Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

Plutarch

Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. III. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1931 (printing).

Somebody promised to give to Cleomenes cocks that would die fighting, but he retorted, No, don’t, but give me those that kill fighting. [*](Cf. Moralia, 224 B, infra, and Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus, chap. xx. (52 E).)