Apophthegmata Laconica

When Antalcidas was being initiated into the mysteries at Samothrace, he was asked by the priest

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. )

Being asked how anybody could best make himself agreeable to people, he said, If his conversation with them is most pleasant and his suggestions most profitable. [*](Cf.Moralia, 213 C (65), supra. )

When a lecturer was about to read a laudatory essay on Heracles, he said, Why, who says anything against him? [*](Cf. the note on Moralia, 192 C (3), supra. )

When Agesilaus was wounded in battle by the Thebans, Antalcidas said to his face, You have your just reward for the lessons in fighting you have given to that people who had no desire to fight and no knowledge even of fighting. For it appeared that they had been made warlike by the continual campaigns of Agesilaus against them. [*](Cf. the note on Moralia, 189 F (5), supra. )

He used to say that the young men were the walls of Sparta, and the points of their spears its boundaries. [*](Cf. the note on Moralia, 210 E (28, 29, 30), supra. )

In answer to the man who sought to know why the Spartans use short daggers in war, he said, Because we fight close to the enemy. [*](Cf. the note on Moralia, 191 E, supra. )