[Ads-l] Adage: An army of stags led by a lion is more formidable than an army of lions led by a stag. Attributed to Plutarch

[Jonathan Lighter]

The quotation is on p. 105/107 of the third vol. of Frank Cole Babbitt's
1931 trans. of Plutarch's _Moralia_. Plutarch attributes it to Chabrias:

"He was wont to say that an army of deer commanded by a lion is more to be
feared than an army of lions commanded by a deer."

JL

On Sat, Jan 23, 2021 at 8:49 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Sorry that I forgot what went where. But it's OK. Lawson unearthed earlier
> stuff on his own.
>
> I was hoping you'd get around to this one.
>
> Interesting that for centuries the contrast was between ferocity and
> cowardice or weakness.  In the nineteenth century the latter switched to
> obstinacy or stupidity.
>
> Jon
>
> On Sat, Jan 23, 2021 at 3:59 AM ADSGarson O'Toole <
> adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Jonathan Lighter  wrote:
>> > Garson, I sent it to the list to encourage other contributions.
>> >
>> > A lamer but more literal rendering of the Latin is, "An army of deer is
>> more formidable with a lion as commander than [is an army] of lions with a
>> deer [as commander]."
>> >
>> > The Greek is Greek to me.
>> >
>> > You've done great work on this.
>>
>> Dear JL,
>>   Thanks for your compliment. Your original inquiry was intriguing,
>> and the new citations you have located are valuable.
>> Thanks for the English rendition of the Latin adage.
>>
>> There appears to be some miscommunication. In my previous message I
>> was attempting to notify you that your previous message containing the
>> 1643 citation had not been sent to the list. Your message was only
>> sent to me.
>>
>> The ADS archive reveals that your message is absent. (The thread is
>> near the bottom.)
>> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2021-January/thread.html
>>
>> This may have occurred because my original message was cc'ed to you.
>> Hence, your reply was only sent to me.
>>
>> You may wish to send your message again to the ADS list after
>> scrutinizing the "To" slot.
>> Garson
>>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>


-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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