Aeneas Tacticus is the ancient Greek author of the oldest surviving military manual on siege defense, and the title “How to Survive under Siege” comes from a later Latin label added by its first editor, Isaac Casaubon, in 1609. The work itself is about defending a city under attack, not a modern “survival guide,” and it focuses on guards, signals, morale, securing gates, and resisting treachery.

How it was identified

Aeneas is known from references in ancient sources and from the text itself, which survived as a fragmentary but influential treatise on siege warfare. Modern scholars identify him as a fourth-century BCE Peloponnesian who likely wrote from direct military experience in the Aegean and Asia Minor.

What the book covers

The treatise lays out practical defenses such as organizing troops, securing the city, using sentries and signals, preventing fires and mines, and countering enemy tricks. It also includes concrete examples of siege tactics, like blocking entrances with rubble and using traps near gates.

Why the title sounds modern

The English phrase “How to Survive under Siege” is a translation-style title for a classical text that was originally circulated under different editorial labels. Casaubon’s Latin title, Commentarius de toleranda obsidione , helped frame it as a manual on enduring a siege.

Bottom line

So, if you are asking “how did we find it?”, the short answer is: through the manuscript tradition, later classical editing, and modern scholarship on ancient military texts. If you want, I can also give you a plain-English summary of Aeneas Tacticus’s siege tips.