Did a much earlier Manual like thStrategikon exist

[Mark Graef]

The Strategikon came latter 6th century? but what did 1st Century through the 5th Century Roman Military Leaders
have for a military Manual? Where can I get a copy to read? Was it all rote memorization for Roman leaders or did they go by a manual for training and strategy?

There is an important difference between the Strategikon and earlier military texts which is crucial for understanding Roman strategy and tactics in the late Republic – early Imperial period.

The Strategikon has been called the first modern military manual, i.e. a practical treatise published by a government for the purpose of instructing its military personnel. As far as we know there was not an earlier official compendium of practical, explanatory texts under one title on every subject a general should be aware (and hence junior officers) including: discipline and morale, cavalry formations and tactics, laying ambushes, placement of baggage trains, intelligence and spies, conducting sieges, ethnographic information, laying out camps, and infantry tactics.

The military treatises recommended earlier in this thread (Onasander's Strategikos, Frontinus' Stratagamata, Polyaneus, the Taktika of Asclepiodotus, Aelian, and Arrian, and Arrian's Ectaxis contra Alanos) together between them cover many of the subjects listed above, some in greater technical detail, but none of these are really manuals. A good explanation of how these works could have been used as practical handbooks can be found in the paper "Teach Yourself How to Be a General" by Brian Campbell (The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 77, 1987, pp. 13-29). This is available through jstor.org, although if you don't have an academic account with them you can go to a university library to print off a copy. There was also an excellent series of feature articles under the heading "Be a General" by Murray Dahm that appeared in the first three volumes of Ancient Warfare magazine which dealt with the practical use of the aforementioned works.

To understand ancient military practice, Geoffrey, I think Polybius' three methods are as valid for us today as they were when they were written:

"There are three methods followed by those who wish to arrive at an intelligent knowledge of tactics. The first is by the study of history, the second by the use of scientific treatises composed by specialists, the third by actual experience on the field."

(11.8)

Fortunately we can read some of the very same historical accounts and treatises that Roman military leaders did in the 1st and 2nd centuries, and teach ourselves the same way. For actual experience, we can't recreate real warfare, but it is possible to experience period tactics and training in a field environment through certain reenactment organizations — which I myself have found very useful to better understand ancient military texts, as well as providing ideas for further research.