Apophthegmata Laconica

When the people of Argos asserted that they would wipe out their former defeat [*](Presumably in the battle over Thyrea in 546 B.C. Cf. Herodotus, i. 82, and the reference in Plato, Phaedo, 89 C.) by fighting again, he said, I wonder if by the addition of a word of two syllables [*](The word again. They had lost in the previous fighting.) you have now become more powerful than you were before!

When someone upbraided him, saying, You are inclined to luxury, Cleomenes, he said, Well,

When someone, wishing to introduce a musician to him, said, in addition to other commendations, that the man was the best musician among the Greeks, Cleomenes pointed to one of the persons near, and said, Yonder man, I swear, ranks with me as the best soup-maker. [*](Cf.Moralia, 218 C (3) supra, where the saying is attributed to Archidamus II.)

Maeandrius, the despot of Samos, because of the inroad of the Persians, fled to Sparta, and exhibited all the gold and silver vessels which he had brought with him, and offered to favour Cleomenes with as many as he wished; but he would have none, and, taking good care that the man should not distribute any among the rest of the citizens, he went to the Ephors and said that it was better for Sparta that his own friend and guest from Samos should withdraw from the Peloponnesus, so that he should not persuade anyone of the Spartans to become a bad man. And they listened to his advice and proclaimed the expulsion of Maeandrius that very day. [*](The story is taken from Herodotus, iii. 148, in part word for word.)

When someone said, Why have you not killed off the people of Argos who wage war against you so often? he said, Oh, we would not kill them off, for we want to have some trainers for our young men.

When somebody inquired of him why Spartans do not dedicate to the gods the spoils from their enemies, he said, Because they are taken from cowards. [*](Cf.Moralia, 224 F (4), infra. )

Cleomenes, the son of Cleombrotus, when someone offered him fighting cocks and said that they would die fighting for victory, said, Well then, give me some of those that kill them, for those are better than these. [*](Cf. the note on Moralia, 191 F, supra. )

Labotas, when someone spoke at very great length, said, Why, pray, such a big introduction to a small subject? For proportionate to the topic should be the words you use. [*](Cf. the note on Moralia, 208 C (3), supra. )

Leotychidas the First, when somebody remarked to him that he was very changeable, said, Yes, because of varying occasion; not like all you because of your baseness.

In answer to the man who asked how any man could best preserve his present state of good fortune, he said, By not trusting everything to chance.

Being asked what freeborn boys had best learn, he said, Those things which may help them when they become men. [*](Cf. the note on Moralia, 213 D (67), supra. )