Stratagems

Sextus Julius Frontinus (30–103 AD) was an ancient Roman statesman, commander, administrator, scholar, and writer. Tacitus called him a “great man,” Pliny the Younger counted him among his friends, Martial mentioned him in his epigrams—and for military historians, he was an unquestionable authority. Frontinus’s work is comparable in significance to the ancient treatise “The Art of War,” created on the other end of the Oikoumene by the great Chinese strategist and thinker Sun Tzu.

“The Stratagems” is an ordered collection of tactical and psychological techniques used in specific cases by rulers and military leaders ancient and modern to the author. What’s more, these techniques were not thought out in advance during strategic planning, but were applied because of suddenly arising unfavorable circumstances, in order to avoid them—or even turn them to one’s advantage. That’s why the book has a second title—“Military Tricks.”