Apophthegmata Laconica

Plutarch

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

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,

he drew his sword and said, He who is master of this talks best about boundaries of land. [*](Cf. the note on Moralia, 190 E (3), supra. )

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).)