Apophthegmata Laconica

And when again they said, Hae ye decided to dae aught else save to keep the barbarians from gettin’ by? Nominally that, he said, but actually expecting to die for the Greeks.

When he had arrived at Thermopylae, he said to his comrades in arms, They say that the barbarian

When someone said, Because of the arrows of the barbarians it is impossible to see the sun, he said, Won’t it be nice, then, if we shall have shade in which to fight them? [*](The remark is attributed to Dieneces by Herodotus, vii. 226. Cf. Stobaeus, Florilegium, vii. 46; Valerius Maximus, iii. 7, ext. 8; Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, i. 42 (101).)

When someone else said, They are near to us, he said, Then we also are near to them. [*](Cf.Moralia, 194 D, supra, and 234 B.)

When someone said, Leonidas, are you here to take such a hazardous risk with so few men against so many? he said, If you men think that I rely on numbers, then all Greece is not sufficient, for it is but a small fraction of their numbers; but if on men’s valour, then this number will do.

When another man remarked the same thing he said, In truth I am taking many if they are all to be slain. [*](Cf.Moralia, 225 A (3), supra, and 866 B.)

Xerxes wrote to him, It is possible for you, by not fighting against God but by ranging yourself on my side, to be the sole ruler of Greece. But he wrote in reply, If you had any knowledge of the noble things of life, you would refrain from coveting others’ possessions; but for me to die for Greece is better than to be the sole ruler over the people of my race.

When Xerxes wrote again, Hand over your arms, he wrote in reply, Come and take them.

He wished to engage the enemy at once, but the other commanders, in answer to his proposal, said that he must wait for the rest of the allies. Why, said he, are not all present who intend to fight? [*](Cf.Moralia, 185 F, supra. ) Or do you not realize that the only men who fight against the enemy are those who respect and revere their kings?

He bade his soldiers eat their breakfast as if they were to eat their dinner in the other world. [*](Cf. Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, i. 42 (101); Valerius Maximus, iii. 2, ext. 3.)

Being asked why the best of men prefer a glorious death to an inglorious life, he said, Because they believe the one to be Nature’s gift but the other to be within their own control.