Apophthegmata Laconica

Plutarch

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

A man who was visiting Sparta stood for a long time upon one foot, and said to a Spartan, I do

not think that you, sir, could stand upon one foot as long as that; and the other interrupting said, No, but there is not a single goose that could not do it.

When a man boasted greatly of his art in speaking, a Spartan said, By Heaven, there is no art nor can there be an art without a firm hold on truth. [*](In almost the same words in Plato, Phaedrus, 260 E.)

When an Argive said once upon a time, There are many tombs of Spartans in our country, a Spartan said, But there is not a single tomb of an Argive in our country, indicating by this that the Spartans had often set foot in Argos, but the Argives had never set foot in Sparta. [*](Cf. Plutarch, Life of Agesilaus, chap. xxxi. (613 D).)

A Spartan having been taken prisoner in war and put up for sale, when the crier said, I offer a Spartan for sale, stopped his mouth, saying, Cry a prisoner of war. [*](Cf.Moralia, 234 C (40), infra. )

One of the men serving in the army of Lysimachus, being asked by him whether he were not one of the Helots, said, Do you suppose that any Spartan would come to get the sixpence which you pay?

At the time when Thebans had conquered the Spartans at Leuctra and advanced to the river Eurotas itself, one of them, boasting, said, Where are the Spartans now? A Spartan who had been captured by them said, They are not here; otherwise you would not have come thus far.

At the time when the Athenians had surrendered their city, [*](At the close of the Peloponnesian war, 404 B.C. Samos had been the naval base for the Athenians during the preceding years.) they declared it was only right that Samos should be left to them, but the Spartans

said, Do you, at a time when you do not even own yourselves, seek to possess others? From this incident arose the proverb: [*](Cf. Dio Chrysostom, Oration, lxxiv. (637 M., 395 R.); Leutsch and Schneidewin, Paroemiographi Graeci, i. p. 292 (Diogenianus, vii. 34), and ii. p. 571 (Apostol. xiii. 5).)
Who does not own himself would Samos own.