Apophthegmata Laconica

Plutarch

Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. I. Goodwin, William W., editor; unknown, translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.

Hippodamus, when Agis was joined in command with Archidamus, being sent with Agis to Sparta to look after affairs there, said, But shall I not die a more glorious death

fighting valiantly in defence of Sparta? He was above fourscore years of age, yet he put on his armor, fought on the right hand of the king, and died bravely.

Hippocratidas, when the governor of Caria sent him word that he had a Spartan in his hands who concealed a conspiracy that he was privy to, and asked how he should deal with him, returned this answer: If you have done him any great kindness, kill him; if not, banish him as a base fellow, too mean-spirited to be good. A youth whom his lover followed meeting him and blushing at the encounter, he said: You should keep such company that, whoever sees you, you will have no reason to change color.

Callicratidas the admiral, when some of Lysander’s friends desired him to permit them to kill one of the enemy, and offered fifty talents for the favor, though he wanted money extremely to buy provision for his soldiers, refused; and when Cleander urged him, and said, Sir, I would have taken the money if I were you, he replied, So would I, were I Cleander. When he came to Sardis to Cyrus the Younger, who was then an ally of the Lacedaemonians, about a sum of money to equip his navy, on the first day he ordered his officers to tell Cyrus that he desired audience; but being told that he was drinking, Well, said he, I shall stay till he hath done. But understanding that he could not be admitted that day, he presently left the court, and thereupon was thought a rude and uncivil fellow. On the next day, when he received the same answer and could not be admitted, he said, I must not be so eager for money as to do any thing unbecoming Sparta. And presently he returned to Ephesus, cursing those who had first endured the insolence of the barbarians, and had taught them to

rely upon their wealth and abuse others; and he swore to his companions that as soon as ever he came to Sparta, he would do all that lay in his power to reconcile the Greek states, that they might be more dreadful to the barbarians, and not forced to seek assistance from them to ruin one another. Being asked what manner of men the Ionians were, he replied, Bad freemen, but good slaves. When Cyrus sent his soldiers their pay, and some particular presents to himself, he received the pay, but sent back the presents, saying that there was no need of any private friendship between them, for the common league with the Lacedaemonians included him. Designing to engage near Arginusae, when Hermon the pilot said, It is advisable to tack about, for the Athenians exceed us in number; he exclaimed: What then! it is base and dishonorable to Sparta to fly, but to stand to it and die or conquer is brave and noble. As he was sacrificing before the battle, when he heard the priest presaging that the army would conquer but the captain fall, undauntedly he said: Sparta doth not depend on one man; my country will receive no great loss by my death, but a considerable one by my yielding to the enemy. And ordering Cleander to succeed as admiral, he readily engaged, and died in the battle.

Cleombrotus, the son of Pausanias, when a friend of his contended with his father which was the best man, said, Sir, my father must be better than you, till you get a son as well as he.

Cleomenes, the son of Anaxandridas, was wont to say that Homer was the poet of the Lacedaemonjans, Hesiod of the Helots; for one taught the art of war, and the other husbandry. Having made a truce for seven days with the

Argives, he watched his opportunity the third night, and perceiving them secure and negligent by reason of the truce, he fell upon them whilst they were asleep, killed some, and took others prisoners. Upon this being upbraided for breach of articles, he said that his oath did not extend to night as well as day, and to hurt a man’s enemies any way, both before God and man, was much better than to be just. It happened that he missed taking Argos, in hopes of which he broke his oath; for the women taking the old arms out of the temples defended the city. And afterwards running stark mad, he seized a knife, and ripped himself up from the very ankles to the vital parts, and thus died grinning and laughing. The priest advising him not to march to Argos, — for he would be forced to a dishonorable retreat, — when he came near the city and saw the gates shut and the women upon the walls, he said: What, sir priests, will this be a dishonorable retreat, when, the men being all lost, the women have shut the gates? When some of the Argives railed at him as an impious and forsworn wretch, he said, Well, it is in your power to rail at me, and in mine to mischief you. The Samian ambassadors urging him to make war on the tyrant Polycrates, and making long harangues on that account, he said: The beginning of your speech I don’t remember, and therefore I cannot understand the middle, and the last I don’t like. A pirate spoiling the country, and when he was taken saying, I had no provision for my soldiers, and therefore went to those who had store and would not give it willingly, to force it from them; Cleomenes said, True villainy goes the shortest way to work. A base fellow railing at him, he said, Well, I think thou railest at everybody, that being employed to defend ourselves, we may have no time to speak of thy baseness.

