Frontin, Livre des Stratagemes
Date Description Source Reference
1471 A.D. Two encampments. 

Left (Scipio's encampment). 

Ten bell tents and one pavilion. 

Scipio's tent, white bell tent, small gold banner, above a gold oval apex, purple line decoration on roof, red valance with gold line decoration, alternate gold and dark blue fringing, brown pole, the door flaps and bundled up and tied in knots on either side. 

White pavilion, line decoration on roof and walls, gold valance. 

Bell tent, white roof with line decoration, gold valance with blue fringing, light purple walls with darker purple line decoration, apex could be an oval shape but is not well defined. 

The rest of the bell tents in Scipio's encampment show banners flying above oval apexes and light purple roofs with dark purple line decoration, two of the closer bell tents have dark blue valances. 

Right (Sifax's encampment). 

Eight bell tents, two possibly three pavilions. 

Sifax's tent, white bell tent, gold triangular banner above gold oval apex, gold line decoration on roof and possible walls, dark blue valance with gold decoration and fringing, brown pole, the left door flap is tied up similarly to Scipio's. 

White bell tent, gold triangular banner above gold oval apex, line decoration on roof and walls, red valance with gold decoration and fringe. 

Grey bell tent, gold triangular banner above gold oval apex, line decoration on roof and walls, dark blue valance with some gold decoration and fringe, and notably this is the only tent showing guy ropes in the illumination, which stretch out to the left. 

White pavilion, no apexes, gold line decoration on roof and gold valance. 

White pavilion, apexes, line decoration on roof and green valance. 

The other five bell tents show similar apexes, purple line decoration on white roofs, the two in the fore show coloured valances, one blue the other green.

No. 47 Scipio Africanus Sending his Spies to the Numidian Camp. Frontin, Livre des Stratagemes, translated by Jean de Rovroy, France, 1471. Delaisse, L.M.J., Medieval Miniatures from the Department of Manuscripts of the Royal Library of Belgium, London, 1965, p. 201.


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