Apophthegmata Laconica
Plutarch
Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. III. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1931 (printing).
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. )
When Antalcidas was being initiated into the mysteries at Samothrace, he was asked by the priest
what especially dreadful thing he had done during his life, and he replied, If any such deed has been committed by me, the gods themselves will know it. [*](The same sotry is told of Lysander in Moralia, 229 D (10), infra, and of an unknown Spartan in Moralia, 236 D (68), infra. )In answer to the Athenian who called the Spartans unlearned, he said, At any rate we are the only people who have learned no evil from you. [*](Cf. the note on Moralia, 192 B (1), supra. )
When another Athenian said to him, You must admit that we have many a time put you to rout from the Cephisus, he retorted, But we have never put you to rout from the Eur o t as. [*](Cf. the note on Moralia, 192 C (2), supra. )