One of the citizens saying that a good king should be always mild and gracious, True, said he, as long as he doth

not make himself contemptible. Being tormented with a long disease, he consulted the priests and expiators, to whom he formerly gave no credit; and when a friend of his wondered at the action, Why dost thou wonder, said he, for I am not the same man I was then; and since I am not the same, I do not approve the same things. A Sophist discoursing of courage, he laughed exceedingly; and the Sophist saying, Why do you laugh, Cleomenes, when you hear one treat of courage, especially since you are a king? Because, sir, said he, if a swallow should discourse of it, I should laugh; but if an eagle, I should hearken attentively.

When the Argives boasted that they would retrieve their defeat by a new battle, he said, I wonder if the addition of two syllables[*](That is, changing μάχεσθαι (to fight) into ἀναμάχεσθαι (to retrieve a defeat). (G.)) has made you braver than you were before. When one railed at him, and said, Thou art luxurious, Cleomenes; Well, he replied, that is better than to be unjust; but thou art covetous, although thou art master of abundance of superfluities. A friend willing to recommend a musician to him, besides other large commendations, said he was the best musician in all Greece. Cleomenes, pointing to one that stood by, said, Faith, sir, that fellow is my best cook. Maeander the Samian tyrant, flying to Sparta upon the invasion of the Persian, discovering what treasure he had brought, and offering Cleomenes as much as he would have, Cleomenes refused, and beside took care that he should not give any of the citizens a farthing; but going to the Ephors, told them that it would be good for Sparta to send that Samian guest of his out of Peloponnesus, lest he should persuade any of the Lacedaemonians to be a knave. And they taking his advice ordered Maeander to be gone that very day. One asking why, since they had beaten the Argives so often, they did not totally destroy them, he replied, That we may have some to exercise our

youth. One demanding why the Spartans did not dedicate the spoils of their enemies to the Gods, Because, said he, they are taken from cowards; and such things as are betrayed to us by the cowardice of the possessors are fit neither for our youth to see, nor to be dedicated to the Gods.

Cleomenes, the son of Cleombrotus, to one that presented him some game-cocks, and said, Sir, these will die before they run, returned: Pray let me have some of that breed which will kill these, for certainly they are the better of the two.

Labotus said to one that made a long discourse: Why such great preambles to so small a matter? A speech should be no bigger than the subject.

Leotychidas the First, when one said he was very inconstant, replied, My inconstancy proceeds from the variety of times, and not as yours from innate baseness. And to another asking him what was the best way to secure his present happiness, he answered, Not to trust all to Fortune. And to another enquiring what free-born boys should principally learn, That, said he, which will profit them when they are grown men. And to another asking why the Spartans drink little, he replied, That we may consult concerning others, and not others concerning us.

Leotychidas the son of Aristo, when one told him that Demaratus’s sons spake ill of him, replied, Faith, no wonder, for not one of them can speak well. A serpent

twisting about the key of his inmost door, and the priests declaring it a prodigy; I cannot think it so, said he, but it had been one if the key had twisted round the serpent. To Philip, a priest of Orpheus’s mysteries, in extreme poverty, saying that those whom he initiated were very happy after death, he said, Why then, you sot, don’t you die quickly, and bewail your poverty and misery no more?

Leo the son of Eucratidas, being asked in what city a man might live with the greatest safety, replied, In that where the inhabitants have neither too much nor too little; where justice is strong and injustice weak. Seeing the racers in the Olympian games very solicitous at starting to get some advantage of one another, he said, How much more careful are these racers to be counted swift than just! To one discoursing of some profitable matters out of due season he said, Sir, you do a very good thing at a very bad time.

