Phormio (play)

Phormio is a Latin comic play by the early Roman playwright Terence, based on a now lost Greek play by Apollodorus of Carystus entitled Epidikazomenos ('The Claimant'). It is generally believed to be Terence's fifth play. It was first performed at the Ludi Romani of 161 BC.

Act I

• Quam inique comparatumst, ei qui minus habent
  ut semper aliquid addant ditioribus!
  • What an unfair system it is that the poorer man always has to give his mite to swell the richer man’s store!
  • 41 (tr. John Sargeaunt)

• Ut nunc sunt mores: adeo res redit:
  si quis quid reddit, magna habendast gratia.
  • With morals as they are now, it’s come to this that, if a man pays a debt, you have to be mighty thankful to him.
  • 56 (tr. John Sargeaunt)

• Fortis fortuna adiuvat.
  • Fortune favours the brave.
  • 203 (tr. John Sargeaunt)

Act II

• Quam ob rem omnis, quom secundae res sunt maxume, tum maxume
  meditari secum oportet quo pacto advorsam aerumnam ferant.
  • It shows that just when things are at the very best with us we ought all to rehearse how to bear misfortune when we meet with it.
  • 241 (tr. John Sargeaunt)

• Nil est dictu facilius.
  • Nothing easier to say!
  • 300 (tr. John Sargeaunt)
  • Compare: easier said than done

• Quot homines tot sententiae: suos quoique mos.
  • So many men so many minds, every one has his point of view.
  • 454 (tr. John Sargeaunt)
  • Variant translations:
    Every man of us constructs his sentences differently.
    —Arthur Quiller-Couch, On the Art of Writing (1916), p. 236

Act III

• Auribus teneo lupum.
  • I’ve got a wolf by the ears.
  • 506 (tr. John Sargeaunt)
  • Compare:
    We have the wolf by the ears, and we can neither hold him nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, self-preservation in the other.
    —Thomas Jefferson, on slavery, in a letter to John Holmes (22 April 1820)

Act IV

• Senectus ipsast morbus.
  • Old age is an illness in itself.
  • 575 (tr. John Sargeaunt)
  • Variant translations:
    When the body becomes debilitated by age, languor or pain must necessarily ensue.
    —John Knox, Essays Moral and Literary, 2nd ed., Vol. 1 (1779), p. 231;
    See also: Daniel Schäfer, "'That Senescence Itself is an Illness'", Medical History, 46 (2002), pp. 525–48

Act V

• Quid has metuis fores?
  conclusam hic habeo uxorem saevam.
  • Q. Why are you afraid of that door?
    A. Behind it I have a wife, a vixen.
  • 744 (tr. John Sargeaunt)

About

• Chremetis frater aberat peregre Demipho
  relicto Athenis Antiphone filio.
  Chremes clam habebat Lemni uxorem et filiam,
  Athenis aliam coniugem et amantem unice
  fidicinam gnatum. mater e Lemno advenit
  Athenas; moritur; virgo sola (aberat Chremes)
  funus procurat. ibi eam cum visam Antipho
  amaret, opera parasiti uxorem accipit.
  pater et Chremes reversi fremere. dein minas
  triginta dant parasito, ut illam coniugem
  haberet ipse: argento hoc emitur fidicina.
  uxorem retinet Antipho a patruo adgnitam.
  • Demipho, brother to Chremes, was abroad, having left his son Antipho at Athens. Chremes had secretly contracted a bigamous marriage at Lemnos and had a daughter there. His original wife was at Athens with a son devoted to a lady fiddler. The Lemnian wife came to Athens and died there. Chremes was away at the time and there was only her daughter to bury her. Antipho saw the daughter at the funeral, fell in love with her, and by the aid of an adventurer married her. His father and Chremes on their return were highly indignant. They gave the adventurer a hundred and twenty pounds to marry the girl in. Antipho’s place. The money was used to buy the fiddle-girl. Chremes however recognized his daughter and Antipho retained his wife.
  • Summary (Periocha) by Gaius Sulpicius Apollinaris (tr. John Sargeaunt)

Notes

Translations

• Nicholas Udall; John Higgins, Flovvres or eloquent phrases of the Latine speach, gathered ont [sic] of al the sixe comœdies of Terence (London: imprinted by Thomas Marshe, 1581)

• George Colman, The Comedies of Terence, Translated into Familiar Blank Verse (London: printed for T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt ..., W. Johnston ..., W. Flexney ..., R. Davis ..., T. Davies ..., 1765)

• Henry Thomas Riley, The Comedies of Terence, and the Fables of Phædrus (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1853)

• John Benson Rose, Comedies of Publius Terentius Afer (London: Dorrell and Son, 1870)

• John Sargeaunt, Terence II: Phormio · The Mother-in-Law · The Brothers, LCL 23 (London: William Heinemann; New York: The Macmillan Co., 1912)