Apophthegmata Laconica

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

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.

When Demetrius complained that they had

When a bad man brought in a very good idea, they accepted it; but they took it away from him and bestowed the right of proposing it upon another man who had lived a virtuous life. [*](Cf.Moralia, 41 B, and 801 B; Aeschines, Against Timarchus, 180-181; Philo Judaeus, The Worse Plotting against the Better, 195 B; Aulus Gellius, xviii. 3.)

When two brothers quarrelled with each other, the Spartans fined the father because he permitted his sons to quarrel.

They fined a visiting harp-player because he played the harp with his fingers. [*](Thus making the music pleasanter to hear than if he had used the plectrum. Cf. Moralia, 802 F.)

Two boys were fighting, and one of them wounded the other mortally with the stroke of a sickle. The friends of the wounded boy, as they were about to separate, promised to avenge him and make away with the one who had struck him, but the boy said, In Heaven’s name do not, for it is not right; the fact is, I should have done that myself if I had been quick enough and brave enough.

In the case of another boy, when the time had arrived during which it was the custom for the free boys to steal whatever they could, and it was a disgrace not to escape being found out, when the boys with him had stolen a young fox alive, and given it to him to keep, and those who had lost the fox came in search for it, the boy happened to have slipped the fox under his garment. The beast, however, became savage and ate through his side to the vitals; but the boy did not move or cry out, so as to avoid being exposed, and later, when they had departed, the boys saw what had happened, and blamed him, saying that

Some people, encountering Spartans on the road, said, You are in luck, for robbers have just left this place, but they said, Egad, no, but it is they who are in luck for not encountering us. [*](Cf. the note on Moralia, 194 D (3), supra. )

A Spartan being asked what he knew, said, How to be free.

A Spartan boy, being taken captive by Antigonus the king and sold, was obedient in all else to the one who had bought him, that is, in everything which he thought fitting for a free person to do, but when his owner bade him bring a chamber-pot, he would not brook such treatment, saying, I will not be a slave; and when the other was insistent, he went up upon the roof, and saying, You will gain much by your bargain, he threw himself down and ended his life. [*](Cf.Moralia, 242 D (30), infra. This story is repeated by Philo Judaeus, Every Virtuous Man is Free, chap. xvii. (882 C); Seneca, Epistulae Moral. no. 77 (x. 1. 14), and is referred to by Epictetus, i. 2.)

Another one being sold, when someone said, If I buy you, will you be good and helpful? said, Yes, and if you do not buy me. [*](Cf.Moralia, 242 C (29), infra. )

Another captive being put up for sale, when the crier announced that he was offering a slave for sale, said, You damnable wretch, won’t you say a captive? [*](Cf.Moralia, 233 C (21), supra. )