SAYINGS

INTRODUCTION

As Plutarch explained and illustrated at some length in his Life of Lycurgus, to develop ‘the technique of expressing a range of ideas in just a few, spare words' was an important part of every Spartiate's upbringing. Such Spartan ‘sayings’ caught the imagination of other Greeks and featured in written accounts as early as that of Herodotus in the fifth century. By the late fourth century Aristotle in his Rhetoric can mention ‘Laconic sayings’ as a distinct type of maxim which an orator will find useful. At the same period such sayings also came to have special appeal for Diogenes and his followers in their ‘Cynic’ way of life, which spurned material possessions and questioned conventions of every kind. The Cynics' vision of Spartan society and traditional Spartan attitudes so tremendously stirred their admiration that they were active in developing – or perhaps even establishing – collections of Spartan sayings which continued to enjoy a wide popularity for centuries.

Plutarch's interest in the saying of Spartans and others derives to a marked extent from his concern for the character of his subjects in the Lives. Thus he acknowledges his failure to give a full account of the careers of Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, and goes on to excuse it in the following terms:

For neither is it histories we are writing, but lives, nor is there by any means display of merit or vice in the most outstanding actions, but often a trivial matter as well as a remark and some joke have offered a better illustration of character than clashes with countless casualties and the biggest battalions and sieges of cities.

Elsewhere Plutarch mentions that he made a practice of collecting anecdotes and sayings, and it is entirely understandable that various sets of such material should have been attributed to him and preserved among his Moralia. The two most immediately relevant to this volume are what editors have called Sayings of Spartans and Sayings of Spartan Women. The second of these is much the shorter, as well as being separated from the first by a brief compilation of material outlining Spartan customs. In addition, considerable duplication occurs between Sayings of Spartans and the Spartan section of a further collection called Sayings of Kings and Generals.

Sayings of Spartans preserves something over 340 sayings of 68 named Spartiates arranged in (Greek) alphabetical order, followed by 72 anonymous sayings. ‘Saying' here admits no strict definition. Most are indeed pointed remarks, but wide variations remain in their length and in the explanation of their context. Other sayings are in fact anecdotes of notable exploits or attitudes on the part of Spartiates. The spread of material among named Spartiates is very uneven. While as many as 79 sayings are attributed to Agesilaus, next in order is Lycurgus with 31, then Agis son of Archidamus and Cleomenes son of Anaxandridas with 18 each; at the other end of the scale the majority have no more than one or two sayings attributed to them. In Sayings of Spartan Women a mere ten sayings are attributed to four named women (even the last name beginning with no more than the fourth letter of the alphabet), followed by 30 anonymous sayings.

Sufficient accounts of Sparta and Spartan history survive to prove how the sayings in these collections derive from a wide variety of sources followed with varying degrees of conscientiousness. Historical accuracy, however, was considered much less important than sharp, attractive presentation: occasionally even the Doric forms of Greek, which Spartans would have used, are introduced for the sake of ‘authenticity’. Attribution of versions of the same saying to two or more Spartans (legendary figures among them!) is commonplace, but again unimportant to their inventors. The same applies to the confusion and anachronism which can occur in historical details. How different sayings were formulated and embroidered over the centuries can no longer be traced.

From all this it follows that the sayings are to be relied upon as historical sources only with the greatest caution. The sayings are mostly intended to reflect what were considered excellent features of the Spartan character, and their value lies rather in the demonstration they offer of how Sparta's admirers from the fourth century onwards (Plutarch among them) liked to dream of her citizens in bygone days – bold, wise, just, free, unworldly.

Scholars continue to debate what part, if any, Plutarch himself played in the compilation of either collection translated here. It is striking, however, that those sayings in Sayings of Spartans attributed to Agesilaus, Lycurgus and Lysander that also feature in the corresponding Life by Plutarch appear in the same order in both works. To be sure, the explanation may be that whoever complied Sayings of Spartans did so after the appearance of the Lives, and was able to excerpt from them. But this hypothesis is rendered less persuasive, among other reasons, by the presence of further sayings – not appearing in the relevant Life – interspersed among those that do occur in the Lives. It seems distinctly more likely that Sayings of Spartans (in part at least, if not as a whole) represents preliminary research material gathered by Plutarch in preparation for writing Lives. Whenever he turned to the latter task, he could select from the collection of sayings he had already assembled himself. It is conceivable, too, that he had expanded or adapted one or other pre-existing collections of Spartan sayings. His role in the compilation of Sayings of Spartan Women must remain a more open question.

This translation omits those sayings attributed to Lycurgus and Agesilaus which largely duplicate passages in the corresponding Life by Plutarch. Since most of the Sayings of Unnamed Spartans likewise repeat what may be found elsewhere in this volume, they are omitted also. A few other sayings are omitted because the text is in too poor a condition to render them comprehensible.

SAYINGS OF SPARTANS

AGASICLES

(Sixth-century Eurypontid king)

1. Agasicles, king of the Spartans, despite his fondness for intellectual discourse, would not entertain the sophist Philophanes. When someone expressed surprise at this, he declared: ‘I want to be the student of men whose son I should like to be as well.’

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2. When asked how anyone could rule the citizens safely without having a bodyguard, he said: ‘By ruling them in the way that fathers do their sons.’

AGESILAUS

(Eurypontid king, 400–360)

1. When the great Agesilaus was once chosen by lot to preside at a drinking session, and the cupbearer asked him how much to serve each man, his answer was: ‘If plenty of wine has been provided, then as much as each requests; but if there is only a little, then give everyone an equal amount.’

2. When some criminal submitted calmly to torture, he remarked: ‘What an exceptionally wicked man he is to apply such endurance and fortitude to evil and disreputable ends.’

3. When somebody was praising an orator for his ability to magnify small points, he said: ‘In my opinion it's not a good cobbler who fits large shoes on small feet.’

4. When somebody once said to him, ‘You did agree,’ and frequently repeated the point, he responded: ‘Yes, by Zeus, I did, if it's right to; if not, though I spoke the words, I did not agree.’ When the other added: ‘But surely kings should fulfil “whate'er they assent to with a nod of the head”,’¹ he replied: ‘No more than those who approach kings should make proper requests and statements, aiming both for the right moment and for something appropriate to kings.’

5. Whenever he heard people being critical or complimentary, he considered it just as important to establish the characters of those talking as of those being talked about.

6. When he was still a boy, at a celebration of the Gymnopaediae the choral director put him in an inconspicuous position. Even though he was already in line to become king, ² he complied, and remarked: ‘That's fine, for I shall show that it isn't positions which lend men distinction, but men who enhance positions.’

7. When some doctor prescribed for him a rather elaborate and complicated course of treatment, he declared: ‘By the two gods, ³ I surely have no prospect of remaining alive if I have to put up with all that.’

8. Once he was standing sacrificing an ox at the altar of Athena of the Bronze House and a louse bit him, but he was not upset. Quite openly in front of everybody he caught and killed it, with the remark: ‘By the gods, what a pleasure to eliminate the conspirator even at the altar.’

9. Another time he watched a mouse being pulled from its hole by a small boy. When the mouse turned round, bit the hand of its captor and escaped, he pointed this out to those present and said: ‘When the tiniest creature defends itself like this against aggressors, what ought men to do, do you reckon?’

10. When he wanted to go to war against Persia with the aim of liberating the Greeks living in Asia, he consulted the oracle of Zeus at Dodona. Its instructions were to launch the campaign if the person responsible for the decision considered it feasible. He informed the ephors of this response, and they told him to go to Delphi and repeat his inquiry. So when he entered the shrine of the oracle, he framed his question like this: ‘Apollo, is your opinion the same as your father's?’ When Apollo concurred, Agesilaus was selected and thus did go on the campaign.

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15. When Megabates the son of Spithridates, who had a most handsome figure, came up to embrace Agesilaus and kiss him – under the impression that he was extremely fond of him – Agesilaus recoiled. Since Megabates then ceased to approach him, Agesilaus asked after him. His friends told him that it was his own fault for being frightened of a kiss from the handsome youth, but that if he were willing and wouldn't flinch, then Megabates would return. Agesilaus thought this over in silence for a while and declared: ‘You needn't try to persuade him, since my view is that I should prefer to be above such things than to take by storm the best-manned city of my opponents. For it is better to maintain one's own freedom than to deprive others of theirs.’

