Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

Demetrius of Phalerum recommended to Ptolemy the king to buy and read the books dealing with the office of king and ruler. For, as he said, those things which the kings’ friends are not bold enough to recommend to them are written in the books.

Lycurgus, the Spartan, introduced the custom among his citizens of wearing their hair long, saying that it made the beautiful more comely and the ugly more frightful. [*](Cf. Moralia, 228 F, infra, Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus, chap. xxii. (53 D) and Life of Lysander, chap. i. (434 A). The Spartan custom of wearing the hair long is often referred to; for example Moralia, 189 F and 230 B, infra, Xenophon, Constitution of Sparta, xi. 3.)

To the man who urged him to create a democracy in the State his answer was, Do you first create a democracy in your own house. [*](Repeated in Moralia, 155 D, 22 D, and Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus, chap. xix. (52 A).)

He ordered that the people build their houses with saw and axe only; for he knew that men are ashamed to bring into simple houses costly vessels, rugs, and tables. [*](Cf. Moralia, 227 B, infra, and Life of Lycurgus, chap. xiii. (47 B).)

He prohibited boxing and prize-fighting so that the people might not even in sport get the habit of crying off. [*](See Moralia, 228 D, infra, and cf. Life of Lycurgus, chap. xix. (52 A), and Seneca, De Beneficiis, v. 3.)