Apophthegmata Laconica

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. )

Antiochus, when he was Ephor, hearing that Philip had given the Messenians their land, asked if he had also provided them with the power to prevail in fighting to keep it. [*](Repeated in Moralia, 192 B, supra. )

Areus, when some men commended, not their own wives, but certain wives of other men, said, By Heaven, there ought to be no random talk about fair and noble women, and their characters ought to be totally unknown save only to their consorts. [*](Cf.Moralia, 220 D and 242 E, infra; Thucydides, ii. 45.)

Once upon a time, when he was passing through Selinus in Sicily, he saw inscribed upon a monument this elegiac couplet: Here at Selinus these men, who tyrc.nny strove to extinguish, Brazen-clad Ares laid low; nigh to our gates were they slain. Whereupon he said, You certainly deserved to die for trying to extinguish tyranny when it was ablaze; rather you ought to have let it burn itself out completely. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus, chap. xx. (52 E).)

When someone commended the maxim of Cleomenes, who, on being asked what a good king ought to do, said, To do good to his friends and evil to his enemies, Ariston said, How much better,

When someone inquired how many Spartans there were in all, he said, Enough to keep away our enemies. [*](Cf. the note on Moralia, 190 D (5), supra. )

When one of the Athenians read a memorial oration in praise of those who fell at the hands of the Spartans, he said, What kind of men, then, do you think ours must be who vanquished these? [*](Perhaps the remark of another man named Ariston who lived later.)

Archidamidas, in answer to a man who commended Charillus because he was gentle towards all alike, said, And how could any man be justly commended if he be gentle towards the wicked? [*](Cf.Moralia, 55 E and 537 D.)

When somebody found fault with Hecataeus the sophist because, when he was received as a member at the common table, he spoke not a word, Archidamidas said, You do not seem to realize that he who knows how to speak knows also the right time for speaking. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus, chap. xx. (52 C).)

Archidamus, the son of Zeuxidamus, when someone inquired of him who were at the head of Sparta, said, The laws and the magistrates in accordance with the laws.

In answer to a man who praised a harper and expressed amazement at his ability, he said, My good sir, what honours shall you be able to offer to good men when you have such praise for a harper?

When someone, in introducing a musician to him, remarked, This man is a good musician, he said, And in this country of ours that man there rates as a good soup-maker, thus implying that there was no distinction between giving pleasure through the sound of instruments and giving it through the preparation of appetizing foods and soup. [*](Cf.Moralia, 223 F, infra (15), where the saying is attributed to Cleomenes.)

When somebody promised him to make the wine pleasant to the taste, he said, What for? For more of it will be used, and it will make the men’s eating together less beneficial. [*](See Moralia, 240 D (2), infra, which makes the meaning of this passage quite clear.)