Leonidas, the son of Anaxandridas and brother to Cleomenes, when one said to him, Abating that you are king, you are no better than we, replied, But unless I had been better than you, I had not been king. His wife Gorgo, when he went forth to Thermopylae to fight the Persian, asked him what command he left with her; and he replied, Marry brave men, and bear them brave children. The Ephors saying, You lead but few to Thermopylae; They are many, said he, considering on what design we go. And when they again asked him whether he had any other enterprise in his thought, he replied, I pretend to go to hinder the barbarians’ passage, but really to die fighting for the Greeks. When he was at Thermopylae, he said to his soldiers: They report the enemy is at hand, and we lose

time; for we must either beat the barbarian or die ourselves. And to another saying, What, the flights of the Persian arrows will darken the very sun, he said, Therefore it will be pleasant for us to fight in the shade. And another saying, What, Leonidas, do you come to fight so great a number with so few? — he returned: If you esteem number, all Greece is not able to match a small part of that army; if courage, this number is sufficient. And to another discoursing after the same manner he said, I have enough, since they are to be killed. When Xerxes wrote to him thus, Sir, you may forbear to fight against the Gods, but may follow my interest and be lord of all Greece, he answered: If you understood wherein consisted the happiness of life, you would not covet other men’s; but know that I would rather die for the liberty of Greece than be a monarch over my countrymen. And Xerxes writing to him again thus, Send me thy arms, he returned, Come and take them. When he resolved to fall upon the enemy, and his captains of the war told him he must stay till the forces of the allies had joined him, he said: Do you think all those that intend to fight are not here already? Or do you not understand that those only fight who fear and reverence their kings? And he ordered his soldiers so to dine, as if they were to sup in another world. And being asked why the bravest men prefer an honorable death before an inglorious life, he replied, Because they believe one is the gift of Nature, while the other is peculiarly their own. Being desirous to save the striplings that were with him, and knowing very well that if he dealt openly with them none would accept his kindness, he gave each of them privately letters to carry to the Ephors. He desired likewise to save three of those that were grown men; but they having some notice of his design refused the letters. And one of them said, I came, sir, to be a soldier, and not a courier; and the second, I shall be a better man if here than if away;

and the third, I will not be behind these, but the first in the fight.

Lochagus the father of Polyaenides and Siron, when one told him one of his sons was dead, said, I knew long ago that he must die.

Lycurgus the lawgiver, designing to reclaim his citizens from their former luxury and bring them to a more sober course of life and make them brave men (for they were then loose and delicate), bred up two whelps of the same litter; one he kept at home, bred him tenderly, and fed him well; but the other he taught to hunt, and used him to the chase. Both these dogs he brought out into the public assembly, and setting down some scraps of meat and letting go a hare at the same time, each of the dogs ran greedily to what they had been accustomed. And the hunter catching the hare, Lycurgus said: See, countrymen, how these two, though of the same litter, by my breeding them are become very different; and that custom and exercise conduces more than Nature to make things brave and excellent. Some say that he did not bring out two whelps of the same kind, but one a house dog and the other a hunter; the former of which (though the baser kind) he had accustomed to the woods, and the other (though more noble) kept lazily at home; and when in public, each of them pursuing his usual delight, he had given a clear evidence that education is of considerable force in raising bad or good inclinations, he said: Therefore, countrymen, our honorable extraction, that idol of the crowd, though from Hercules himself, profits us little, unless we learn and exercise all our life in such famous exploits as made him accounted the most noble and the most glorious in the world.

When he made a division of the land, giving each man an equal portion, it is reported that some while after, in his return from a journey, as he past through the country in harvest time and saw the cocks of wheat all equal and lying promiscuously, he was extremely pleased, and with a smile said to his companions, All Sparta looks like the possession of many loving brothers who have lately divided their estate. Having discharged every man from his debts, he endeavored likewise to divide all movables equally amongst all, that he might have no inequality in his commonwealth. But seeing that the rich men would hardly endure this open and apparent spoil, he cried down all gold and silver coin, and ordered nothing but iron to be current; and rated every man’s estate and defined how much it was worth upon exchange for that money. By this means all injustice was banished Sparta; for none would steal, none take bribes, none cheat or rob any man of that which he could not conceal, which none would envy, which could not be used without discovery, or carried into other countries with advantage. Besides, this contrivance freed them from all superfluous arts; for no merchant, Sophist, fortune-teller, or mountebank would live amongst them; no carver, no contriver ever troubled Sparta; because he cried down all money that was advantageous to them, and permitted none but this iron coin, each piece of which was an Aegina pound in weight, and less than a penny in value.[*](According to Plutarch, the Spartan iron coin weighed an Aeginetan mina (about 1 1/2 lbs. avoir.), and was of the value of four chalci (or 3 1/4 farthings, about 1 1/2 cents). (G.)) Designing farther to check all luxury and greediness after wealth, he instituted public meals, where all the citizens were obliged to eat. And when some of his friends demanded what he designed by this institution and why he divided the citizens, when in arms, into small companies, he replied: That they may more

