Page:Frontinus - The stratagems, and, the aqueducts of Rome (Bennet et al 1925).djvu/187

 STRATAGEMS, II. v. 13-17

the scarcity of firewood, was raw and indigestible. Hannibal, returning by night with his army, finding them oft tiieir guard and gorged with raw meat, inflicted great loss upon them.

Tiberius Gracchus, when in Spain, upon learning that the enemy were suffering from lack of pro- visions, provided his camp with an elaborate supply of eatables of all kinds and then abandoned it. When the enemy had got possession of the camp and had gorged themselves to repletion with the food they found, Gracchus brought back his army and suddenly crushed them.^

The Chians, when waging war against the Ery- threans, caught an Erythrean spy on a lofty eminence and put him to death. They then gave his clothes to one of their own soldiers, who, by giving a signal from the same eminence, lured the Erythreans into an ambush.

The Arabians, since their custom of giving notice of the arrival of an enemy by means of smoke by day, and by fire at night, was well known, issued orders on one occasion that these practices should continue without interruption until the enemy actually approached, when they should be discon- tinued. The enemy, imagining from the absence 01 the fires that their approach was unknown, advanced too eagerly and were overwhelmed.

Alexander of Macedon, when the enemy had fortified their camp on a lofty wooded eminence, withdrew a portion of his forces, and commanded those whom he left to kindle fires as usual, and thus to give the impression of the complete army. He himself, leading his forces around through un- travelled regions, attacked the enemy and dislodged them from their commanding position. ^

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