Fear – Elements of Slavic „Psychological Warfare” in the Context of Selected Late Roman Sources

Abstract

The author of the article, using contemporary interdisciplinary methods of study (including those from the field of social psychology), sets out to explain the mechanisms of fear employed by Slavs against the Roman army. The study covered 6th century historical sources depicting the fighting methods of the Slavs. A more in-depth analysis focused on the issue of fear in relation to group conformism, described in detail in Strategikon (the essential Later Roman military treatise).