A highly engaging account to learn about the glimps of genius – sometimes real tricks! -  that changed ancient history. Starting with the most famous stratagem: the Trojan horse.

The Greeks conquer Troy; Rameses II defeats the Hittites; Dido builds Carthage; Themistocles wins at Salamis; Hannibal holds the Roman army in check; Pompey builds the first permanent theatre in Rome... They are all famous episodes with a common denominator: the victory achieved by using cheats, tricks, deceptions. In a word, stratagems. In fact, while suggesting that it was always and only the enemies who perpetrated the most ambiguous and treacherous tricks against them, ancient Greeks and Romans never had any qualms about using underhand and deceptive means. They considered intelligence the most effective, reliable and available weapon to overcome difficulties, defeat enemies and impose themselves on the political scene. This book recounts twenty stratagems, whose protagonists are the legendary Odysseus, Alexander the Great, Pericles, Hannibal, Cleopatra, Dido, and other times they are also lesser-known figures, but equally relevant for the magnitude of their deeds. They all emerge victorious from competitive contexts or come out unscathed from dangerous situations. All of them prove how intelligence in its various declinations - in particular that of cunning - can be the winning key to changing history. An entertaining and exciting book for those who are fascinated by the ancient world and want to get to know it better through a new point of view.