[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

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Way back in January 2021 there was a thread about the saying in the
subject line. Now, a Quote Investigator article is available here:

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2024/07/29/army-lion/

[Begin Acknowledgement]
Great thanks to Jonathan Lighter and Harry Siegel whose inquiries led
QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Special
thanks to James Eric Lawson, Jonathan Lighter, and Dave Wilton who
located valuable citations and shared them with QI. Also, thanks to
quotation expert Nigel Rees for his previous research in “Brewer’s
Famous Quotations”. All errors are the responsibility of QI.
[End Acknowledgement]

Garson O’Toole

On Fri, Jan 22, 2021 at 12:15 PM ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Back in October 2020 Jonathan Lighter (off list) suggested that I
> investigate the expression "An army of donkeys led by a lion is better
> than an army of lions led by a donkey". I found similar expressions
> based on a diverse menagerie.
>
> "The Macmillan Book Of Proverbs" credits Plutarch with an instance.
> Also, the adage appears in a 1655 translation of commentaries from
> Julius Caesar. In addition, a 1658 citation containing the adage is
> titled "Ovid's Invective or curse against Ibis".

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