Apophthegmata Laconica

Plutarch

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

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. )