Apophthegmata Laconica

Plutarch

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

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. )

A Spartan had as an emblem on his shield a

fly, and that, too, no bigger than life-size. When some mockingly said that he had done this to escape being noticed, he said, Rather that I may be noticeable; for I come so close to the enemy that my emblem is seen by them in its true size.

Another, when a lyre was brought in at an evening party, said, It is not Spartan to indulge in nonsense. [*](Cf.Moralia, 220 A (3). For the expression of similar sentiments see Plutarch’s Life of Themistocles, chap. ii. (112 C); Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, i. 2 (4).)

A Spartan, being asked if the road into Sparta were safe, said, That depends on what kind of a mon ye are; for the lions gang about where they wull, but the hares we hunt over that land.

In a clinch one wrestler, who had the other by the neck, overpowered him with little effort, and pulled him to the ground. Since the one who was down was at a disadvantage in using his body, he bit the arm that held him. His opponent said, Spartan, you bite like a woman. No, indeed, said he, but like a lion. [*](The same story is told of Alcibiades in Moralia, 186 D (1), and in Plutarch’s Life of Alcibiades, chap. i. (192 C).)

A lame man was going forth to war, and some persons followed after him laughing. He turned around and said, You vile noddles! A man does not need to run away when he fights the enemy, but to stay where he is and hold his ground. [*](Cf.Moralia, 210 F (34), and 217 C; Valerius Maximus, iii. 7, ext. 8.)

Another, [*](Callicrates at the battle of Plataea (Herodotus, ix. 72).) mortally wounded by an arrow, said, as his life was ebbing away, I am not troubled because I must die, but because my death comes at the hands of a womanish archer, and before I have accomplished anything. [*](Repeated by Plutarch, Life of Aristeides, chap. xvii. (329 C).)

A man stopped at an inn and gave the innkeeper a piece of meat to prepare; and when the innkeeper asked for cheese and oil besides, the other said, If I had cheese, what need should I have of meat too? [*](Repeated in Moralia, 995 B, where the meat is fish. Cf. also Aelian, Varia Historia, 787 A; Demosthenes, Or. xxiii. 211 (691).)

In answer to the man who called Lampis [*](Lampis was famous for his ships and his wealth. Cf., for example, Moralia, 787 A; Demosthenes, Or. xxiii. 211 (691).) of Aegina happy, because he seemed very rich in having many cargoes on the sea in ships, a Spartan said, I do not pay much attention to happiness that hangs by ropes! [*](Cf. Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, v. 14 (40).)