Apophthegmata Laconica

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. )