Apophthegmata Laconica

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.)

As he was establishing his camp hard by the city of Corinth, he saw hares start up from a spot near the wall. He said therefore to his fellowsoldiers, The enemy are ours. [*](A similar remark is attributed to Lysander in Moralia, 190 E, supra, and 229 D, infra. )

When two persons accepted him as arbiter, he took them to the sacred precinct of Athena of the Brazen House, and made them swear to abide by his decision; and when they had given their oaths, he said, My decision, then, is that you are not to leave this sacred precinct before you compose your differences.

When Dionysius, the despot of Sicily, sent costly raiment to Archidamus’s daughters, he would not accept it, saying, I am afraid that, if the girls should put it on, they would appear ugly to me. [*](Cf. the note on Moralia, 190 D (1), supra. )

Observing that his son was fighting impetuously against the Athenians, he said, Either add to your strength, or subtract from your courage.

Archidamus, the son of Agesilaus, when Philip after the battle of Chaeroneia, wrote him a somewhat haughty letter, wrote in reply, If you should measure your own shadow, you would not find that it has become any greater than before you were victorious.

Being asked how much land the Spartans controlled, he said, As much as they can reach with the spear. [*](Cf. the note on Moralia, 210 E (28), supra. )

Periander, the physician, was distinguished in his profession and commended very very highly, but was a writer of wretched verses. Why in the world, Periander, said Archidamus, do you yearn to be called a bad poet instead of a skilful physician?

In the war against Philip, when some proffered the advice that they ought to engage him in battle at a good distance from their own land, [*](The policy of Demosthenes (e.g. Olynthiac i. ad fin.).) Archidamus said, No, that is not what we ought to look to, but where, in fighting, we shall be superior to the enemy.

In answer to those who commended him when he had been victorious in battle [*](The tearless battle in 368 B.C. described by Xenophon, Hellenica, vii. 1. 28-32. Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Agesilaus ) against the Arcadians, he said, It would have been better if we had vanquished them by intelligence rather than by strength.

When he invaded Arcadia, he learned that the Eleans were supporting the Arcadians, and so he sent this letter to them: Archidamus to the Eleans. Quiet is a good thing. [*](The saying is attributed to Periander by Diogenes Laertius, i. 97.)

In the Peloponnesian war, when his allies sought to know how much money would be sufficient, and said it was only fair that he set a limit to their contributions, he said, War does not feed on fixed rations. [*](Cf. the note on Moralia, 190 A, supra. The saying plainly belongs to Archidamus II. (218 C, supra), who lived at the time of the Peloponnesian war. See Plutarch’s Life of Cleomenes, chap. xxvii. (817 E).)

When he saw the missile shot by a catapult, which had been brought then for the first time from Sicily, he exclaimed, Great Heavens! man’s valour is no more! [*](Cf.Moralia, 191 D, supra. )

When the Greeks were not willing to take his advice and break their agreements with Antipater [*](Either Antipater (Wyttenbach’s certain emendation) or Antigonus (MSS.) is too late for Archidamus III., who died in 338 B.C.) and Craterus the Macedonian, and be free, because of a feeling that the Spartans would be harsher than the Macedonians, he said, A sheep or a goat bleats always in the same way, but a man talks in a great variety of ways until he accomplishes what he has set his mind upon.

When someone said to Astycratidas, after the defeat of Agis their king in the battle against Antipater in the vicinity of Megalopolis, What will you do, men of Sparta? Will you be subject to the Macedonians? he said, What! Is there any way in which Antipater can forbid us to die fighting for Sparta?