18. His personal lifestyle was in no way superior to that of his comrades. He totally abstained from eating and drinking to excess, while he treated sleep not as his master, but rather as a subject governed by his own activities. His reactions to heat and cold were such that he alone always took advantage of the changing seasons. He would pitch his tent in the midst of his troops and had bedding of no better quality than anyone else.

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19. He frequently remarked that the commander should outclass his troops not in fastidiousness and high living, but in stamina and courage.

20. Certainly when somebody asked what gain the laws of Lycurgus had brought Sparta, he said: ‘Contempt for pleasures.’

21. To the man who was amazed at how modest his clothes and his meals were, and those of the other Spartans as well, he said: ‘Freedom is what we reap from this way of life, my friend.’

23. Even when he had grown old he maintained the same regime. So to the man who inquired why on attaining such an age he still went about without any undergarment in the depths of winter, he said: ‘So that the young men may do the same, with the oldest men and office-holders as their example.’

24. As he was traversing the Thasians’⁴ territory with his army, they sent him barley-meal, geese, dried fruits, honey cakes, and all sorts of expensive things to eat and drink. He accepted just the barley-meal, but as for everything else he instructed those who had brought it to take it back, since his men would have no use for it. Yet when they begged and pleaded with him to accept it all the same, he told them to hand it over to the helots. When they asked why, he said: ‘It's quite inappropriate for those who profess true manly qualities to accept such delicacies. Things which attract slavish characters are alien to free men.’

25. The Thasians again, because of their belief that he was bringing them such notable benefits, had honoured him with temples and deification and had despatched an embassy to him in this connection. He read the list of honours conveyed to him by the envoys and enquired whether their country had power to deify humans. When they said it did, he replied: ‘Very well, make yourselves gods first, and when you have achieved that, then I shall believe your claim that you will be able to make me a god too.’

26. When the Greek peoples in Asia voted to erect statues of him in their most famous cities, he was quick in writing to them: ‘There is to be no image of me, either painted or modelled or constructed.’

27. On noticing a house in Asia roofed with square beams, he asked the owner whether timber grew square in that area. When told no, it grew round, he said: ‘What then? If it were square, would you make it round?’

28. Asked once how far Sparta's boundaries stretched, he brandished his spear and said: ‘As far as this can reach.’

29. When somebody else asked why Sparta lacked fortification walls, he pointed to the citizens under arms and said: ‘These are the Spartans' walls.’

30. When another person put the same question to him, his reply was: ‘Cities shouldn't be fortified with stones or timbers, but with the valour of their inhabitants.’

31. He recommended his friends to strive to be rich not in possessions, but in courage and merit.

32. Whenever he wanted some job done promptly by his troops, he first got down to it personally in full view of everyone.

33. He was prouder of working just as hard as anyone, and in exercising self-discipline, than he was of being king.

34. Noticing a lame Spartan setting off to fight and looking for a horse, he said: ‘Don't you realize that war requires not men who flee, but those who stand their ground?’

35. Questioned as to how he had gained his great reputation, he said: ‘By having despised death.’

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36. When someone asked why Spartiates go into battle to the music of pipes, he said: ‘So that, as they proceed in step to the music, both the cowards and the brave may be clearly distinguished.’⁵

37. When someone was extolling the happy circumstances of the king of the Persians, who was quite a young man, he remarked: ‘But at that age not even Priam had met with disaster.’

38. After gaining much of Asia he decided to advance against the Great King himself with the intention of putting an end to his leisure and his bribery of the Greeks' popular leaders.

39. When the ephors recalled him⁶ because Sparta was ringed by Greek enemies thanks to the money sent over by the Persians, he declared that the good commander should be commanded by the laws, and sailed from Asia, leaving behind deep longing for him among the Greeks there.

40. Since it was an archer that was stamped on the Persian coinage, as he struck camp he remarked that he was being expelled from Asia by the Great King with 30,000 archers – because it was the fact that Timocrates had arranged for this number of gold daricsto be conveyed to Athens and Thebes and distributed to their popular leaders which had caused the citizen bodies there to declare war on the Spartiates.

41. He also wrote this letter⁷ back to the ephors: ‘Agesilaus to the ephors, greetings. We have subjugated the greater part of Asia, routed the Persians, and established many strongholds in Ionia. But since your orders are that I come over by the date set, I am following after this letter, and shall nearly be there first. I do not hold the command in my own interest, but in that of our city and allies. After all, a genuinely dutiful commander is one who always exercises his command subject to the instructions of both laws and ephors, or of whatever other authorities a city may have.’

47. After Diphridas brought him from home the message that he should immediately turn aside to invade Boeotia (something which he had planned to do – though later, when he was better prepared), he was not disobedient to the magistrates but sent for two of themoras⁸ on service near Corinth and entered Boeotia. At Coronea he engaged Thebans, Athenians, Argives, Corinthians and both Locrian peoples, and despite the fact that his many wounds had put him in bad physical shape, he won what was (as Xenophon⁹states) the greatest of all the battles in his own day.

48. Once he returned home, such great success and victories did not prompt him to make any changes in his personal habits and lifestyle.

51. When asked another time for what particular reason the Spartiates enjoyed notably more success than others, he said: ‘Because more than others they train to give orders and to take them.’

54. When somebody asked him to write to his friends in Asia so that he might gain justice there, he replied: ‘But my friends do what is right of their own accord, even without a letter from me.’

55. Somebody drew his attention to the solid city-wall with its exceptionally strong construction and inquired if it made a favourable impression on him. ‘By Zeus,’ he said, ‘favourable, but for women to live inside, not men.’

56. He said to some Megarian who was bragging about his city to him: ‘Young man, a great deal of force is required to back up your remarks.’

64. He used to remark that those living in Asia were worthless as free men, but good slaves.

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65. When he was asked how someone might most surely earn people's esteem, he replied: ‘By the best words and the finest actions.’

66. He used to say that a general needs to show daring towards his opponents, goodwill towards his subordinates and a cool head in crises.

67. When someone inquired of him what children should learn, he said: ‘What they will also use when they become men.’

68. When he was trying a case and the prosecutor had spoken well, but the defendant feebly – just stating with reference to each point, ‘Agesilaus, the king must uphold the laws' – he said: ‘And supposing somebody dug their way into your house and took your cloak, would you expect the builder or the weaver of the cloak to help you?’

69. When – after the conclusion of peace – there was brought to him from the Persian king a letter offering ties of hospitality and friendship, conveyed by the Persian accompanying the Spartan Callias, he rejected it, and gave instructions for it to be reported back to the king that there was no need to send him letters privately; instead, if he proved a genuine friend of Sparta and meant well towards Greece, then to the utmost Agesilaus too would himself be his friend. ‘However, should he be caught scheming against us, then not even if I receive ever so many letters, should he believe that he will have me for a friend.’

73. When many Spartans had run away at the battle near Leuctra and thus by law were liable to loss of status, ¹⁰ the ephors saw the city deprived of men yet desperate for soldiers, and so wanted to annul the loss of status as well as uphold the laws. Thus they picked Agesilaus as lawgiver. He came into the public gathering and said: ‘I would not become a lawgiver to make laws different from the present ones, nor would I add, subtract or alter anything. On the contrary, it is fine for these current laws of ours to be valid – from tomorrow.’

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74. Even though Epaminondas had swept in with the surging force of a breaking wave, and the Thebans and their allies were boasting about their victory, Agesilaus still kept him out of the city and made him withdraw, despite the small number of men in the city.

75. At the battle near Mantinea¹¹ he urged the Spartans to ignore the rest and fight Epaminondas, asserting that only the intelligent are brave and they alone are responsible for a victory: so if they should kill him, it would be very easy for them to overcome the rest, since these were unintelligent and negligible. And so it turned out. For just when victory was going to Epaminondas and a rout was under way, one of the Spartans struck him a mortal blow as he had turned round and was urging on his own men. Once he had fallen, Agesilaus' men reversed their retreat and put the victory in the balance again, with the Thebans now making a much worse showing and the Spartans a much better one.

76. Because Sparta needed funds for war and for the maintenance of mercenaries Agesilaus responded, for a fee, to a call from the king of the Egyptians.¹² But the plainness of his dress led the natives to regard him with contempt, since they were expecting to see the person of the Spartan king, like the Persian one, superbly attired – a misguided notion to have of kings. At any rate, in the meantime Agesilaus did demonstrate to them that brains and courage are needed to achieve greatness and importance.