easily hear the word of command; and if there are any designs against the state, the conspiracy may join but few; and besides, that there may be an equality in the provision, and that neither in meat nor drink, sets, tables, or any furniture, the rich may be better provided than the poor. When he had by this contrivance made wealth less desirable, it being unfit both for use and show, he said to his familiars, What a brave thing is it, my friends, by our actions to make Plutus appear (as he is indeed) blind! He took care that none should sup at home and afterwards, when they were full of other victuals, come to the public entertainments; for all the rest reproached him that did not feed with them as a glutton and of too delicate a palate for the public provision; and when he was discovered, he was severely punished. And therefore Agis the king, when after a long absence he returned from the camp (the Athenians were beaten in the expedition), willing to sup at home with his wife once, sent a servant for his allowance; the officers refused, and the next day the Ephors fined him for the fault.

The wealthy citizens being offended at these constitutions made a mutiny against him, abused, threw stones, and designed to kill him, Thus pursued, he ran through the market-place towards the temple of Minerva of the Brazen House, and reached it before any of the others; only Alcander pursuing close struck him as he turned about, and beat out one eye. Afterward the commonwealth delivered up this Alcander to his mercy; but he neither inflicted any punishment nor gave him an ill word, but kindly entertained him at his own house, and brought him to be his friend, an admirer of his course of life and very well affected to all his laws. Yet he built a monument of this sad disaster in the temple of Minerva, naming it Optiletis, — for the Dorians in that country call eyes optiloi. Being asked why he used no written laws, he replied, Because

those that are well instructed are able to suit matters to the present occasion. And another time, when some enquired why he had ordained that the timber which roofed the houses should be wrought with the axe only, and the doors with no other instrument but the saw, he answered: That my citizens might be moderate in every thing which they bring into their houses, and possess nothing which others so much prize and value. And hence it is reported that King Leotychides the First, supping with a friend and seeing the roof curiously arched and richly wrought, asked him whether in that country the trees grew square. And some demanding why he forbade them to war often with the same nation, he replied, Lest being often forced to stand on their defence, they should get experience and be masters of our art. And therefore it was a great fault in Agesilaus, that by his frequent incursions into Boeotia he made the Thebans a match for the Lacedaemonians. And another asking why he exercised the virgins’ bodies with racing, wrestling, throwing the bar, and the like, he answered: That the first rooting of the children being strong and firm, their growth might be proportionable; and that the women might have strength to bear and more easily undergo the pains of travail, or, if necessity should require, be able to fight for themselves, their country, and their children. Some being displeased that the virgins went about naked at certain solemnities, and demanding the reason of that custom, he replied: That using the same exercises with men, they might equal them in strength and health of body and in courage and bravery of mind, and be above that mean opinion which the vulgar had of them. And hence goes the story of Gorgo, wife of Leonidas, that when a stranger, a friend of hers, said, You Spartan women alone rule men, she replied, Good reason, for we alone bear men. By ordering that no bachelor should be admitted a spectator of these naked solemnities

and fixing some other disgrace on them, he made them all eager to be married and get children; besides, he deprived them of that honor and observance which the young men were bound to pay their elders. And upon that account none can blame what was said to Dercyllidas, though a brave captain’; for as he approached, one of the young men refused to rise up and give him place, saying, You have not begotten any to give place to me.

When one asked him why he allowed no dowry to be given with a maid, he answered, that none might be slighted for their poverty or courted for their wealth, but that every one, considering the manners of the maid, might choose for the sake of virtue. And for the same reason he forbade all painting of the face and curiousness in dress and ornament. To one that asked him why he made a law that before such an age neither sex should marry, he answered, that the children might be lusty, being born of persons of full age. And to one wondering why he would not suffer the husband to lie all night with his wife, but commanded them to be most of the day and all the night with their fellows, and creep to their wives cautiously and by stealth, he said: I do it that they may be strong in body, having never been satiated and surfeited with pleasure; that they may be always fresh in love, and their children more strong and lusty. He forbade all perfumes, as nothing but good oil corrupted, and the dyer’s art, as a flatterer and enticer of the sense; and he ejected all skilled in ornament and dressing, as those who by their lewd devices corrupt the true arts of decency and living well. At that time the women were so chaste and such strangers to that lightness to which they were afterwards addicted, that adultery was incredible; and there goes a saying of Geradatas, one of the ancient Spartans, who being asked by a stranger what punishment the Spartans appointed for adulterers (for Lycurgus mentioned none), he said, Sir, we

