Stratagems is a work by Frontinus, a collection of examples of military stratagem

Stratagem

Stratagem may refer to:* Confidence trick, an attempt to swindle a person which involves gaining his or her confidence* Ruse of war, an action taken to fool the enemy.* HMS Stratagem , an S class submarine...

s from Greek and Roman history, ostensibly for the use of generals. Frontinus is assumed to have written Strategems towards the end of the first century AD, possibly in connection with a lost work on military theory.

Frontinus is best known as a writer on water engineering, but he had a distinguished military career. In Stratagems he draws partly on his own experience as a general in Germany under Domitian

Domitian

Domitian was Roman Emperor from 81 to 96. Domitian was the third and last emperor of the Flavian dynasty.Domitian's youth and early career were largely spent in the shadow of his brother Titus, who gained military renown during the First Jewish-Roman War...

. However, most of the (more than five hundred) examples which he gives are less recent, and similarities to versions in other Roman authors like Valerius Maximus

Valerius Maximus

Valerius Maximus was a Latin writer and author of a collection of historical anecdotes. He worked during the reign of Tiberius .-Biography:...

 and Livy suggest that he drew mainly on literary sources.
The work consists of four books, of which three are undoubtedly by Frontinus. The authenticity of the fourth book has been challenged.

External Sources

• Strategemata
• Frontinus: The man and the works (LacusCurtius website): this source provides the Latin text and the English translation from the 1925 Loeb
  Loeb Classical Library
  The Loeb Classical Library is a series of books, today published by Harvard University Press, which presents important works of ancient Greek and Latin Literature in a way designed to make the text accessible to the broadest possible audience, by presenting the original Greek or Latin text on each...
  
  edition.