77. When he saw that his men were on the verge of giving way in their fear of the impending danger created by the mass of the enemy (200,000 of them) and the small number of men he had, he decided to make a sacrifice before marshalling his forces. And without the others' knowledge he wrote on his hand the word ‘Victory' with the letters facing left. Then, when the diviner gave him the liver, he placed it on the hand with the writing on it and held it there for a suitable period while appearing puzzled and pretending to be at a loss, until the marks of the letters should have stained the liver and been imprinted on it. And then he displayed it to the men who were about to accompany him into battle, declaring that by means of what had been written the gods had foretold a victory. Thus his men's morale was high as they went into battle believing it had been proved convincingly that they would win.

78. When the enemy, thanks to their huge numbers, were digging a trench around his camp and his ally Nectanabius demanded to make a sortie and do battle with them, he said that he would not obstruct the enemy in their wish to become equal to themselves. But once the trench was almost complete all round, then he marshalled his men in front of the remaining space and in a fight where both sides were equally matched he achieved a rout, and with his few soldiers caused widespread slaughter of the enemy as well as sending back plenty of money to his city.

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79. As he was dying on the voyage back from Egypt, he gave instructions to those close to him that they should not be responsible for making any image of his person, be it modelled or painted or copied: ‘For if I have accomplished any glorious feat, that will be my memorial. But if I have not, not even all the statues in the world – the products of vulgar, worthless men – would make any difference.’

AGESIPOLIS SON OF CLEOMBROTUS

(Agiad king, 371–370)

1. When someone remarked that Philip had demolished Olynthus in a few days, ¹³ Agesipolis son of Cleombrotus said: ‘By the gods, it will take him much longer than that to build another equal to it.’

2. When someone else remarked that during his reign he, along with other men in their prime, had served as hostage, while their children and wives had not, he responded: ‘That was fair, since it is entirely proper that we should personally suffer for our own mistakes.’

3. When he wanted to send for young dogs from home and someone said: ‘We don't permit their export,’ he remarked: ‘Previously the same was true of men too, but it's happened now.’

AGESIPOLIS SON OF PAUSANIAS

(Agiad king, 395–380)

When the Athenians put to Agesipolis son of Pausanias the proposal that the city of Megara should arbitrate complaints which each had against the other, he said: ‘Athenians, it is a disgrace that those who have been the leaders of the Greeks should have a slighter knowledge of justice than Megarians.’

AGIS SON OF ARCHIDAMUS

(Eurypontid king, 427–400)

1. Once when the ephors said to him: ‘Take the young men and march against this man's country: he will personally conduct you to the acropolis,’ Agis son of Archidamus replied: ‘And how is it proper, ephors, for so many young men to trust this one man who is betraying his own country?’

2. When asked what form of training was most practised at Sparta, he said: ‘Understanding of how to take orders and to give them.’

3. He remarked that the Spartans do not ask how many the enemy are, but where they are.

4. When at Mantinea he was prevented from doing battle with the enemy, who were superior in numbers, he said: ‘The man who wants to rule many men must fight many.’

5. When someone was inquiring what the number of Spartans was, he said: ‘One sufficient to keep out undesirables.’

6. As he was passing through the Corinthians' walls and observed their height and strength and great extent, he said: ‘What women live in this place?’

7. When some sophist stated: ‘Speech is the most powerful thing of all,’ he said: ‘In that case you, if you're silent, are worthless.’

8. When after their defeat the Argives met him again with a bolder air, and he saw that his allies were disturbed, he said: ‘Keep your spirits up, men! For when we the victors are afraid, what do you think those we have defeated are feeling?’

9. When the envoy from the Abderans had stopped after a lengthy speech and was asking what he should report back to his fellow citizens, he said: ‘Say that throughout the entire time you needed for speaking, I continued listening in silence.’

10. When some people were praising the Eleans' outstanding fairness in connection with the Olympic Games, he said: ‘What great or wonderful achievement is it on their part if they act fairly on just one day every four years?’

11. To those claiming that some members of the other royal house envied him, he said: ‘Then they will be distressed by their own troubles, and also by my good fortune and that of my friends.’

12. When someone was recommending that those of the enemy who were fleeing should be allowed to escape, he said: ‘Yet if we don't fight those who are fleeing out of cowardice, how shall we fight those brave enough to stand firm?’

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13. When someone was presenting proposals for the liberty of the Greeks which, while not ignoble, were difficult to put into effect, he said: ‘My friend, your words need to be complemented by force and money.’

14. When someone was remarking that Philip would make Greece beyond the Isthmus inaccessible to them, ¹⁴ he said: ‘Stranger, it is sufficient for us to have freedom of movement in our own land.’

15. An envoy who came to Sparta from Perinthus delivered a lengthy speech; when he had finished talking and asked Agis what he should report back to the Perinthians, he said: ‘What else except that you barely managed to stop talking, while I remained silent?’

16. He came alone on an embassy to Philip. When the latter said: ‘What's this? Have you come alone?’, he replied: ‘Yes, since I've come to see one man.’

17. When he was old, one of the more elderly men remarked to him that he kept observing the abandonment of old customs and the infiltration of other, harmful ones, and as a result of this Sparta was now all upside down. Agis replied jokingly: ‘If that is so, then things are developing logically, because when I was a boy I used to hear my father declaring that their situation then was all upside down, and he said that when he was a boy his father had told him this too. And so we shouldn't be surprised if things later get worse than they were earlier; but we should be, if they get any better or remain much the same.’

18. When asked how one should remain a free man, he said: ‘By despising death.’

AGIS THE YOUNGER

(Eurypontid king, 338–331)

1. When Demades¹⁵ was remarking that conjurors swallow Spartan swords because they are so small, Agis the Younger said: ‘All the same, the Spartans do reach the enemy with their swords.’

2. To the wretched character who frequently kept asking him who was the best Spartiate, his response was: ‘The one least like you.’

THE LAST AGIS

(Eurypontid king, 244/3–241)

Agis the last Spartan king¹⁶ was arrested by means of a trap and condemned by the ephors without trial. As he was being led off to the noose, he noticed one of the attendants in tears and said: ‘Man, stop crying for me, since my death in defiance of law and justice makes me superior to my murderers.’ With these words he readily allowed the noose to be placed around his neck.

ACROTATUS

(Elder son of the Agiad King Cleomenes II (370–309), who died before his father. See Agis, Ch. 3)

When his parents required him to be their accomplice in some wrongdoing, up to a point Acrotatus voiced his opposition. But once they became insistent, he said: ‘So long as I was under your care I didn't have the slightest notion or grasp of justice. But now that you have handed me over to my country and its customs, and moreover have had me instructed to the best of your ability in both justice and honourable behaviour, I shall attempt to follow these principles no less than you. And since you wish me to adopt the best course, and the best course is the just one both in the case of a private person, and much more so in that of a ruler, I shall do what you wish; but as for what you are proposing, I shall decline.’

ALCAMENES SON OF TELECLUS

(Eighth-century Agiad king)

1. When somebody asked how one might best maintain the position of king, Alcamenes son of Teleclus said: ‘By not attaching undue importance to self-advantage.’

2. When someone else wanted to know why he declined gifts from the Messenians, he said: ‘Because if I accepted them it would be impossible to live at peace with the laws.’

3. When someone was remarking that he lived modestly although possessing adequate means, he said: ‘Yes, for it is well that reason, not passion, should govern the life of a man who is well-off.’

ANAXANDRIDAS

(Sixth-century Agiad king)

1. Anaxandridas the son of Leon said to a man who resented being exiled from his city: ‘Good friend, it's exile from justice, not from your city, that you should dread.’

2. He said to the man who, while giving necessary information to the ephors, used more than enough words: ‘Stranger, you meet the need, but at needless length.’

3. When someone was inquiring why their practice was to hand their landholdings over to the helots and not to care for them personally, he said: ‘Because we acquired them by caring for ourselves, not for land.’

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4. When someone else was maintaining that good reputations are harmful and that the man who is freed of such considerations will be happy, he said: ‘Then on your argument criminals would be happy, since how would any temple-robber or other offender be bothered about his reputation?’

5. When another person was inquiring why in their wars Spartiates confidently face danger, he said: ‘Because we practise proper respect for life, not fear of it like the rest of mankind.’

6. When someone was asking him why the Elders hear capital cases over several days, and why anyone should still be liable to a further trial even if acquitted, he said: ‘They take many days reaching a verdict because in capital cases errors cannot be rectified, while by law a person will have to remain liable for trial because according to this law the possibility of reaching better decisions would also be open.’¹⁷

ANAXANDER SON OF EURYCRATES

(Seventh-century Agiad king)

When someone was asking why they do not collect money for the treasury, Anaxander son of Eurycrates said: ‘So that those who have become its custodians are not corrupted.’

