A poliorceticon is any member of the genre of Byzantine

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

 literature dealing with manuals on siege warfare, which is formally known as poliorcetics. As with much Byzantine literature, the poliorcetica tend to be compendia of earlier guides illustrated with Biblical and Classical anecdotes. The extent to which they might be up-to-date or representative of actual experiences in the field is sometimes questionable and greatly depends upon the author.

Composed as they were during the era immediately antecedent to the arrival of heavy artillery, the poliorcetica tend to focus less upon large machines and more upon techniques for bringing men close to fortifications, as well as on ways of undermining these once attacking forces are positioned. These Byzantine manuals also tend to give a good amount of advice on psychological tricks to employ on those being besieged, either to encourage betrayal or merely to create an air of dissension harmful to successful and prolonged defense. They also cover means of avoiding one's own betrayal when invested

Investment (military)

Investment is the military tactic of surrounding an enemy fort with armed forces to prevent entry or escape.A circumvallation is a line of fortifications, built by the attackers around the besieged fortification facing towards the enemy fort...

 by a siege.

Two examples of the genre are:

• Parangelmata Poliorcetica (Παραγγέλματα πολιορκητικά) of Hero of Byzantium
  Hero of Byzantium
  Hero of Byzantium is believed to be the literary pseudonym of an otherwise anonymous Byzantine author of a poliorketikon, an illustrated manual of siegecraft, dating from circa 950. He is also credited with the Geodaesia, a work in practical geometry and ballistics which makes use of locations...
  
  
• De obsidione toleranda ("On Withstanding Sieges"), anonymous

Although not technically poliorcetica, other Byzantine military texts such as Kekaumenos

Kekaumenos

Kekaumenos is the family name of the otherwise anonymous Byzantine author of the Strategikon, a manual on military and household affairs composed c. 1078. He was apparently of Graeco-Armenian origin and the grandson of the doux of Hellas...

's Strategikon

Strategikon of Kekaumenos

The Strategikon of Kekaumenos is a late 11th century Byzantine manual offering advice on warfare and the handling of public and domestic affairs.The book was composed between 1075 and 1078 by its author, a Byzantine general of partly Armenian descent...

and Nikephoros Ouranos

Nikephoros Ouranos

Nikephoros Ouranos was a high-ranking Byzantine official and general during the reign of Emperor Basil II. One of the emperor's closest associates, he was active in Europe in the wars against the Bulgarians, scoring a major victory at Spercheios, and against the Arabs in Syria, where he held...

's Taktika often include sections or chapters dealing with siege operations. Sources which were composed by soldiers or generals themselves are naturally the most invaluable of these for reconstructing actual procedures in the field.

External links

• Original texts, commentary & translations of Hero of Byzantium's Parangelmata Poliorcetica & Geodesia from Dumbarton Oaks
  Dumbarton Oaks
  Dumbarton Oaks is the conventional name for the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, situated on a historic property in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The institution is administered by the Trustees for Harvard University. Its founders, Robert Woods Bliss and his wife...
  
  .

Sources

• "Byzantine Siege Warfare in Theory and Practice" by Eric McGeer from The Medieval City under Siege