any classicists on this board?

[susanmcgee48176]

I recently have been trying to unravel an issue/answer a question and 
wonder if any of you have any insight into it.

In high school, I was taught a Latin phrase. I was told that it was 
an example of the Delphic oracle's ambiguity. The phrase was:

Ibis Redibis in Numquam Armis Peribis. As many of you many know, in  
Latin, word order is irrelevant. It's the endings of the words that 
give you the meaning.  (Although there is a standard word order which 
is often ignored in poetry). Numquam can modify either redibus or 
peribis...you can't tell which one. SO....the phrase EITHER means

"You will go, you will return, you will never perish in arms" OR
it means 
"You will go, you will never return, you will perish in arms." 
 
ALSO some use nunquam rather than numquam, including J.K.R. in the 
Hogwarts motto. Both are correct.

I was talking to my partner about this and she looked puzzled and 
asked if it were from the Delphic oracle why was it in Latin? 
 
I didn't know the answer so I did some research on the web.
 
SOOOO...it actually was not one of the easier Google searches. One 
site said it was a Latin translation of the Greek, which I thought, 
well maybe, but Greek is inflected too, but word order means a lot 
more than in Latin..that doesn't seem right..but that "hit" gave me 
the clue......it says that the quote is "in bello" rather than "in 
armis"...which means in war, rather than in arms.


I found this explanation 
Delphi Oracle - Syntactic Ambiguity
A famous Latin translation of one of the prophecies of the oracle at 
Delphi reads "Ibis, redibis numquam peribis in bello." Two different 
translations and interpretations may be provided for this sentence. 
1. "You'll leave, and you shall never return as you will perish in 
the war." 2. "You'll leave and return, and you shall not perish in 
the war." Very close to what I had been taught.
 
I  was ready to give up when I tried a slightly different google 
search (based on one of the "hits" which indicated that the quote 
really was referring to Salvani, who was referenced in Dante's Divine 
Comedy)
 
The notes indicated that Salvani was a Ghibelline chief who led the 
Siennese troops at the battle of Mantaperta. He then consulted the 
necromancers and ventured into the battle at Colle in the Val d'Elsa 
when his command was defeated by the Florentines and he lost his own 
life. Villani records that the answer of the medieval oracle 
consulted by the unfortunate Ghibelline was expressed by a truly 
classical ambiguity...
So that explains THAT -- why THAT quote is in Latin.
Okay, that's fine...but then there are OTHER Latin quotes from the 
Delphic oracle???
 
Croesus who was told you will destroy a mighty empire....and invaded 
the Assyrians and destroyed his own empire...was given his answer in 
Latin...according to my research..
 
Pyrrthus, being about to make war against Rome, was told by the 
oracle "Credo te, Aeacide, Romanos  vincere posse, which can mean 
either "I believe that you, Pyrrthus can conquer the Romans" or 
else "I believe, Pyrrthus, that the Romans will conquer."
 
Why are these oracles (from the Delphic oracle) in Latin rather than 
Greek?
 
Most of these are from Herodotus (whose veracity is being supported 
these days by various archaeological finds).  Maybe the first 
translations of Herodotus were into Latin and people are using 
those??? I don't get it.

Can anyone on this list shed some light?

Susan