Libellus de vocabulis rei militaris
[3] In 1580, François Modius [fr] identified one sentence in the entire work not derived from Vegetius.
Stewech's argument was based on the Libellus' dedication to Tacitus (275–276), who reigned a century before Vegetius' dedicatee, Gratian (376–383).
[9] This ascription is false, but it is not known if the work was originally a forgery written in Cicero's name or if it merely came to be ascribed to him by mistake.
In one of his Familiar Letters dated 1345, Petrarch refers to a lost work of Cicero on rei militaris.
This may be a result of textual corruption of the name Cicero or another piece of educated guesswork based on Vegetius' citation of the work of Cato.
These views are untenable, having been disproved by Lorenzo Dalmasso in 1907, citing manuscripts of the Libellus that are older than Leto.
It is possible that the attribution to Modestus originated with Leto or his followers, either as pure invention or educated guess.
[19] In favour of this hypothesis is the fact that two other 9th-century writers are known to have excerpted Vegetius, Sedulius Scotus and Hrabanus Maurus.
He argues that the Libellus was compiled from a 9th-century manuscript of Vegetius copied at Corbie Abbey in the time of Hadoard (fl. c. 850).
The one who added the brackets appears to also have made a correction that was included in the 12th-century manuscript Montpellier, Bibliothèque interuniversitaire section médecine, H 133.
Besides the Escorial, they are found in libraries in Cambridge, Florence, Glasgow, Leiden, London, Lucca, Milan, Modena, Naples, Paris, Pavia, Pesaro, Prague, Stockholm, Târgu Mureș, Turin, Vaduz and the Vatican City.
[24] The late and decidedly Italian manuscript tradition may relate to the Libellus' emphasis on Vegetius' neglected second book, which was seeing renewed attention in 14th-century Italy.
[3] There is an Italian translation, Delle ordinanze de' Romani, known from a single manuscript copy from the 17th or 18th century, now London, British Library, Add.
Under the title De disciplina militari and ascribed to Cicero, it was printed with his other philosophical works by Wendelin of Speyer at Venice in 1471.
It was printed again at Venice in 1474 under the title De re militari, dedicated to Theodosius and ascribed to Modestus.
It appears together with the works of Vegetius and Frontinus in Turin, Biblioteca Reale, Saluzzo 3; Leiden, Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit, Voss.
