Constantinople: The Child of Rome's Empire, Venice, Italy, 1725 Wrote:In the aftermath of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the Byzantine Roman Empire had inherited the full formalized legal and political structure of the old Roman Empire itself, without needing to reinvent it. This structure gave it the internal cohesion it needed to maintain its political and military strength. As part of that political strength, the Empire was noted for playing its various rivals and neighbors off against one another in order to keep threats at bay.
One of the core aspects of Byzantine military policy was their use of diplomacy and foreign influence in the furtherance of military strategy.  They maintained active ambassadors with every neighboring state and many that were further away, and did not hesitate to meddle in the internal affairs of other states. 
This made the Byzantine Bureau of Barbarians (Greek: Skrinion tōn Barbarōn) an office of considerable influence and importance in the intricate bureaucratic and political structures of the Byzantine government, and it did its job masterfully.  Suspected of having been the espionage office of the Empire by modern scholars, it was, officially, a protocol office for dealing with the ways of foreigners.  However, the office also maintained lists of rivals to foreign thrones, and would happily supply those individuals with money and support if it looked as if the current throne-holder might become a threat, or possibly merely uncooperative. 
The Empire also made use of a similar tactic on a larger scale—supporting rival states if their neighbors threatened the Empire.  If the Rus' threatened war, then the Pechenegs could be subsidized.  If the Bulgarians grew restive, then the Rus' could be contacted and favors called in.  A noted exemplar of such divide-and-conquer tactics was Emperor Heraclius, who once intercepted a note from the Persian king ordering the execution of a general and his staff.  The emperor added 400 names to the execution list and sent the note on its way, and watched as the Persian empire fought itself to put down the rebellion that ensued. 
Another example of such manipulation occurred when it came to light that Sigurd Trondsson (see Chapter 21: The Dragon Riders) was actually Snotlout clan Jorgenson, effectively next in line to inherit the chiefdom of Berk after Hiccup clan Haddock and his issue.  The Bureau…

BHSdesk Wrote:Showdown in Uminari.

Blake Skies Wrote:AND I'M BACK! With probably the shortest chapter I've got so far.

Once again, we turn to an undated draft of The Wing And The Ax, courtesy of the Waterford University Archives, in which Queen Marshal Astrid Haddock I Wrote:There are two great dangers with using dragons for military purposes—overuse and underuse, and frequently they mirror each other.  As with any fighting resource, the temptation to concentrate everything you have into a single hammerblow will always be there.  And it is worse with the use of dragons, due to their high mobility.  One can easily rationalize to oneself that the utility of keeping a mass formation of dragons that can rapidly deploy outweighs the risks of raids and other high-speed attacks.  But the mere fact that dragons are fast doesn't mean that they can fly across Midgard in a day.  Time is still needed to get any army moving, and that is still the case for flocks of dragons, regardless of how well-trained or well-drilled they are—and that still allows for a window which someone alert and ready to attack can use to their own advantage.