Michael Baizerman Author

 The new trend is taking shape. The material is so vast that the title, "The Intricacies of Naval Warfare," will cover the entire book unit instead of individual chapters. The content will spread via the sixth-fourteenth centuries and include the main battles viewed through their strategy and tactics. As an epithet, I chose the following extract from Thucydides:  “Sea power is a matter of skill; it is not possible to get practice in the odd moment when the chance occurs, but it is a full-time occupation leaving no moment for other things.” I had another look at Chapter 1, Naval Factories, and made minor corrections to this solid piece describing how shipyards looked like, which facilities they encompassed, and which workers they engaged.  Chapter 2, The Battle of Ad Decimum (September 13, 533), is a land battle that pitted the Byzantine army commanded by General Belisarius against the Vandal army headed by King Gelimer. I stopped on this episode as it required the fleet's...

  A restored section of the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Constantinople_(717%E2%80%93718)   I have completed a draft of the first section of a new chapter about the Second Siege of Constantinople, a joint land and naval operation supervised by  Maslama al-Malik, the caliph's brother and an adept general.    Emperor Leo Isaurian did not have a robust fleet to prevent the Arab navy from plying through the Turkish Straits as far as the walls of Constantinople. However, Byzantine engineers equipped their  dromons  with the Greek Fire, the secret weapon whose emotional impact rose over its destructive force. Its initial use pressured the Arab ship to take distance from the walls.   It is unfair to ascribe Byzantine success only to this powerful weapon. The Greeks demonstrated  better tactics and managed to combine their limited means to wade off the aggressor.  It became clear that...