ANAXILAS

(Seventh-century Eurypontid king)

To the man who was wondering why the ephors do not stand up to show respect to the kings, even though they are appointed to this office by the kings, Anaxilas said: ‘For the same reason that they are also ephors (‘overseers’).’¹⁸

ANDROCLEIDAS

The Spartan Androcleidas, who had a crippled leg, enlisted himself among the fighting men. When some were determined to debar him because he was crippled, he said: ‘But what's needed to fight our foes is a man who stands his ground, not one who runs away.’

ANTALCIDAS

(Prominent Spartiate of the early fourth century, especially noted as a negotiator with the Persians. See Agesilaus, Ch. 23)

1. When Antalcidas was being initiated into the Mysteries on Samothrace, and was asked by the priest what really frightful act he had committed in the course of his life, he replied: ‘If I have done any such thing, the gods will know of it themselves.’

2. To the Athenian who was calling the Spartans uneducated, he said: ‘At least we are the only ones who have learned nothing wicked from you.’

3. When another Athenian said to him: ‘We have indeed often driven you from the Cephisus,’ he replied: ‘But we have never driven you from the Eurotas.’

4. When asked how one might best please people, he said: ‘By talking to them very pleasantly while dealing with them most helpfully.’

5. When some sophist was about to read a eulogy of Heracles, he said: ‘But who finds fault with him?’

6. After Agesilaus had been wounded in battle by the Thebans¹⁹ he said to him: ‘You are receiving your fee for having taught people to fight who had neither the wish nor the knowledge to do so.’ For it was thought that they became warlike as a result of Agesilaus' continual campaigns against them.

7. He used to say that Sparta's young men were her walls, and the points of their spears her frontiers.

8. To the person who was wanting to know why Spartans use short daggers in warfare, he said: ‘Because we fight our enemies at close quarters.’

ANTIOCHUS

(Presumably ephor in 338/7. Otherwise unknown)

When Antiochus, as ephor, heard that Philip had granted their country to the Messenians, he inquired if he had also equipped them with the strength to win in a fight over the country.

AREUS

(Agiad king, 309–265)

1. When some men were expressing admiration not for their own wives but for some other people's, Areus said: ‘By the gods, not an idle word should be spoken about respectable women, but their characters should be completely unknown except just to their families.’

2. Once when he was passing through Selinus in Sicily, he saw this couplet inscribed on a monument:

These men were once cut down by brazen Ares as they were

Extinguishing tyranny: they died around the gates of Selinus,

and said: ‘You deserved to die for trying to extinguish a tyranny which was on fire, because instead you should have let it burn out totally.’

ARISTON

(Sixth-century Eurypontid king, who reigned with the Agiad Cleomenes I)

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I . When someone was expressing approval of Cleomenes' maxim (asked how the good king should behave, he said: ‘Do good to his friends and harm to his enemies’), Ariston said: ‘And how much better wouldn't it be, dear fellow, to do good to friends and make enemies into friends?’

2. When someone was inquiring what the total number of Spartiates was, he said: ‘One sufficient to keep off our enemies.’

3. As some Athenian was reading a funeral eulogy in praise of men killed by Spartans, he said: ‘What, then, do you think was the quality of our men who defeated them?’

ARCHIDAMIDAS

(For possible identification of him and of Hecataeus in no. 2 below, see Lycurgus, Ch. 20, note 60)

1. Archidamidas said to the man who was praising Charilaus because he behaved kindly to all alike: ‘And how might anyone properly be praised if he behaves gently towards scoundrels too?’

2. When someone was criticizing the sophist Hecataeus because he had been invited to their mess and would then say nothing, he remarked: ‘Evidently you don't understand that an expert at speaking also knows when to speak.’

ARCHIDAMUS SON OF ZEUXIDAMUS

(Eurypontid king, c. 469–427)

1. When somebody asked him who were in charge at Sparta, Archidamus son of Zeuxidamus said: ‘The laws and the magistrates in accordance with the laws.’

2. To the man who was praising a lyre-player and marvelling at his ability, he said: ‘Dear friend, what kind of compliment will you find to bestow on true men, when you praise a lyre-player in these terms?’

3. When someone introduced a harpist to him by saying: ‘This man is a good harpist,’ he replied: ‘In our country that man is a good maker of broth’ – so as to stress the lack of any difference between affording pleasure through the sound of instruments and through the preparation of meat dishes and broth.

4. When someone was guaranteeing him that he would make their wine sweet, he said: ‘What for? More wine will then certainly be consumed and it will reduce the value of the messes.’

5. As he was approaching the city of Corinth with an army, he saw hares start up from the area near the wall. So he said to the troops with him: ‘The enemy are easy for us to capture.’

6. After two people had accepted him as arbitrator he brought them to the sanctuary of Athena of the Bronze House and made them swear to abide by his judgements. Once they had sworn, he said: ‘My verdict is, then, that you should not leave the sanctuary until you have resolved your mutual differences.’

7. When Dionysius the tyrant of Sicily sent expensive clothes for his daughters, he declined them with the words: ‘I'm afraid that if they wore them the girls might look disreputable to me.’²⁰

8. When he observed his son fighting the Athenians recklessly, he said: ‘Either increase your strength, or reduce your self-confidence.’

ARCHIDAMUS SON OF AGESILAUS

(Eurypontid king, 360–338)

1. When Philip wrote him a rather arrogant letter after the battle of Chaeronea, ²¹ Archidamus son of Agesilaus wrote back: ‘Were you to measure your own shadow, you wouldn't find that it had grown any bigger than before your victory.’

2. When asked the extent of territory controlled by the Spartiates, he said: ‘As much as they may reach with their spears.’

3. Since Periander the doctor was professionally well respected and very highly recommended, but used to write dreadful poetry, he said to him: ‘Why ever is it, Periander, that you are so keen to be called a bad poet instead of an expert doctor?’

4. In the war against Philip, when some people were advising that they should join battle far from home, he said: ‘No, we shouldn't be looking at that question, but instead whether we shall be superior to the enemy in battle.’

5. To those who congratulated him on his victory in the battle against the Arcadians, ²² he said: ‘It would be better if our intelligence were beating them rather than our strength.’

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6. When he discovered, after invading Arcadia, that the Eleans were aiding the Arcadians, he sent them a message: ‘Archidamus to the Eleans: Inaction is good.’

7. In the Peloponnesian War when the allies were inquiring how much money would suffice and were demanding that he fix their contributions, he said: ‘War does not call for set amounts.’²³

8. On seeing an arrow shot from a catapult when it was first brought from Sicily, he exclaimed: ‘By Heracles, man's valour is done for.’

9. When the Greeks were unwilling to listen to him, to terminate their agreements with the Macedonians Antipater and Craterus and so to be free (because they thought Spartans would prove more oppressive than Macedonians), he said: ‘While a sheep always utters the same cry, a human makes a great variety until he achieves his object.’²⁴

ASTYCRATIDAS

(Otherwise unknown. The battle occurred in 331)

After the defeat of King Agis in the battle against Antipater near Megalopolis, when somebody said to Astycratidas: ‘What will you do, Spartans? Surely you won't become slaves to Macedonians?’, he replied: ‘What? Could Antipater stop us from dying fighting for Sparta?’

ANAXIBIUS²⁵

When he was trapped in an ambush by the Athenian general Iphicrates and his soldiers asked what was to be done, Anaxibius replied: ‘What else, except that you save yourselves, while I die fighting?’

BRASIDAS

(Distinguished commander in the early years of the Peloponnesian War. Killed in 422)

1. Brasidas, after catching a mouse among some dried figs, got bitten and let it go; then he said to those who were there: ‘There is nothing so tiny that it lacks the courage to repel its assailants and save itself.’

2. After a spear had penetrated through his shield in some battle and wounded him, he pulled it out and with the very same weapon killed his opponent. And when asked how he had been wounded, he said: ‘When my shield betrayed me.’

3. After departing on campaign he wrote²⁶ to the ephors: ‘I'll achieve my wishes in this war or I'll die.’

4. When it happened that he met his death while liberating the Greeks in the Thraceward area, they despatched envoys to Sparta who approached his mother Archileonis. She inquired first if Brasidas' death had been a noble one, to which the Thracians responded by praising him and declaring that there was no one else to match him. She declared: ‘Strangers, you don't know that. Brasidas was a brave man, but Sparta has many better than he.’

