentinian III. Lieutenant John Clarke's translation suggests that Vegetius wrote for Valentinian but scholars, like T.D. Barnes argue for a fourth century date under Emperor Theodosius I based on manuscripts of the text and language describing the emperor and barbarian forces. This debate has an important impact on the context of Vegetius' writings. If Vegetius' writings fall under Emperor Theodosius I, the Roman Empire had not faced its final split between the East and the West. Thus, the territory to be defended would have been larger. Under Valentinian III the empire was divided, the city of Constantinople held power in the …show more content…
Specifically, Vegetius never describes exactly what the legion is doing wrong. Certainly, he laments the lack of discipline throughout the army but he does not describe they ways tactics may have been misused or how often the legions encountered significant organizational problems. Without knowing more about how the Roman Legions were behaving in battle, it is impossible to tell from the text alone which areas of the book were intended to reinstruct the generals and military leadership in the old