Page:Frontinus - The stratagems, and, the aqueducts of Rome (Bennet et al 1925).djvu/299

 STRATAGEMS, III. xv. 4-xvi. i

When the survivors of the Varian disaster ^ were under siege and seemed to be running short of food, they spent an entire night in leading prisoners round their store-houses ; then, liaving cut off their hands, they turned tliem loose. Tiiese men per- suaded the besieging force to cherish no hope of an early reduction of the Romans by starvation, since they had an abundance of food supplies.

When the Thracians were besieged on a steep mountain inaccessible to the enemy, they got to- gether by individual contributions a small amount of wheat. This they fed to a few sheep which they then drove among the forces of the enemy. When the sheep had been caught and slaughtered, and traces of wheat had been found in their intestines, the enemy raised the siege, imagining that the Thracians had a surplus of wheat, inasmuch as they fed it even to their sheep.

The Milesians wei'e at one time sutlering a long siege at the hands of Alyattes, who hoped they could be starved into surrender. But the Milesian commander, Thrasybulus, in anticipation of the arrival of envoys from Alyattes, ordered all the grain to be brought together into the market-place, arranged for banquets to be held on that occasion, and provided sumptuous feasts throughout the city. Thus he convinced the enemy that the Milesians had abundance of provisions with which to sustain a long siege. 2

XVI. How TO Meet the Menace of Treason AND Deseution

A certain Lucius Bantius of Nola on one occasion cherished the plan of rousing his fellow-citizens to

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