Contents
The book content, according to its preface, is divided into four sections: i) a key to the foreign policy in the most dangerous and complicated area of the contemporary political scene, the area of northerners and Scythians, ii) a lesson in the diplomacy to be pursued in dealing with the nations of the same area, iii) a comprehensive geographic and historical survey of most of the surrounding nations and iv) a summary of the recent internal history, politics and organization of the Empire. As to the historical and geographic information, which is often confusing and filled with legends, this information is in essence reliable.
The historical and antiquarian treatise, which the Emperor had compiled during the 940's, is contained in the chapters 12-40. This treatise contains traditional and legendary stories of how the territories surrounding the Empire came in the past to be occupied by the people living in them in the Emperor's times (Saracens, Lombards, Venetians, Slavs, Magyars, Pechenegs). Chapters 1-8, 10-12 explain imperial policy toward the Pechenegs and Turks. Chapter 13 is a general directive on foreign policy coming from the Emperor. Chapters 43-46 are about contemporary policy in the north-east (Armenia and Georgia). The guides to the incorporation and taxation of new imperial provinces, and to some parts of civil and naval administration, are in chapters 49-52. These later chapters (and chapter 53) were designed to give practical instructions to the emperor Romanus II, and are probably added during the year 951-952, in order to mark Romanus' fourteen birthday (952).
Read more about this topic: De Administrando Imperio
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