Page:Frontinus - The stratagems, and, the aqueducts of Rome (Bennet et al 1925).djvu/183

 STRATAGEMS, II. v. 6-10

<a plain near a marsh, covered the marsh with sea- weed, and then, when the battle began, feigning Hight, drew the enemy into a trap ; for the latter, while advancing too swiftly over the unfamiliar ground, were caught in the mire and surrounded.

Viriathus, who from being a bandit became leader of the Celtiberians, on one occasion, while pretend- ing to give way before the Roman cavalry, led them on to a place full of deep holes. There, while he himself made his way out by familiar paths that afforded good footing, the Romans, ignorant of the locality, sank in the mire and were slain. ^

Fulvius, commander in the Cimbrian war, having pitched his camp near the enemy, ordered his cavalry to approach the fortifications of the bar- barians and to withdraw in pretended flight, after making an attack. When he had done this for several days, with the Cimbrians in hot pursuit, he noticed that their camp was regularly left exposed. Accordingly, maintaining his usual practice with part of his force, he himself, with light-armed troops, secretly took a position behind the camp of the enemy, and as they poured forth according to their custom, he suddenly attacked and demolished the unguarded rampart and captured their camp.^

Gnaeus Fulvius, when a force of Faliscans far superior to ours had encamped on our territory, had his soldiers set fire to certain buildings at a distance from the camp, in order that the Faliscans, thinking their own men had done this, might scatter in hope of jilunder.

Alexander, the Epirote, when waging war against the Illyrians, first placed a force in ambush, and then dressed up some of his own men in Illyrian gaib,

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