statements of Aelian,[1] a late contemporary, and of Vegetius,[2] who wrote on the Art of War some three centuries later. This treatise is wholly lost, except in so far as Vegetius may have incorporated it in his own work.
The Strategemata, presumably following the lost work on the Art of War, which it was designed to supplement, narrates varied instances of successful stratagems, which illustrate the rules of military science, and which may serve to foster in other generals the power of conceiving and executing like deeds.[3] As it has come down to us, this work consists of four books, three of them written by Frontinus, the fourth by an author of unknown identity.[4] These four books were still further increased by additional examples, interpolated here and there throughout the work.
Such is Gundermann's conclusion, resulting from his own investigations[5] added to those of
- ↑ De Instruendis Aciebus, Pref.: παρα Φροντίνῳ τῶν ἐπισήμων ὑπατικῶν ἡμέρας τινὰς διέτριψα, δόξαν ἀπενεγκαμένῳ περὶ τὴν ἐν τοῖς πολέμοις ἐμπειρίαν…εὗρον οὐκ ἐλάττονα σποθδὴν ἒχοντα εἰς τὴν παρὰ τοῖς Ἓλλησι τεθεωπημένην μάθησιν.
- ↑ De Re Militari, i. 8: compulit evolutis auctoribus ea me in hoc opusculo fidelissime dicere, quae Cato ille Censorius de disciplina militari scripsit, quae Cornelius Celsus, quae Frontinus perstringenda duxerunt; and ii. 3: nam unius aetatis sunt, quae fortiter fiunt; quae vero pro utilitate rei publicae scribuntur, aeterna sunt. Idem fecerunt alii complures, sed praecipue Frontinus, divo Traiano ab eius modi comprobatus industria.
- ↑ Cf. Strat. Pref p. 3.
- ↑ E. Fritze, P. Esternaux and F. Kortz dissent from this view and claim the fourth book also for Frontinus. Cf. also note 6 on p. xxii.
- ↑ G. Gundermann, Quaestiones de Iuli Frontini Strategematon Libris, Fleckeisen Jahrb. Supplementbd. 16 (1888), p. 315.