DAMONIDAS

When he was assigned the last place in the chorus by the man who was organizing the dancing, Damonidas said: ‘Splendid, director! You have discovered how even this undistinguished place may become distinguished.’

DAMIS

(Otherwise unknown. The incident can be dated to 324)

With reference to the instructions about voting that Alexander was a god, Damis said: ‘Let us agree that Alexander be called a god, if he so wishes.’

DAMINDAS

(Otherwise unknown. Philip's invasion occurred in 338)

After Philip had invaded the Peloponnese and someone remarked: ‘The Spartans are running the risk of a terrible disaster if they won't make terms with him,’ Damindas said: ‘You effeminate man, since we have despised death, what terrible thing could we suffer?’

DERCYLLIDAS

When Pyrrhus was on Spartan territory with his army, and Dercyllidas had been sent to him as an envoy, Pyrrhus was demanding that they take back their king Cleonymus or else they would discover that they were no braver than other men; Dercyllidas interjected the remark: ‘If he is a god, we are not afraid, for we are not guilty of anything; but if he's human, he isn't superior to us.’²⁷

DEMARATUS

(Eurypontid king deposed in 491. He accompanied Xerxes' invasion of Greece in 480)

1. After Orontes had conversed with him rather rudely and somebody remarked: ‘Demaratus, Orontes has treated you rudely,’ Demaratus replied: ‘He has done me no wrong, since it's those who converse to curry favour who do harm, not those who show their enmity.’

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2. When someone asked him why they deprive of their status those among them who discarded their shields, but not those who discarded their helmets and breastplates, he said: ‘Because they put on the latter for their own benefit, but their shields for the sake of the battle-line as a whole.’

3. As he was listening to a harpist, he remarked: ‘To me it's just foolery, but he does it pretty well.’

4. At a council meeting he was asked whether he was keeping quiet because he was stupid or because he was at a loss for words. ‘Well certainly,’ he said, ‘a stupid person wouldn't be able to keep quiet.’

5. When someone asked why he, a king, was an exile from Sparta, he said: ‘Because her laws are more powerful than I am.’

6. When one of the Persians by persistent bribery had lured away the person Demaratus was in love with and was saying: ‘Spartan, I have hunted down your beloved,’ he replied: ‘By the gods, it's not you, it's the fact that you have bought him.’

7. One of the Persians had revolted from the Great King and had been persuaded by Demaratus to return to him. The King was about to have this Persian disposed of when Demaratus said: ‘O King, what a disgrace it is that when this man was your enemy you could not punish him for his revolt, but now that he's become your friend, you are executing him!’

8. To the King's parasite²⁸ who used to make fun of him frequently about his exile, he said: ‘I shall not take issue with you, my friend, since I have squandered my position in life.’

ECPREPES

(Fifth-century Spartiate, otherwise unknown)

Ecprepes, when ephor, took an adze and cut away two of the nine strings from the musician Phrynis' lyre, declaring: ‘Don't do harm to music.’

EPAENETUS

Epaenetus said that liars are responsible for all faults and wrongs.

EUBOEDAS

Euboedas would not tolerate hearing some men praising someone else's wife, but declared that not a word should be said about a wife's character among those outside her family.

EUDAMIDAS SON OF ARCHIDAMUS

(Late fourth-century Eurypontid king)

1. After he had seen Xenocrates, ²⁹ by now quite elderly, having a philosophical discussion with his pupils in the Academy, Eudamidas son of Archidamus, the brother of Agis, inquired who the old man was. When somebody said that he was a wise man and one of those who search for virtue, Eudamidas said: ‘And when will he make use of it if he is still searching for it?’

2. After hearing a philosopher who had argued that the wise man is the only good general, he said: ‘It's a wonderful claim, but the man who makes it is untrustworthy, because he has not heard the battle-trumpets sound.’

3. At the point when Xenocrates had expounded his argument and was drawing to a close, Eudamidas arrived. When one of those with him commented on this: ‘The moment we arrive is the moment he has stopped,’ Eudamidas said: ‘That's fine, if he has already said what he wanted to.’ To the other's remark: ‘It would be pleasant to hear him,’ Eudamidas replied: ‘And if we joined a man who had just had a meal, surely we wouldn't expect him to have another one?’

4. When someone was inquiring why it was that he saw fit to keep quiet himself when the citizens were in favour of the war against the Macedonians, he said: ‘Because I have no desire to show them up as liars.’

5. When another person was citing their glorious deeds against the Persians and strongly advocating the war, he said: ‘In my opinion you are not aware that this proposition is the same as taking on fifty wolves after overcoming a thousand sheep.’

6. When some harpist had been a great success, Eudamidas was asked his impression of him and said: ‘In his own small line he puts on a great show.’

7. When somebody was praising Athens, he said: ‘And who could appositely praise that city, for which no one has felt affection because it made them better?’

8. When an Argive was maintaining that once they go abroad Spartans degenerate because they are detached from their traditional way of life, he said: ‘But you Argives, after coming to Sparta, don't become worse, you become better.’

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9. After Alexander had announced at Olympia that all exiles except Thebans³⁰ should return home, he said: ‘While this announcement is unfortunate for you, Thebans, it is an honour nonetheless, since Alexander is frightened only of you.’

10. When asked what purpose they had in sacrificing to the Muses before their ventures, he said: ‘So that our actions may attract good reports.’

EURYCRATIDAS SON OF ANAXANDRIDAS

(Late seventh/early sixth-century Agiad king. ‘Anaxandridas’ is presumably a slip for ‘Anaxander’)

When someone was inquiring why the ephors try cases relating to contracts daily, Eurycratidas son of Anaxandridas said: ‘So that even in the face of our enemies we may trust each other.’

ZEUXIDAMUS

(Probably son of Leotychidas II, Eurypontid king 49 I–c. 469)

1. When someone was inquiring why they keep their laws about bravery unwritten, without setting them down and handing them to the young men to read, he said: ‘Because it's better for them to get used to acts of bravery rather than to study written documents.’

2. When some Aetolian was claiming that for men eager to display courage war was better than peace, he said: ‘No, by the gods; rather for those men death is better than life.’

HERONDAS

Herondas was at Athens when a man was convicted on a charge of having no work. After hearing about this he asked people to point out to him the man who had been required to pay this penalty for his freedom.

THEARIDAS

As Thearidas was honing his sword and was asked if it was sharp, he said: ‘Sharper than slander.’

THEMISTEAS

(Otherwise unknown. Herodotus (7.221) calls him Megistias and makes him an Acarnanian)

As a seer Themisteas forewarned King Leonidas of the future destruction near Thermopylae³¹ of both himself and the troops with him. But he was despatched to Sparta by Leonidas, ostensibly in order to report what would happen, though really so that he should not perish too. He would not tolerate this, but declared: ‘I was sent out as a fighting man, not as a message-bearer.’

THEOPOMPUS

(Late eighth/early seventh-century Eurypontid king)

1. To the person who asked him what was the safest way for a king to maintain his rule, Theopompus said: ‘By permitting his friends to be properly frank, while so far as he is able not overlooking injuries to his subjects.’

2. To the stranger who was claiming that among his own citizens he was called a friend of Sparta, he said: ‘It would be better for you to be called a friend of your fellow citizens rather than a friend of Sparta.’

3. When the ambassador from Elis stated that the citizens had dispatched him for the specific reason that he alone emulated the Spartan way of life, he said: ‘And which of the two ways of life is better, Elean – yours, or that of your fellow citizens?’ When he declared that his was, Theopompus said: ‘How then could this city of yours keep itself safe when among a numerous population there is only one brave man?’

4. When someone was saying that Sparta was preserved by her kings' talent for command, he said: ‘No, rather by her citizens' readiness to obey.’

5. When the Pylians voted him quite exceptional honours, he wrote back: ‘While time will magnify moderate ones, it obliterates excessive ones.’

THERYCION

(Otherwise unknown. The incident dates to 338)

When he arrived from Delphi and saw that Philip with his army had already seized the narrow passage at the Isthmus, Therycion said: ‘Corinthians, you make poor gatekeepers of the Peloponnese.’

THECTAMENES

After the ephors had condemned him to death, Thectamenes left smiling. And when one of those present asked if he had contempt for Spartan regulations, he said: ‘No. Instead I'm delighted that I should pay this penalty without requesting or borrowing anything from anyone.’

