[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
James Eric Lawson
jel at NVENTURE.COM
Sat Jan 23 21:19:29 UTC 2021
After further research, I guess this comes down to a matter of whether
you accept Stobaeus's account attributing the adage to Philip of Macedon
(see 61),
https://archive.org/details/b22007441_0002/page/400/mode/2up?q=LIV
as noted by Harbottle (1906),
https://archive.org/details/dictionaryquota02harbgoog/page/n539/mode/2up?q=Chabriae
or prefer Plutarch's attribution to Chabrias.
I'm still looking for reason behind the attribution to Iphicrates, but
suspect it may be from a misreading similar to my own concerning
Epaminondas (see next line, labeled 62, at the Stobaeus link).
On 1/23/21 6:00 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> 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
>
--
James Eric Lawson
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