Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata
Plutarch
Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. III. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1931 (printing).
When it came to pass that he fell while trying
to win independence for the Greeks who were living within the borders of Thrace, and the envoys sent to Sparta approached his mother,[*](Argileonis (Moralia, 219 D, 270 C, infra). ) her first question was whether Brasidas had died honourably. And when the Thracians spoke of him in the highest terms, and said that there would never be another like him, she said, Ye ken naught aboot it, being from abraid; for Brasidas was e’en a guid mon, but Sparta has mony a better mon than him. [*](Repeated in Moralia, 219 D and 240 C, and in Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus, chap. xxv. (55 D).)Agis the king said that the Spartans do not ask how many are the enemy, but where are they. [*](Cf. Moralia, 215 D, infra.)
At Mantineia, when efforts were made to dissuade him from risking a battle with the enemy who outnumbered his own men, he said, He who would rule over many must fight with many. [*](Ibid.)
When the Eleans were commended for conducting the Olympic games honourably, he said, What wonderful feat is it if they practise justice on one day in four years ? And when these same persons were persistent in their commendation, he said, What wonder if they practise honourably an honourable thing, that is, justice ? [*](Ibid. 215 F, and Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus, chap. xx. (52 C).)
To a base man, who asked him many times who was the best of the Spartans, he replied, The one most unlike you. [*](Life of Lycurgus and Moralia, 216 C.)
When another man inquired about the number
of the Spartans, he said, Enough to keep away all bad men. [*](Cf. Moralia, 215 D; (5) infra; Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus, chap. xx. (52 D).)When another asked the same question, he said, You will think they are many, if you see them fight.
When Dionysius, the despot, sent garments of a very costly kind for Lysander’s daughters, Lysander would not accept them, saying that he was afraid that the girls would appear more ugly because of them. [*](Cf. Moralia, 141 D, 229 A, and Plutarch’s Life of Lysander, chap. ii. (434 C). The same story is told of Archidamus in Moralia, 218 E.),
To those who found fault with him for accomplishing most things through deception (a procedure which they asserted was unworthy of Heracles) he used to say in reply that where the lion’s skin does not reach it must be pieced out with the skin of the fox. [*](Cf. Moralia, 229 B; Plutarch’s Life of Lysander, chap. vii. (437 A), Leutsch and Schneidewin, Paroemiographi Graeci, i. p. 30.)
When the Argives seemed to make out a better case than the Spartans about the territory in dispute, he drew his sword, and said to them, He who is master of this talks best about boundaries of land. [*](Cf. Moralia, 229 C; Life of Lysander, chap. xxii. (445 D).)
Seeing that the Spartans were reluctant to carry on the battle against the walls of the Corinthians, he said, as he saw a hare leap out of the moat, Are you afraid of such enemies as these, in whose walls hares go to sleep because of the men’s inaction ? [*](Cf. Moralia, 229 D; Life of Lysander, chap. xxii. (445 D).)
When a man from Megara used frank speech
towards him in the general council, he said, Your words need a country to back them. [*](Cf. Moralia, 71 E and 229 C; Life of Lysander, chap. xxii. (445 D). A similar remark is attributed to Agesilaus in Moralia, 212 E.)