HIPPODAMUS

(Otherwise unknown. Possibly the battle against Megalopolis in 352 is meant)

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When Agis was lining up for battle next to Archidamus, Hippodamus was sent by Agis to Sparta to carry out duties there. ‘But,’ he said, ‘won't I die more nobly here, battling manfully for Sparta?’ (He was over eighty years of age.) And with those words he took up his arms, stood on the king's right, and died fighting.

HIPPOCRATIDAS

(Otherwise unknown. The incident is most likely to date to the early fourth century)

1. Because a Spartan had known of the conspiracy formed by a certain group, but had kept quiet about it, the satrap of Caria wrote to Hippocratidas and in a postscript asked how he should deal with the man. He answered: ‘If you have bestowed any special benefit on him, execute him; but if not, expel him from your territory as someone completely lacking in good qualities.’

2. Once when a youth followed by a lover met Hippocratidas and could not face him, he said: ‘You ought to go around with the sort of people who won't cause you to change colour when observed.’

CALLICRATIDAS

(Navarch, or commander, of the Spartan fleet against Athens in 407/6. Defeated and killed at the battle of Arginusae)

1. When Lysander's friends were asking him to allow them to do away with one particular opponent of theirs in exchange for fifty talents, Callicratidas as navarch refused, even though he was desperate for money to provide rations for his sailors. His adviser Cleander said: ‘But I would certainly have accepted if I were you.’ To which Callicratidas replied: ‘I would have too, if I were you.’

2. When he approached the Spartans' ally, Cyrus the Younger, at Sardis to get money for his fleet, on the first day he gave instructions for the message to be conveyed that he wished to meet Cyrus; but when told that he was drinking, he said: ‘I'll wait until he's finished.’ And then, once he realized that there would be no possibility of conferring with him that day, he departed, giving the impression of being rather ill-mannered. But on the following day, when again informed that Cyrus was drinking and would not appear, he declared: ‘Surely my eagerness to obtain money ought not to be so great as my concern to do nothing unworthy of Sparta?’ So he departed to Ephesus after calling down many curses on those who had first been treated with contempt by barbarians and who had then taught them to behave arrogantly because of their wealth; and he swore to those with him that from the moment he arrived in Sparta he would make every effort to reconcile the Greeks, so that they might be more of a threat to the barbarians and would no longer require the resources of the latter to use against each other.

3. When asked what sort of men the Ionians were, he said: ‘Good slaves, but worthless as free men.’

4. When Cyrus forwarded the pay for his soldiers and gifts of friendship for himself, he accepted only the pay and returned the gifts, with a statement that he had no need of personal friendship with him, but regarded the general one concluded with all Spartans as sufficient for himself too.

5. As he was about to engage in the naval battle near the Arginusae Islands and the helmsman Hermon remarked to him that it would be a good idea to sail away because the Athenians had many more triremes, he said: ‘And what of that? Surely to flee would be disgraceful as well as damaging to Sparta, so the best course is to stay here and either die or win.’

6. When in sacrificing before battle he heard from the seer that the burnt offerings predicted victory for his forces but death for their commander, he said quite unperturbed: ‘Sparta’s fate does not depend on one man. For if I die my country will not be worsted, but if I yielded to the enemy it would be.’ So after designating Cleander to succeed him as commander, he engaged in the naval battle and died fighting.

CLEOMBROTUS SON OF PAUSANIAS

(Agiad king, 380–371)

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When some stranger was arguing about virtue with his father, Cleombrotus son of Pausanias said: ‘My father will always be superior to you – until you too have had sons.’

CLEOMENES SON OF ANAXANDRIDAS

(Agiad king, c. 520–491)

1. Cleomenes son of Anaxandridas said that Homer was the poet of the Spartans and Hesiod³² that of the helots, because the former encouraged men to make war, and the latter to farm.

2. After making a seven-day truce with the Argives he kept to it for two days and then during the third night, when they were asleep because of their confidence in the agreement, he made an assault, killing some and taking the rest prisoner.

3. When he was taken to task for breaking his oaths he said he had not sworn to include the nights as well as the days; and in any case among both gods and humans whatever harm one may inflict upon the enemy is considered to be something superior to strict equity.

4. As it turned out, he failed in his bid to take Argos (for the sake of which he had broken the truce) because the women took down the weapons from the shrines and used these to repel him. And later, when he was out of his mind, he grabbed a little dagger, slashed himself from his ankles all the way up to his vital parts, and by this means ended his life laughing and grimacing.

5. Though the seer was discouraging him from leading his army against the city of Argos (on the grounds that the return march would prove shameful), he did advance against the city and so observed that the gates were barred and the women on the walls. At this he said: ‘Do you really believe that the return march will be shameful, when the men here are dead and it's the women who have barred the gates?’

6. He said to those Argives who were execrating him as an ungodly perjurer: ‘You may have the power to utter abusive words, but I'm able to do you real harm.’

7. When envoys from Samos were urging him to go to war against the tyrant Polycrates³³ and made protracted speeches for the purpose, he said: ‘I don't recall the beginning of what you said, and consequently I also don't grasp the middle sections, while the part at the end I don't approve of.’

8. A brigand overran the country and after his capture declared that: ‘I did not have the means to support my soldiers, so I attacked those who did have it but wouldn't be willing to provide it, with the intention of taking it by force.’ Cleomenes said: ‘By the gods, crime is concise.’

9. As some vulgar character was insulting Cleomenes, he said: ‘Do you insult all of us with the intention that while defending ourselves we shouldn't find time to point out your faults?’

10. When one of the citizens was maintaining that the good king should be altogether mild in every way, he said: ‘Yes, but not to the extent of being contemptible.’

11. When he was dragged down by a long bout of illness and turned to ritual healers and seers (which he had not done previously), somebody expressed amazement. But he said: ‘What are you amazed at? I'm not the same person that I was before, and not being the same, what I approve of isn't the same either.’

12. While some sophist was talking at length about bravery, he burst into laughter. When the sophist said: ‘Why does hearing a man talk about bravery make you laugh, Cleomenes, especially when you're a king?’, he replied: ‘Because, my friend, if the swallow were talking about it also, I should do the same; but were it an eagle, I would keep very quiet.’

13. When the Argives were claiming that they would retrieve their previous defeat, he said: ‘I am surprised if substituting one syllable³⁴ has made you stronger than you were before.’

14. When someone was insulting him and said: ‘Cleomenes, you're soft,’ he replied: ‘Well, that's an improvement on being unjust. Look at you, you're avaricious even though you have adequate means.’

16. After Maeandrius the tyrant of Samos had fled to Sparta³⁵ because of the Persians' onslaught and had displayed all the gold and silver goblets which he had brought, he freely offered Cleomenes as many as he wanted. But he accepted none, and took equal care that Maeandrius should not present them to any other citizens: he went to the ephors and said that it would be better for Sparta if his Samian guest should leave the Peloponnese so as not to influence any of the Spartiates into becoming a bad character. They took his advice and proclaimed Maeandrius' banishment the same day.

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17. When someone said: ‘After your frequent victories over the Argives in their wars against you, why haven't you wiped them out?’, he replied: ‘We wouldn't wish to wipe them out, because we want sparring-partners for our young men.’

18. When someone was asking him why Spartiates do not dedicate the spoils from their enemies to the gods, he said: ‘Because they come from cowards.’

CLEOMENES SON OF CLEOMBROTUS

(Agiad king, 370–309)

When someone was presenting him with fighting cocks and claiming they would die in the struggle for victory, Cleomenes son of Cleombrotus said: ‘Then give me some of those which kill them, since they'll be much better.’

LABOTAS

(Early Agiad king)

When someone was speaking at length Labotas said: ‘Why do you give me such a long introduction to a small matter? The speech you make should be in proportion to the topic.’

LEOTYCHIDAS

(Seventh-century Eurypontid king)

1. When someone was remarking on how readily he changed his mind, Leotychidas the First said: ‘Yes, but in accordance with the circumstances and not (like you people) because of a weak character.’

2. To the person who was asking how a man might best maintain his present favourable circumstances, he said: ‘By not trusting everything to Fortune.’

3. When asked what freeborn boys should learn in particular, he said: ‘The things that should be advantageous to them when they become men.’

4. When someone was asking the reason why the Spartiates drank so sparingly, he said: ‘So that others may not make decisions on our behalf, but we may for others.’

LEOTYCHIDAS SON OF ARISTON

(Eurypontid king, 491–c. 469)

1. Leotychidas son of Ariston said to the man who mentioned that Demaratus'³⁶ sons were spreading bad reports about him: ‘By the gods, I'm not surprised, since none of them could ever find a good word to say.’

