A question about Hannibal,about one of his words.

[Edouward]

"I have seen ao old fool many times in my life,but this old fool beat them all."(I can't remember very clear.)Is that "old fool" Fabius?

[CaesarAugustus]

No, I believe the "old fool" was in reference to one Phormio, who was giving a speech on leadership.

[Edouward]

“Phormio” is?

[Lazy O]

AFAIK Fabius was neither old nor a fool you can call him middle aged :)

[Brennus]

He was an Athenian admiral.

[Lvcretivs]

Sorry to correct Brennus, but the Phormio Cicero refers to in his nice little anecdote was not the Athenian admiral of the Peloponnesian War, but a - IIRC otherwise unattested - Peripatetic philosopher at the court of Antiochos III:

[XVIII] [75] Nec mihi opus est Graeco aliquo doctore, qui mihi pervulgata praecepta decantet, cum ipse numquam forum, numquam ullum iudicium aspexerit; ut Peripateticus ille dicitur Phormio, cum Hannibal Karthagine expulsus Ephesum ad Antiochum venisset exsul proque eo, quod eius nomen erat magna apud omnis gloria, invitatus esset ab hospitibus suis, ut eum, quem dixi, si vellet, audiret; cumque is se non nolle dixisset, locutus esse dicitur homo copiosus aliquot horas de imperatoris officio et de [omni] re militari. Tum, cum ceteri, qui illum audierant, vehementer essent delectati, quaerebant ab Hannibale, quidnam ipse de illo philosopho iudicaret: hic Poenus non optime Graece, sed tamen libere respondisse fertur, multos se deliros senes saepe vidisse, sed qui magis quam Phormio deliraret vidisse neminem. (Cicero, de oratore II,18)

[75] Nor do I need any Greek professor to chant at me a series of hackneyed axioms, when he himself never had a glimpse of a law-court or judicial proceeding, as the tale goes of Phormio the well-known Peripatetic ; for when Hannibal, banished from Carthage, had come in exile to Antiochus at Ephesus and, inasmuch as his name was highly honoured all the world over, had been invited by his hosts to hear the philosopher in question, if he so pleased, and he had intimated his willngness to do so, that wordy individual is said to have held forth for several hours upon the functions of a commander-in-chief and military matters in general. Then, when the other listeners, vastly delighted, asked Hannibal for his opinion of the eminent teacher, the Carthaginian is reported to have thereupon replied, in no very good Greek, but at any rate candidly, that time and again he had seen many old madmen but never one madder than Phormio.

[Edouward]

Thanks a lot,you know latin?

[Lvcretivs]

Well, yes, but having not translated a longer text in years, I'm a little bit out of practice - the slightly outdated English translation above is taken from http://www.archive.org/stream/cicero...euoft_djvu.txt and not my own work ;)

[Edouward]

That's already excellent,you may know that joke:"I was taking a Latin class,and my book is from a former student.And I suddenly found a line of words:"Latin is a dead lauguage,it has killed the romans,and now it's begining to kill me.
I can speak a little french(my mother language is chinese),and fench is a 'son" of the latin.When I read the latin you post,I think it's french but fianlly I found it's not.
It's lucky to have you answer my question.
And I'm going to sleep now.See you tomorrow.

[Brennus]

Lvcretivs I welcome to correction. I thought it was a little odd that Hannibal would be commenting on a lecture given by a Peloponnesian era individual. Thanks for the information!