[cross-reference: return to Footnote 1 of Letter 212]
Hannibal, in exile at Ephesus, was taken to hear a lecture by a peripatetic philosopher named Phormio. The lecturer (
homo copiosus
) discoursed for some hours on the duties of a general, and military subjects generally. The delighted audience asked Hannibal his opinion of the lecture. He replied in Greek,
"I have seen many old fools often, but such an old fool as Phormio, never
(Multos se deliros senes sæpe vidisse; sed qui magis, quam Phormio, deliraret, vidisse neminem)"
(Cicero,
De Oratore
, ii. 18).