2. When a snake had coiled round the key on the inside of the gate and the seers were declaring this to be a portent, he remarked: ‘It doesn't look like that to me. If instead the key had coiled round the snake, that would be a portent.’

3.The Orphic priest Philip was completely destitute, but used to claim that those initiated by him would find happiness after their life's end. Leotychidas said to him: ‘Well then, you fool, why don't you die as quickly as possible, so that you may thereby put an end to moaning about your ill-fortune and poverty?’

4. When somebody asked why they do not dedicate weapons won from their enemies to the gods, he said: ‘Because there is nothing honourable in the young men seeing things seized through their owners' cowardice, or in dedicating them to the gods.’

LEON SON OF EURYCRATIDAS

(Sixth-century Agiad king)

1. When asked what sort of city one should live in to live safely, Leon son of Eurycratidas said: ‘One whose inhabitants will possess neither too much nor too little; and where justice will be strong and injustice weak.’

2. As he saw the runners at Olympia eagerly seeking to gain an advantage at the starting-line, he remarked: ‘How much more concerned the runners are about speed than about fairness.’

3. When someone engaged him at an inappropriate moment about business which was by no means trivial, he said: ‘Friend, the question you raise is a good one, but your timing is not good.’

LEONIDAS SON OF ANAXANDRIDAS

(Agiad king, 491–480. Killed at the battle of Thermopylae against Xerxes)

1. When someone said to him: ‘Except for being king you are not at all superior to us,’ Leonidas son of Anaxandridas and brother of Cleomenes replied: ‘But were I not better than you, I should not be king.’

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2. When he was leaving for Thermopylae to fight the Persians, his wife Gorgo inquired if he had any instruction for her, and he said: ‘To marry good men and bear good children.’

4. When the ephors said: ‘Haven't you decided to take any action beyond blocking the passes against the Persians?’, ‘In theory, no,’ he said, ‘but in fact I plan to die for the Greeks.’

5. Once at Thermopylae he said to his men: ‘They say that the Persians are close by while we are wasting time. Not so; for now we either kill the Persians or die willingly ourselves.’

6. When someone was saying: ‘It isn't even possible to see the sun because of the Persians' arrows,’ he said: ‘How pleasant then, if we're going to fight them in the shade.’

7. When another person said: ‘They are close to us,’ he replied: ‘Then we're also close to them.’

8. When someone said: ‘Leonidas, are you here like this, to run such a risk with a few men against many?’, he replied: ‘If you think that I should rely on numbers, then not even the whole of Greece is enough, since it is a small fraction of their horde; but if I am to rely on courage, then even this number is quite adequate.’

9. When another person was asking him the same question, he said: ‘I'm certainly bringing plenty of men to meet their deaths.’

10. When Xerxes wrote to him: ‘It is possible for you not to fight the gods but to side with me and be monarch of Greece,’ he wrote back: ‘If you understood what is honourable in life, you would avoid lusting after what belongs to others. For me, it is better to die for Greece than to be monarch of the people of my race.’

11. When Xerxes wrote again: ‘Deliver up your arms,’ he wrote back: ‘Come and take them.’

12. Just at the time when he was eager to attack the enemy the polemarchs told him that he must wait for the other allies. He said: ‘But aren't those who intend to fight already here? Or aren't you aware that the only men who fight against the enemy are those who respect and fear their kings?’

13. He passed the word to his soldiers to eat breakfast in the expectation that they would be having dinner in Hades.

14. When asked why the best men prefer an honourable death to a life without honour, he said: ‘Because they regard the latter as the gift of Nature, and the former as being in their own hands.’

15. Wishing to save the youths, but knowing that they would absolutely reject this, he gave each of them a dispatch³⁷ and sent them to the ephors. He wanted to save three of the mature men too, but they read his mind and refused to take the dispatches. One of them said: ‘I joined you as a fighting-man, not a herald.’ The second said: ‘I would be a better man for staying here.’ The third said: ‘I won't be behind these others, but first into battle.’

LOCHAGUS

Lochagus, the father of Polyaenides and Seiron, when informed by somebody that one of his two sons was dead, said: ‘I have long been aware that he had to die.’

LYCURGUS

1. Lycurgus the lawgiver, in his wish to convert the citizens from their existing habits to a more disciplined way of life and to make them brave and honourable (since they were living a soft life), reared two puppies born of the same father and mother; and one he conditioned to a life of luxury, allowing it to stay at home, while the other he took out and taught to hunt. Next he brought them into the assembly, put down some bones and delicious tidbits, and then released a hare. Each of the two dogs went after what it was used to; when the second of them had caught and killed the hare, Lycurgus said: ‘Citizens, do you see how, although these dogs belong to the same family, their upbringing for life has made them turn out very different indeed from each other? Do you see, too, how education is more effective than birth for producing noble behaviour?’

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However, some people say that he did not produce puppies born of the same parents; instead one was from a domestic breed, the other from hunters. And then he trained the puppy of inferior stock to hunt, while merely conditioning the better-bred one to a life of luxury. So, when each of the two went after what it was used to, he highlighted the extent to which improvement or deterioration is the product of upbringing, and said: ‘In our case, too, citizens, neither noble birth (which the masses so admire) nor descent from Heracles is of any value unless we perform the kind of actions with which he proved himself more worthy of fame and more nobly born than any other mortal, by training ourselves and learning what is good throughout our lives.’

15. He said to someone who was inquiring why he made a law that girls should be given in marriage without a dowry: ‘So that none should be left unmarried because of poverty nor any pursued for their wealth, but that each man should study the girl's character and make his choice on the basis of her good qualities.’ For this reason he also outlawed the use of make-up from the city.

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18. Perfume he banned too because it wasted and spoilt olive-oil, and dyeing because it pandered to the senses.

23. When someone asked the reason why he would permit citizens to take part only in those games where a hand is not raised, he said: ‘So that none of them may acquire the habit of crying off when in difficulties.’³⁸

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24. When someone was inquiring why his orders were to shift camp frequently, he said: ‘So that we may do the enemy greater harm.’

25. When someone else was keen to know why he ruled out attacks on forts, he said: ‘So that a woman or child or some such creature should not kill men, who are better than they.’

31. When someone was asking why he had ordered that enemy corpses were not to be despoiled, he said: ‘So that the men's attention may not wander from the fighting as they peer about for spoils, but also so that they may remain poor as well as in battle-order.’

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LYSANDER

(Outstanding commander of the late fifth and early fourth centuries. Killed in battle in 395)

1. When Dionysius the tyrant of Sicily sent expensive clothes for his daughters, Lysander declined them, remarking that he was afraid these might instead make them look disreputable. But soon afterwards when he was sent as envoy³⁹ from the same city to the same tyrant, Dionysius forwarded him two dresses with instructions that he should pick the one he liked and take it for his daughter. But he said that she would choose better, and so he left taking both.

2. Lysander became an awfully clever trickster who did a great deal of fraudulent ‘fixing’. He showed regard for justice only when it was to his advantage and for honour only when it suited him. He used to say that the truth is better than a lie, though in each case it is how they are used which determines their worth and value.

3.When he was censured for operating mostly by trickery and fraud in a way unworthy of Heracles, and for achieving no honest success, he used to laugh and say that fox-skin had to be stitched on wherever lion-skin wouldn't stretch.

4. When others were criticizing him for breaking the oaths which he gave at Miletus, he would say: ‘Children have to be tricked with dice, but men with oaths.’

5. After defeating the Athenians by a ruse at Aegospotami⁴⁰ and making them feel the pinch of hunger, he forced them to surrender their city and wrote to the ephors: ‘Athens is taken.’

6. When the Argives were disputing land boundaries with the Spartans and were maintaining that theirs was the fairer claim, he drew his sword and said: ‘The man who has this within his grasp argues best about land boundaries.’

7. Noticing that the Boeotians' reaction to his crossing their territory was ambiguous, he sent a message to inquire whether he should march through their territory with spears ready for action or at the slope.

8.When a man from Megara was rather outspoken towards him in the general assembly, he said: ‘My friend, your words require the backing of a city.’

9. While passing by the walls of Corinth when it had revolted, he noticed the Spartans' reluctance to attack; and when a hare was seen leaping over the ditch, he said: ‘Spartiates, aren't you ashamed of your fear of enemies like this, who are so lazy that hares sleep on their walls?’

