Apophthegmata Laconica

The seer tried to dissuade him from leading his army against the city of the Argives, for the return, he said, would be made in disgrace. But when Cleomenes had advanced near the city, and saw the gates closed and the women upon the walls, he said, Does it seem to you that the return from here can be made in disgrace, where, since the men are dead, the women have barred the gates?

In answer to those of the Argives who upbraided him as an impious perjurer, he said, You have the power to speak ill of me, but I have the power to do ill to you.

To the ambassadors from Samos who urged him to make war upon the despot Poly crates, and for this reason spoke at great length, he said, What you said at the beginning I do not remember; for that reason I do not comprehend the middle part; and the conclusion I do not approve. [*](Cf. Herodotus, iii. 46, and the note on 216 A (15), supra. The traditional date of the mission from Samos (525 B.C.) seems to early to fall within Cleomenes’s reign, but the chronology is uncertain.)