Phormion
2. A peripatetic philosopher of Ephesus, of whom is told the story that he discoursed for several hours before Hannibal on the military art and the duties of a general. When his admiring auditory asked Hannibal what he thought of him, the latter replied, that of all the old blockheads whole he had seen, none could match Phormion. (Cic. dc Orat. 2.18.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.