Apophthegmata Laconica
Plutarch
Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. III. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1931 (printing).
To a man who told the Ephors of things that were needful, but spoke at greater length than would have sufficed, he said, My friend, in needless time you dwell upon the need! [*](Attributed to Leo, the father of Anaxandridas, in Moralia, 224 F (3), and to Leonidas, the son of Anaxandridas, in Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus, chap. xx. (52 B).)
When someone inquired why they put their fields in the hands of the Helots, and did not take care of them themselves, he said, It was by not taking care of the fields, but of ourselves, that we acquired those fields.
When someone else said that high repute works injury to men and that he who is freed from this will be happy, he retorted, Then those who commit crimes would, according to your reasoning, be happy. For how could any man, in committing sacrilege or any other crime, be concerned over high repute?
When another person asked why the Spartans, in their wars, ventured boldly into danger, he said, Because we train ourselves to have regard for life and not, like others, to be timid about it.
When someone asked him why the elders continue the trials of capital cases over several days, and why, even if the defendant is acquitted, he is none the less still under indictment, he said, They take many days to decide, because, if they make an error in a capital case, there can be no reversal of
the judgement; and the accused continues, perforce, to be under indictment of the law, because, under this law, it may be possible, by deliberation, to arrive at a better decision. [*](For the fact Cf. Plato, Apology, chap. xxvii. (37 A); Thucydides, i. 132.)Anaxander, the son of Eurycrates, when someone inquired why the Spartans did not amass money in the public treasury, said, So that those made the guardians of it may not become corrupt.
Anaxilas, in answer to the man who wondered why the Ephors did not rise and offer their places to the kings,d and this, too, although they were appointed to their position by the kings, [*](Cf. Xenophon, Constitution of Sparta, 15. 6; and Nicolaus quoted by Stobaeus, Florilegium, xliv. 41 ad fin. )said, For the very same reason that they hold the office of Ephor.
Androcleidas the Spartan, who had a crippled leg, enrolled himself among the fighting-men. And when some persons were insistent that he be not accepted because he was crippled, he said, But I do not have to run away, but to stay where I am when I fight the opposing foe. [*](Cf. the note on Moralia, 210 F (34), supra. )