Apophthegmata Laconica
Plutarch
Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. III. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1931 (printing).
When someone asked why they visited disgrace upon those among them who lost their shields, but did not do the same thing to those who lost their helmets or their breastplates, he said, Because these they put on for their own sake, but the shield for the common good of the whole line.
As he was listening to a musician, he said, He seems to do his silly task fairly well. [*](Cf. the similar remarks in Moralia, 220 F (6) and 234 D (42), infra. )
In a council meeting he was asked whether it was due to foolishness or lack of words that he said nothing. But a fool, said he, would not be able to hold his tongue. [*](Cf. the similar remark of Bias in Moralia, 503 F, and of Solon in Stobaeus, Florilegium, xxxiv. 15.)
When someone inquired why he was an exile from Sparta, being a king, he said, Because her laws are more powerful than I am.
When one of the Persians, by unremitting bribery, had got away from him his beloved youth, and said to him, Ho, Spartan, I have captivated your beloved, he said, Not you, I swear, but you have bought and paid for him!
When one of the Persians deserted from the king and was persuaded by Demaratus to change
his mind and return, and the king was going to have him put to death, Demaratus said, For shame, your Majesty! To think that when this man was your enemy you could not punish him for his desertion but now that he has become your friend, you would put him to death!In answer to a man who was a parasite of the king and often jeered at him over his exile, he said, I have no quarrel with you, my friend; for I have squandered my position in life.
Ecprepes, an Ephor, cut out with an adze two of the nine strings of Phrynis the musician, saying, Do not murder music. [*](The story is repeated in Plutarch’s Life of Agis, chap. x. (799 F), and with variaions in Moralia, 84 A, 238 C (infra); Athenaeus 636 E; Boethius, De Musica, i. 1.)
Epaenetus said that liars are to blame for all sins and crimes.
Euboedas, on hearing some men praising the wife of another man, could not stomach it, saying, In regard to a woman’s endowments there should be absolutely no talk among those outside the family. [*](Cf. the note on Moralia, 217 F, supra. )