have no adulterers amongst us. And he replying, But suppose there should be? Geradatas made the same reply; For how (said he) could there be an adulterer in Sparta, where wealth, delicacy, and all ornaments are disesteemed, and modesty, neatness, and obedience to the governors only are in request? When one desired him to establish a democracy in Sparta, he said, Pray, sir, do you first set up that form in your own family. And to another demanding why he ordered such mean sacrifices he answered, That we may always be able to honor the Gods. He permitted the citizens those exercises only in which the hand is not stretched out; and one demanding his reason, he replied, That none in any labor may be accustomed to be weary. And another enquiring why he ordered that in a war the camp should be often changed, he answered, That we may damage our enemies the more. Another demanding why he forbade to storm a castle, he said, Lest my brave men should be killed by a woman, a boy, or some man of as mean courage.

When the Thebans asked his advice about the sacrifices and lamentation which they instituted in honor of Leucothea, he gave them this: If you think her a Goddess, do not lament; if a woman, do not sacrifice to her as a Goddess. To some of the citizens enquiring, How shall we avoid the invasions of enemies, he replied, If you are poor, and one covets no more than another. And to others demanding why he did not wall his city he said, That city is not unwalled which is encompassed with men and not brick. The Spartans are curious in their hair, and tell us that Lycurgus said, It makes the handsome more amiable, and the ugly more terrible. He ordered that in a war they should pursue the routed enemy so far as to secure the victory, and then retreat, saying, it was unbecoming the Grecian bravery to butcher those that fled; and beside, it was useful, for their enemies, knowing that they spared

all that yielded and cut in pieces the opposers, would easily conclude that it was safer to fly than to stand stoutly to it and resist. When one asked him why he charged his soldiers not to meddle with the spoil of their slain enemies, he replied, Lest while they are eager on their prey they neglect their fighting, but also that they may keep their order and their poverty together.

Lysander, when Dionysius sent him two gowns, and bade him choose which he would to carry to his daughter, said, She can choose best; and so took both away with him. This Lysander being a very crafty fellow, frequently using subtle tricks and notable deceits, placing all justice and honesty in profit and advantage, would confess that truth indeed was better than a lie, but the worth and dignity of either was to be defined by their usefulness to our affairs. And to some that were bitter upon him for these deceitful practices, as unworthy of Hercules’s family, and owing his success to little mean tricks and not plain force and open dealing, he answered with a smile, When the lion’s skin cannot prevail, a little of the fox’s must be used. And to others that upbraided him for breaking his oaths made at Miletus he said, Boys must be cheated with cockal-bones, and men with oaths. Having surprised the Athenians by an ambush near the Goat Rivers and routed them, and afterwards by famine forced the city to surrender, he wrote to the Ephors, Athens is taken. When the Argives were in a debate with the Lacedaemonians about their confines and seemed to have the better reasons on their side, drawing his sword, he said, He that hath this is the best pleader about confines. Leading his army through Boeotia, and finding that state wavering and not fixed on either party, he sent to know whether he should march through their country with his spears up or down. At an assembly of the states of

Greece, when a Megarian talked saucily to him, he said, Sir, your words want a city. The Corinthians revolting, and he approaching to the walls that he saw the Spartans not eager to storm, while at the same time hares were skipping over the trenches of the town; Are not you ashamed (said he) to be afraid of those enemies whose slothfulness suffers even hares to sleep upon their walls? At Samothrace, as he was consulting the oracle, the priests ordered him to confess the greatest crime he had been guilty of in his whole life. What, said he, is this your own, or the God’s command? And the priests replying, The God’s; said he, Do you withdraw, and I will tell them, if they make any such demand. A Persian asking him what polity he liked, That, he replied, which assigns stout men and cowards suitable rewards. To one that said, Sir, I always commend you and speak in your behalf, — Well, said he, I have two oxen in the field, and though neither says one word, I know very well which is the laborious and which the lazy. To one that railed at him he said, Speak, sir, let us have it all fast, if thou canst empty thy soul of those wicked thoughts which thou seemest full of. Some time after his death, there happening a difference between the Spartans and their allies, Agesilaus went to Lysander’s house to inspect some papers that lay in his custody relating to that matter; and there found an oration composed for Lysander concerning the government, setting forth that it was expedient to set aside the families of the Europrotidae and Agidae, to admit all to an equal claim, and choose their king out of the worthiest men, that the crown might be the reward not of those that shared in the blood of Hercules, but of those who were like him for virtue and courage, that virtue that exalted him into a God. This oration Agesilaus was resolved to publish, to show the Spartans how much they were mistaken in Lysander and to discredit his friends; but they say, Cratidas the president of the Ephors fearing

