Apophthegmata Laconica

Plutarch

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

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. )