Apophthegmata Laconica

Plutarch

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

Leonidas, the son of Anaxandridas and the brother of Cleomenes, in answer to a man who remarked, Except for your being king, you are no different from the rest of us, said, But if I were no better than you others, I should not be king.

His wife Gorgo inquired, at the time when he was setting forth to Thermopylae to fight the Persian, if he had any instructions to give her, and he said, To marry good men and bear good children. [*](Cf.Moralia, 240 E (6), infra, and 866 B.)

When the Ephors said that he was taking but few men to Thermopylae, he said, Too many for the enterprise on which we are going. [*](Ibid. Cf. also 225 B (8 and 9), infra, and 866 B.)