is the name of many eminent personages recorded in ancient writers,
is the name of many eminent personages
recorded in ancient writers, particularly Julius Polysenus,
of whom some Greek epigrams are extant, in the first book
of the Anthologia. But the Polyænus who is best known,
flourished in the second century, and is the author of the
eight books of the “Stratagems of illustrious Commanders
in war.
” He appears to have been a Macedonian, and probably was a soldier in the younger part of his life; but we
are more certain that he was a rhetorician, and a pleader of
causes and that he enjoyed a place of trust and dignity
under the emperors Antoninus and Veriis, to whom he dedicated his work. The “Strategemata
” were published in
Greek by Isaac Casaubon, with notes, in 1589, 12mo but
no good edition of them appeared, till that of Leyden;
1690, in 8vo. The title-page runs thus: “Polygeni Strategematum libri octo, Justo Vulteio interprete, Pancratius
Maasvicius recensuit, Isaaci Casauboni nee non suas notas
adjecit.
” This was followed, in