Apophthegmata Laconica

Plutarch

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

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. )