Apophthegmata Laconica

When Dionysius, the despot of Sicily, sent costly garments for Lysander’s daughters, he would not accept them, saying that he was afraid that because of them his daughters would appear ugly rather than beautiful. [*](Cf. the note on Moralia, 190 E (1), supra. ) But a little later, when he was sent as ambassador to the same despot from the same State, Dionysius sent to him two robes and bade him choose whichever one of them he would, and take it to his daughter; but Lysander said that

Lysander, who was a clever quibbler, and given to employing cunning deceptions to further most of his designs, counted justice as mere expediency, and honour as that which is advantageous. He said that the truth is better than falsehood, but that the worth and value of either is determined by the use to which it is put. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Lysander, chap. vii. (437 A).)

In answer to those who blamed him because of his carrying out most of his designs through deception, which they said was unworthy of Heracles [*](The legendary ancestor of both lines of Spartan kings; Cf. Herodotus, vii. 204 and viii. 131.) and gaining his successes by wile in no straightforward way, he said laughing that where he could not get on with the lion’s skin it must be pieced out with the skin of the fox. [*](Cf. the note on Moralia, 190 E (2), supra. )

When others censured him for his violation of his oaths which he had made in Miletus he said that one must trick children with knuckle-bones, but men with oaths, [*](Repeated in Moralia, 330 F, where it is attributed to Dionysius; Moralia, 741 C; Diodorus, x. 9. 1; Dio Chysostom, Oration, lxxiv. (399 R., 640 M.); Polyaenus, Strategemata, i. 45. 3; and Aelian, Varia Historia, vii. 12, who says that some attribute it to Lysander, and others to Philip of Macedon.)

He conquered the Athenians by a ruse at Aegospotami, and by pressing them hard through famine he forced them to surrender their city, whereupon he wrote to the Ephors, Athens is taken. [*](According to Plutarch, Life of Lysander, chap. xiv. (441 B), the Ephors objected to the verbosity of the dispatch!)

In answer to the Argives, who were disputing with the Spartans in regard to the boundaries of their land and said that they had the better of the case,

Seeing that the Boeotians were wavering at the time when he was about to pass through their country he sent to them to inquire whether he should march through their land with spears at rest or ready for action. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Lysander, chap. xxii. (445 D).)

When a Megarian in the common council used plain words to him, he said, My friend, your words need a city to back them. [*](Cf. the note on Moralia, 190 F (5), supra. )

When the Corinthians had revolted and he was going through their country along by the walls and saw that the Spartans were reluctant to attack, a hare was seen leaping across the ditch, whereupon he said, Are you not ashamed, men of Sparta, to be afraid of such enemies as these, who are so slack that hares sleep in the walls of their city? [*](Cf. the note on Moralia, 190 E (4), supra. )

As he was consulting the oracle in Samothrace, the priest bade him tell what was the most lawless deed that had ever been committed by him in his lifetime. Lysander asked, Must I do this at your command or at the command of the gods? When the priest said, At the command of the gods, Lysander said, Then do you take yourself out of my way, and I will tell them in case they inquire. [*](Cf. the note on Moralia, 217 C (1), supra. )

When a Persian asked what kind of a government he commended most highly, he said, The government which duly awards what is fitting to both the brave and the cowardly.