The Strategikon or Strategicon (Greek: Στρατηγικόν) is a manual of war regarded as written in late antiquity (6th century) and generally attributed to the Byzantine Emperor Maurice.
The author was familiar with antique Hellenistic military treatises, especially Onasander and Aelian, which he utilized as conceptional models rather than sources of content.
These maps are mainly sketches and drawings to show essential symbols of troop positions and highlight the standard designs of formation and manoeuvre of the Byzantine military of the epoch.
The eleventh book is of interest for ethnographers as it portrays various enemies of the Byzantine Empire, such as the Franks, the Lombards, the Avars, the Turks and the Slavs.
[7][8] This book contains a great deal of detail on the origin of the Byzantine Military, and specific information of selections, organization, crimes, and punishment.
[9] Baggage trains should be regarded with utmost care as they contain the ingredients to make a forward operating base function, including servants and children.
The defense force should select known and capable men to form a communication chain from the baggage train encampment to the front line.
In a separate chapter of Book XI, the author presents everything useful, needed and important from a military point of view about the life of specific enemies.
Military historians consider the Strategikon to be the earliest sophisticated theory of combined arms at battalion level (Greek: Tagma).
However, historians still question and debate the validity of these sources due to the tradition of copying from ancient Greek and Roman authors, such as Aeneas Tacticus, Arrian or Polybius in Byzantine treatises like the Strategikon, the Tactica, the Sylloge Taktikon, the Praecepta Militaria and others.