Aeneas Tacticus

Aeneas Tacticus (Αἰνείας ὁ Τακτικός; fl. 4th century BC) was one of the earliest Greek writers on the art of war and is credited as the first author to provide a complete guide to securing military communications. Polybius described his design for a hydraulic semaphore system.

According to Aelianus Tacticus and Polybius, he wrote a number of treatises (Ὑπομνήματα) on the subject. The only extant one, How to Survive under Siege (Περὶ τοῦ πῶς χρὴ πολιορκουμένους ἀντέχειν, Perì toû pôs chrḕ poliorkouménous antéchein), deals with the best methods of defending a fortified city. An epitome of the whole was made by Cineas, minister of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus. The work is chiefly valuable as containing a large number of historical illustrations.

Aeneas was considered by Isaac Casaubon to have been a contemporary of Xenophon and identical with the Arcadian general Aeneas of Stymphalus, whom Xenophon (Hellenica, vii.3) mentions as fighting at the Battle of Mantinea (362 BC).