Strategemata, also known as Stratagems, is a work by the Roman author Frontinus who lived at the beginning of our era. Strategemata is a collection of examples of military stratagems from Greek and Roman history. This work was created as a manual for the use of generals. It is split in four chapters dealing with the preparation of battle, fighting a pitched battle, siege and general statements of war. He gives tips and tricks which allowed generals of the past win the battles. That includes poisoning water, capturing a flag as a discouragement, or rejecting a group of soldiers back to camp unless they bring a victory. Despite, some of the tactics showcase the cruelty, in general, the principles of the ancient battles possess timeless value and can be of great use for everyone interested in the military tactics.

Written by the acclaimed general Sextus Julius Frontinus, Strategemata, is a succinct articulation of strategies to use during war time in the high Roman Empire. Frontinus bringings his sharp, practical mind to military history, offing commentary on many military tactics used by some of the greatest generals in of the Ancient World. The text was a teaching guide, one that was to be a companion to another of his works, The Art of War, a text currently lost to history. The C.E. Bennett translation offer a quick and compelling read, one littered with equally as compelling footnotes. This is The Strategemata.

Preliminary Material /Everett L. Wheeler -- Strategema and Stratagem /Everett L. Wheeler -- The Greek Vocabulary of Stratagem /Everett L. Wheeler -- The Latin Vocabulary of Stratagem /Everett L. Wheeler -- The Concept of vox Media /Everett L. Wheeler -- Bibliography /Everett L. Wheeler -- Index of Greek and Latin Words /Everett L. Wheeler -- General Index /Everett L. Wheeler.

Ancient expertise on water and warfare. Frontinus, Sextus Iulius, ca. AD 35-103, was a capable Roman civil officer and military commander. Praetor of the city in 70 and consul in 73 or 74, 98 and 100, he was, about the year 76, sent to Britain as governor. He quelled the Silures of Wales, and began to build a road through their territory; his place was taken by Agricola in 78. In 97 he was given the highly esteemed office of Manager of Aqueducts at Rome. He is known to have been an augur, being succeeded by his friend Pliny the Younger. The two sides of Frontinus' public career are reflected in his two surviving works. Stratagems, written after 84, gives examples of military stratagems from Greek and Roman history, for the instruction of Roman officers, in three books; the fourth book is concerned largely with military discipline. The Aqueducts of Rome, written in 97-98, gives some historical details and a description of the aqueducts for the water supply of the city, with laws relating to them. Frontinus aimed at being useful and writes in a rather popular style which is both simple and clear.

How did ancient scientific and knowledge-ordering writers make their work authoritative? This book answers that question for a wide range of ancient disciplines, from mathematics, medicine, architecture and agriculture, through to law, historiography and philosophy - focusing mainly, but not exclusively, on the literature of the Roman Empire. It draws attention to habits that these different fields had in common, while also showing how individual texts and authors manipulated standard techniques of self-authorisation in distinctive ways. It stresses the importance of competitive and assertive styles of self-presentation, and also examines some of the pressures that pulled in the opposite direction by looking at authors who chose to acknowledge the limitations of their own knowledge or resisted close identification with narrow versions of expert identity. A final chapter by Sir Geoffrey Lloyd offers a comparative account of scientific authority and expertise in ancient Chinese, Indian and Mesopotamian culture.