By Rebecca Militello

On Thursday night Bryn Mawr welcomed Dr. Edward Luttwack, a military historian and strategist, to campus.

In addition to teaching, Luttwack has written numerous books including, "Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace" (1987, rev. ed. 2002), and "Coup d’etat: A Practical Handbook" (1968; rev. ed. 1979). His newest book, "The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire," was the main focus of Thursday night’s lecture, “Attila the Hun and Roman Strategy: A Comparison between the Earlier Romans and the East Empire."

Luttwack was extremely enthusiastic about his opportunity to speak at Bryn Mawr.

“I would much rather talk to a group of students and teachers than a bunch of bureaucrats,” he said.

Luttwak spoke about the key to survival for the Byzantines and the East Roman state. According to Luttwack, the key to their survival was the triple identity of the Byzantines’ Christian faith, Greek background, and strong Roman influence.

When speaking about strategy, Luttwack emphasized the importance of persuasion. If the Roman state, or any group of people, were to have three attackers they often convinced those attackers to turn on one another. The Byzantines were very strategic in that they knew better than to wear out their own forces, and more often than not their best techniques involved withdrawing from battle, or fighting, but not destroying the enemy.

Today’s enemy will be your ally tomorrow,” said Luttwack.

The Huns were also very strategic in that they knew how to outsmart their attackers. Roman soldiers never expected the Huns to be as much of a threat as they turned out to be. Huns rode on small horses, wore little to no armor, and carried small bows that did not seem as though they could do any damage at all.

Yet Huns proved that looks could be deceiving, for when the Romans held out their shields the Huns arrows proved to be stronger. On many occasions before continuing to battle, the Huns would take off and have the Romans chase after them.

Because the Huns did not have any armor they were not weighed down and could travel farther and faster. The Romans, on the other hand, would be tired from chasing and when both groups finally stopped their horses, the Huns had much more energy to fight, and win.

Luttwack has become an extremely influential writer and speaker, and his books have become the topic of many classroom discussions and conversations among historians. He has been writing about war strategies for years, and has received both admiration and criticism for them.

As for Luttwack himself, he’s confident about the accuracy of his work.

When it comes to the Byzantines, he said he doesn’t even have to infer what their strategy was:

“[They] wrote it out,” he said.

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