Ταξίαρχοι (Introduction)

369

which describes the god being carried out in bonds at the end of the action,
trailed by his satyrs, who promise not to desert him in his difficulties.194
Phormio son of Asopios of the tribe Paianeia (PA 14958; PAA 963060), also
mentioned in Astrateutoi (fr. 44), served as one of Athens’ generals in 440/39
BCE in the campaign against Samos (Th. 1.117.2; SEGX 39.11-12) and again in
439/8 BCE with an expedition of thirty ships sent to Acarnania (Th. 1.64.2). He
was similarly elected to the post of general several times at the beginning of
the Archidamian War (Th. 1.64.2; 2.69.1). Phormio’s greatest successes came in
two successive defeats of much larger Peloponnesian fleets in the Corinthian
Gulf in summer 429 BCE (Th. 2.83-92; cf. Ar. Eq. 559-64; Paus. 10.11.6; Lech
2009), but he campaigned on land as well (e. g. Th. 1.64.2). The male semi-cho-
rus in Aristophanes’ Lysistrata (411 BCE) describe him as an old-fashioned
hero like Myronides, τραχύς ... μελάμπυγός τε τοΐς έχθροΐς απασιν (“rough
and dark-rumped to all his enemies”; Lys. 801-4); this is patently intended as
praise, but given the old men’s own general nastiness and aggressive hostility
to anyone who opposes them, it is difficult to know what the audience in the
Theater was expected to make of the characterization. That Phormio was a
prominent—perhaps beloved (cf. Cooper 1976), perhaps merely notorious—fig-
ure in Athens in the 420s BCE is apparent from the fact that Aristophanes also
mentioned him in Babylonians (fr. 88) in 426 BCE and in the original Clouds I
(fr. 397) in 423 BCE. Note also adesp. com. fr. 957 Φορμίων τρεις /αργυρούς/
στήσειν εφη / τρίποδας, έπειτ’ εθηκεν ενα μολύβδινον (“Phormio said that he
would set up three /silver/ tripods; then he dedicated one—made of lead”). See
in general Westlake 1968. 43-59 (with passing reference to Taxiarchoi on p. 58).
The final mention of Phormio in Thucydides is a reference to his return
to Athens from a campaign in Acarnania in spring 428 BCE (2.103), at which
point he must have been in his fifties or even older. The Acarnanians’ request
that summer that the Athenians send them Phormio’s son or kinsman (Th.
3.7.1) can reasonably be taken to suggest that he was, if not dead by that time,
at least no longer capable or willing to serve in the field.195 He is certainly

194 Cf. Storey 2003. 257-60, although the argument is colored by his attempt to put
the play in the mid-410s rather than the early 420s BCE. See on Date.
195 Meier 1852. 102 hypothesized that the depth of the Acarnanian affection for
Phormio could perhaps be seen in the fact that at least one of them gave his son
the Athenian’s name (known through a homonymous grandson granted Athenian
citizenship in 338/7 BCE: PA 14961; PAA 962940). But Osborne 1983. 44 notes that
the name Phormio is occasionally found elsewhere in the region, making this a
possible but not a necessary connection.