Instituta Laconia

Plutarch

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

In wars they used red garments for two reasons: first, the colour they thought was a manly colour, and second, the blood-red hue causes more terror in the minds of inexperienced. Also, if anyone of them receive a wound, it is advantageous that it be not easily discovered by the enemy, but be unperceived by reason of the identity of colour.[*](Cf. Xenophon, Constitution of Sparta, 2. 3; the scholium on Aristophanes, Acharnians, 319; Aelian, Varia Historia, vi. 6; Valerius Maximus, ii. 6. 2.)