Apophthegmata Laconica

Plutarch

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

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. )