The courage of a soldier is heightened by his knowledge of his profession.

Despite Eutropius' location in Constantinople the scholarly consensus is that Vegetius wrote in the Western Empire. Nothing is known of his life or station beyond what he tells us in his two surviving works: Epitoma rei militaris (also referred to as De Re Militari) and the lesser-known Digesta Artis Mulomedicinae a guide to veterinary medicine.