Sextus Iulius Frontinus, vir consularis de re militari

The same man, when he was blocked by the proconsul Lucius Varinus, fixed stakes at moderate intervals before his gate and tied up corpses adorned with clothing and weapons, so that to those looking from afar, they would appear as a guard. With fires made throughout the entire camp and the enemy deceived by the varied image, he led his forces out in the silence of the night. Brasidas, leader of the Lacedaemonians, caught near Amphipolis by a multitude of Athenians and unequal in number, kept himself enclosed so that he would thin out the enemy’s density across the long circumference of his line, and he broke out where they stood most thinly. Iphicrates, in Thrace, when he had pitched his camp in a low-lying place, and had explored that the nearby hill was held by the enemy—from which there was only one descent to crush them—ordered many fires to be made at night, leaving only a few within the camp. Having led his army out and disposed it around the sides of the aforementioned path, he allowed the barbarians to pass and, with the army turned, he slaughtered their rear in the unfavorable terrain in which he himself had been, and with part of his force, he took their camp. Darius, to deceive the Scythians during his departure, left dogs and donkeys in the camp; when the enemy heard them barking and braying, they believed Darius remained. The Ligurians, intending to bring the same error upon our men, tied buffaloes to trees with ropes in different places, which, as they were pulled, presented the appearance of remaining enemies with their frequent lowing.

Hanno, trapped by the enemy, set fire to the place most suitable for a breakout, having piled up light materials. Then, with the enemy called away to guard certain exits, he led his soldiers out through the very flame, having admonished them to cover their faces with shields and their legs with clothing. Hannibal, in order to escape the unfavorableness of the terrain and the lack of supplies with Fabius Maximus pressing him, sent out at night oxen to whose horns he had tied bundles of brushwood, with fire set underneath. When the cattle were disturbed by the movement and the growing flame, they illuminated the mountains into which they were driven with great running about. The Romans who had run to scout were at first struck by the prodigy. Then, when they reported everything to Fabius, he kept his men in camp for fear of an ambush; the barbarians departed with no one resisting.

On Ambushes Made During a March. Chapter 6.

Fulvius Nobilior, when he was leading his army from Samnium into Lucania and had learned from deserters that the enemies would attack his rear guard, ordered his strongest legion to follow the baggage first and last. With this done, when the enemies embraced the opportunity and began to plunder the baggage, Fulvius directed the legion mentioned above and four cohorts to the right side of the road, and five to the left, and thus, with the soldiers deployed on both sides, he enclosed and slaughtered the enemies who were intent on plundering.