this oration, if published, would prevail upon the people, advised Agesilaus to be quiet, telling him that he should not dig up Lysander, but rather bury that oration with him, being so cunningly contrived, so powerful to persuade. Those that courted his daughters, and when at his death he appeared to be poor forsook them, the Ephors fined, because whilst they thought him rich they caressed him, but scorned him when by his poverty they knew him to be just and honest.

Namertes being on an embassy, when one of that country told him he was a happy man in having so many friends, asked him if he knew any certain way to try whether a man had many friends or not; and the other being earnest to be told, Namertes replied, Adversity.

Nicander, when one told him that the Argives spake very ill of him, said, Well, they suffer for speaking ill of good men. And to one that enquired why they wore long hair and long beards, he answered, Because man’s natural ornaments are the handsomest and the cheapest. An Athenian saying, Nicander, you Spartans are extremely idle; You say true, he answered, but we do not busy ourselves like you in every trifle.

When Panthoidas was ambassador in Asia and some showed him a strong fortification, Faith, said he, it is a fine cloister for women. In the Academy, when the philosophers had made a great many and excellent discourses, and asked Panthoidas how he liked them; Indeed, said he, I think them very good, but of no profit at all, since you yourselves do not use them.

Pausanias the son of Cleombrotus, when the Delians pleaded their title to the island against the Athenians, and urged that according to their law no women were ever brought to bed or any carcass buried in the isle, said. How then can that be your country, in which not one of you was born or shall ever lie? The exiles urging him to march against the Athenians, and saying that, when he was proclaimed victor in the Olympic games, these alone hissed; How, says he, since they hissed whilst we did them good, what do you think they will do when abused? When one asked him why they made Tyrtaeus the poet a citizen, he answered, That no foreigner should be our captain. A man of a weak and puny body advising to fight the enemy both by sea and land; Pray, sir, says he, will you strip and show what a man you are who advise to engage? When some amongst the spoils of the barbarians admired the richness of their clothes; It had been better, he said, that they had been men of worth themselves than that they should possess things of worth. After the victory over the Medes at Plataea, he commanded his officers to set before him the Persian banquet that was already dressed; which appearing very sumptuous, By heaven, quoth he, the Persian is an abominable glutton, who, when he hath such delicacies at home, comes to eat our barley-cakes.

Pausanias the son of Plistoanax replied to one that asked him why it was not lawful for the Spartans to abrogate any of their old laws, Because men ought to be subject to laws, and not the laws to men. When banished and at Tegea, he commended the Lacedaemonians. One said to him, Why then did you not stay at Sparta? And he returned, Physicians are conversant not amongst the

healthy, but the diseased. To one asking him how they should conquer the Thracians, he replied, If we make the best man our captain. A physician, after he had felt his pulse and considered his constitution, saying, He ails nothing; It is because, sir, he replied, I use none of your physic. When one of his friends blamed him for giving a physician an ill character, since he had no experience of his skill nor received any injury from him; No, faith, said he, for had I tried him, I had not lived to give this character. And when the physician said, Sir, you are an old man; That happens, he replied, because you were never my doctor. And he was used to say, that he was the best physician, who did not let his patients rot above ground, but quickly buried them.

Paedaretus, when one told him the enemies were numerous, said, Therefore we shall get the greater reputation, for we shall kill the more. Seeing a man soft by nature and a coward commended by the citizens for his lenity and good disposition, he said, We should not praise men that are like women, nor women that are like men, unless some extremity forceth a woman to stand upon her guard. When he was not chosen into the three hundred (the chief order in the city), he went away laughing and very jocund; and the Ephors calling him back and asking why he laughed, Why, said he, I congratulate the happiness of the city, that enjoys three hundred citizens better than myself.