Apophthegmata Laconica
Plutarch
Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. III. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1931 (printing).
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.
When the Spartans had taken by storm a certain city, the Ephors said, Gone is the wrestlingschool of our young men; they no longer will have competitors. [*](The last clause looks like an explanatory comment. Pantazides would omit it.)
When their king promised to wipe out completely another city which, as it happened, had given much trouble to the Spartans, they would not allow it, saying, You must not abolish nor remove the whetstone of our youth.
They appointed no trainers to instruct in wrestling so that the rivalry might be not in skill, but in courage. [*](Cf.Moralia, 639 F, and Plutarch’s Life of Pelopidas, chap. vii. (281 B).) This is the reason why Lysanoridas, when he was asked how Charon had conquered him, said, By his great resourcefulness.
Philip wrote at the time when he entered their country, asking whether they wished that he should come as a friend or as a foe; and they made answer, Neither.
They sent an ambassador to Antigonus, son of Demetrius, and, upon learning that the ambassador had addressed Antigonus as King, they fined him, although he had brought for each one of them a bushel and a half of wheat at a time when there was great scarcity of food.