Page:Frontinus - The stratagems, and, the aqueducts of Rome (Bennet et al 1925).djvu/199

 STRATAGEMS, II. v. 30-31

suspicion, he mounted the horse which he held in readiness outside the gate, and fled to Mithridates without accomplishing his purpose.^

When Sertorius was encamped next to Pompey near the town of Lauron in Spain, there were only two tracts from which forage could be gathered, one near by, the other farther off. Sertorius gave orders that the one near by should be continually raided by light-armed troops, but that the remoter one should not be visited by any troops. Thus, he finally convinced his adversaries that the more distant tract was safer. When, on one occasion, Pompey's troops had gone to this region, Sertorius ordered Octavius Graecinus, with ten cohorts armed after the Roman fashion, and ten cohorts of light-armed Spaniards along with Tarquitius Priscus and two thousand cavalry, set forth to lay an ambush against the foragers. These men executed their insti'uctions with energy ; for after examining the ground, they hid the above-mentioned forces by night in a neigh- bouring wood, posting the light-armed Spaniards in front, as best suited to stealthy warfare, the shield- bearing soldiers a little further back, and the cavalry in the rear, in order that the plan might not be betrayed by the neighing of the horses. Then they ordered all to repose in silence till the third hour of the following day.^ When Pom])ey's men. enter- taining no suspicion and loaded down with forage, thought of returning, and those who had been on guard, lured on by the situation, were slipping away to forage, suddenly the Spaniards, darting out with the swiftness characteristic of their race, poured forth upon the stragglers, inflicted many wounds upon them, and put them to rout, to their great