Haggard Lingerer. Consul fabius, Tiger Leafwing, Natura Artis Magistra, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Speaking of coincidences! For a diversion from the rain early this morning I was reading some Plutarch (46-120 CE), great biographer of famous Greeks and Romans, and by chance I'd opened my internet page at the life of Fabius Cunctator, twice dictator of Rome and consul five times (c.290-203 BCE).
Fabius was a hero of the Roman War with Carthage and it's from that war that his epithet 'Cunctator', Lingerer, derives. Recognising the military superiority of Hannibal's Carthaginian forces, Fabius instructed his army not to meet them head-on in battle but to linger or straggle behind and beside and to pick their enemies off in guerrilla-type attacks. First that epithet was used as a term of derision, but his fellow citizens soon understood the cleverness of Fabius's strategy.
Whatever... I went out in the rain anyway to seek some solace in the Butterfly House of the Zoo. There my eyes lit on this colorful Tiger Leafwing, Consul fabius. Usually rather actively fluttering about, our Brushfoot today was lingering haggardly on its leaf. Butterflies have no natural enemies in this Greenhouse, so I think the wear and tear of its lower wings especially on the left are due to its age not the evidence of battles survived.
Haggard Lingerer. Consul fabius, Tiger Leafwing, Natura Artis Magistra, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Speaking of coincidences! For a diversion from the rain early this morning I was reading some Plutarch (46-120 CE), great biographer of famous Greeks and Romans, and by chance I'd opened my internet page at the life of Fabius Cunctator, twice dictator of Rome and consul five times (c.290-203 BCE).
Fabius was a hero of the Roman War with Carthage and it's from that war that his epithet 'Cunctator', Lingerer, derives. Recognising the military superiority of Hannibal's Carthaginian forces, Fabius instructed his army not to meet them head-on in battle but to linger or straggle behind and beside and to pick their enemies off in guerrilla-type attacks. First that epithet was used as a term of derision, but his fellow citizens soon understood the cleverness of Fabius's strategy.
Whatever... I went out in the rain anyway to seek some solace in the Butterfly House of the Zoo. There my eyes lit on this colorful Tiger Leafwing, Consul fabius. Usually rather actively fluttering about, our Brushfoot today was lingering haggardly on its leaf. Butterflies have no natural enemies in this Greenhouse, so I think the wear and tear of its lower wings especially on the left are due to its age not the evidence of battles survived.