Αστράτευτοι ή Άνδρόγυνοι (fr. 44)

175

fr. 44 Κ.-Α. (40 Κ.)
Σν Ar. Pax 348 (= 348e Holwerda)
αύτοΰ μέμνηται ό κωμικός έν Ίππεϋσι (562) καί Νεφέλαις (fr. 397) καί Βαβυλωνίοις
(fr. 88), Εΰπολις Άστρατεύτοις
The comic poet mentions (Phormio) in Knights (562) and Clouds (fr. 397) and Babylönioi
(fr. 88), (as does) Eupolis in Astrateutoi
Citation context A gloss on Ar. Pax 346-7b πολλά γάρ άνεσχόμην / πράγ-
ματά τε καί στιβάδας, / ας έλαχε Φορμίων (“For I endured much trouble
and pallet-beds, which Phormio got as his lot”; an unhappy reminiscence
of military duty), presumably drawn from a Hellenistic or Roman-era list of
kdmdidoumenoi. Fr. 274 is preserved near the beginning of the note, while fr.
138 is preserved at the end.
Interpretation Phormio son of Asopios of the deme Paianea (PA 1498; PAA
963060)—one of the central characters in Taxiarchoi (see the general intro-
duction to that play)—served as general in 440/39 BCE against the Samians
(Th. 1.117.2; IG I3 48.42-3 (restored)) and perhaps earlier as well (Th. 2.68.7
with Gomme 1956. 416; Hornblower 1991. 353-4). He was also elected to the
post several times at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War (e.g. Th. 1.64.2;
2.29.6) , his greatest success during it being two successive defeats of much
larger Peloponnesian fleets in the Corinthian Gulf in summer 429 BCE (Th.
2.68.7) . Thucydides’ final mention of Phormio is in spring 428 BCE (2.103),
when he returned to Athens from Acarnania, and the Acarnanians’ request
that summer that the Athenians send them his son or kinsman (Th. 3.7.1)
might reasonably be taken to suggest that he was dead by then, despite the
cluster of references to him (collected in the scholion on Peace) in Aristophanes
in the mid- to late 420s BCE. Certainly Phormio was deceased by 411 BCE,
when he is described admiringly in retrospect at Ar. Lys. 801-4 as having been
“rough and black-assed to all his/our enemies, like Myronides”. Androtion
FGrH 324 F 8 reports that at some point Phormio failed the audit (euthynai)
that followed a term in office and refused to serve again as general until the
Athenians paid the fine for him, making it clear that not all the contemporary
references were necessarily laudatory. For various memorials to Phormio, see
Paus. 1.29.3 (his tomb by the Academy Road just outside the Athenian city
walls, next to those of Pericles and Chabrias); 10.11.6 (an epigram in his honor
inscribed on the Stoa of the Athenians in Delphi); and cf. Lech 2009.