10. When he was consulting the oracle on Samothrace the priest instructed him to state the most criminal act he had ever perpetrated in his life. His reaction was to inquire: ‘Is it on your orders that I have to do this, or on those of the gods?’ When the priest declared: ‘The gods,’ he said: ‘Then you move out of my way, and I'll tell them should they ask.’

11. When a Persian inquired what type of constitution met with his greatest approval, he said: ‘Whichever gives brave men and cowards their due.’

12. He said to the man who declared his admiration and special affection for him: ‘I have two oxen in a field; even though neither says anything, I'm fully aware of which one idles and which one works.’

13. When someone was abusing him he said: ‘Say all you want, miserable little foreigner, and leave nothing unsaid, should that enable you to evacuate from your spirit the nastiness you seem to be full of.’

14. At a later date, after his death, a dispute developed over an alliance and Agesilaus came to Lysander's house to examine his records of it, since Lysander kept these at home. But he also discovered a pamphlet about the constitution written for Lysander. The thesis was that the kingship be removed from the Eurypontids and Agiads and be thrown open, and that the selection be made from among the best individuals, so that this privilege would be bestowed not upon Heracles' descendants but upon those who like Heracles were chosen for their merit (that being the reason why he too was raised to divine status). Agesilaus intended to make this work known to the citizens and to demonstrate what sort of citizen Lysander had secretly been, as well as to create prejudice against Lysander's friends. But by all accounts Lacratidas, who was then the presiding ephor, was concerned that if it was read the work might prove persuasive: so he restrained Agesilaus and said that there was no need to disinter Lysander, but that they should bury the work with him, since it was both criminal and persuasive in its presentation.

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15. When after his death he was found to be a poor man, those who had wooed his daughters left off. The ephors fined them because they courted his daughters so long as they believed him to be wealthy, but once they discovered from his poverty that he was upright and honest they despised them.

NAMERTES

When he was despatched as envoy and a native of the country was congratulating him on having many friends, Namertes inquired if the latter had any means of putting a man with many friends to the test. Since he did not, but was eager to know of one, Namertes declared: ‘Through misfortune.’

NICANDER

(Eighth-century Eurypontid king)

1. When someone mentioned that the Argives were slandering him, Nicander said: ‘In that case they are being punished for slandering⁴¹ good men.’

2. When someone asked why they have long hair and grow their beards, he said: ‘Of all types of personal adornment, for a man this is the finest and least expensive.’

3. When one of the Athenians said: ‘Nicander, you adhere very strongly to the principle of having no occupation,’ he replied: ‘You are correct; but our aim is that, unlike you, we shouldn't be concerned with every random pastime.’

PANTHOIDAS

(Spartiate officer of the early fourth century)

1. When Panthoidas was on an embassy to Asia and some people were showing him a great high wall, he said: ‘By the gods, my friends, what splendid women's quarters!’

2. When the philosophers were engaging in much serious discussion in the Academy and Panthoidas was asked subsequently what impression their talk made on him, he replied: ‘What else but serious? Yet there is no value in it unless you put it to use.’

PAUSANIAS SON OF CLEOMBROTUS

(Regent for his cousin, the Agiad boy king Pleistarchus, from 480. Removed and driven to death in the late 470s)

1. When the Delians⁴² were maintaining their claim to the island against the Athenians and stating that under their law women do not give birth on the island nor are corpses buried there, Pausanias son of Cleombrotus said: ‘Then how could this be your fatherland, in which not one of you has either been born or will remain?’

2.When the exiles were urging him to lead his army against the Athenians and claiming that as his name was being called out at the Olympic Games they were the only ones who used to hiss him, he said: ‘So what do you think those who used to hiss when their situation was favourable will do when it is unfavourable?’

3. When someone was asking why they made the poet Tyrtaeus a citizen, ⁴³ he said: ‘So that a foreigner should never be seen as our leader.’

4. To the man who was physically weak yet whose advice was to take all possible risks against the enemy by land and by sea, he said: ‘So when giving us this advice to fight, are you willing to strip off yourself and show the sort of man you are?’

5. When amongst the spoils some people were amazed at the extravagance of the Persians' clothing, he said: ‘Better for them to be men of great worth rather than to have possessions of great worth.’

6. After his victory over the Medes at Plataea⁴⁴ he gave orders that the Persian dinner which had been prepared beforehand should be served to his staff. Since it was incredibly expensive, he said: ‘By the gods, with a spread like this what greedy characters the Persians were to chase after our barley-bread.’

PAUSANIAS SON OF PLEISTOANAX

(Agiad king, 408–395)

1. To the person who had asked why none of their ancient laws might be changed, Pausanias son of Pleistoanax said: ‘Because the laws ought to control men, not men the laws.’

2. In Tegea, after he had gone into exile⁴⁵ and was praising the Spartans, someone said: ‘So why didn't you stay at Sparta rather than go into exile?’ He replied: ‘Because even doctors don't usually spend their time among fit people, but wherever there are sick ones.’

3. When someone was asking him how they could conquer the Thracians, he said: ‘By making our doctor a general⁴⁶ and our general a doctor.’

4. When a doctor was examining him and said: ‘You have nothing the matter with you,’ he said: ‘No. For after all, don't I employ you as my doctor?’

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5. When one of his friends was criticizing him for disparaging a particular doctor even though he had never consulted him nor been done any harm by him, he said: ‘My point is that, had I gone to consult him, I should not be alive now.’

6. When another doctor said to him: ‘You have become an old man,’ he said: ‘Yes, because I didn't employ you as my doctor.’

7. He used to say that the best doctor is the one who doesn't let the sick rot but buries them very quickly.

PEDARITUS

(Spartan harmost, or governor, on Chios. Killed in action there in 411)

1. As someone was remarking that the enemy's numbers were substantial, Pedaritus said: ‘Then we shall win greater fame since we shall inflict higher casualties.’

2. When he observed some effeminate person being nonetheless praised by the citizens for his fairness, he said: ‘Men who are like women should not be praised nor should women who are like men, unless some necessity forces the woman.’

3. When not selected as one of the Three Hundred (which was rated as the outstanding distinction in the state) he withdrew with a bright smile. Yet when summoned back by the ephors and asked what was making him cheerful, he said: ‘Because I congratulate the state on having three hundred citizens better than I.’

PLEISTARCHUS

(Agiad king, 480–458)

1. To the man who asked the reason why the royal lines do not derive their names from the first kings, ⁴⁷ Pleistarchus son of Leonidas said: ‘Because they wanted to exercise royal power to excess, whereas their successors in no sense did.’

2. When some advocate was making jokes, he said: ‘My friend, as you keep cracking jokes, shouldn't you take care not to turn into a clown, in just the way that those who keep wrestling turn into wrestlers?’

3. He said to the man who was imitating a nightingale: ‘My friend, I've found more pleasure in listening to the nightingale herself.’

4. On being informed by someone that a particular slanderer was praising him, he said: ‘I wonder if somebody has told him that I'm dead, since he's incapable of speaking a good word about anyone alive.’

PLEISTOANAX

(Agiad king, 458–446/5 and 427/6–408. He was in exile for the intervening period)

When some Athenian politician was disparaging the Spartans as uneducated, Pleistoanax son of Pausanias said: ‘Your point is correct, since we are the only Greeks who have learned nothing wicked from you Athenians.’

POLYDORUS

(Seventh-century Agiad king)

1. When someone was making constant threats against the enemy, Polydorus the son of Alcamenes said: ‘Don't you realize that to a very great extent you are wasting your vindictiveness?’

2. As he was leading his army out against Messene, someone inquired if it was his intention to fight his brothers. ‘No,’ he said, ‘merely to proceed to that part of the country which is not divided into lots.’

3. After the pitched Battle of the Three Hundred, ⁴⁸ when the Argives in full force had again suffered a defeat, the allies were urging Polydorus not to pass up the chance of assaulting the enemy wall and taking their city, which would be very easy to do with the men now dead and only the women left. So he said to them: ‘While it's fine in my view to defeat one's opponents when fighting on equal terms, I do not consider it fair to want to capture their city after fighting over land boundaries. For I came to recover territory, not to seize a city.’

4. When asked why Spartiates boldly run risks in warfare, he said: ‘Because they have learned to respect their leaders, not to fear them.’

POLYCRATIDAS

Polycratidas, as one of a group of envoys to the Great King's generals, was asked by them whether they were taking a private initiative, or had been sent by the state. His reply was: ‘If we succeed, the latter; otherwise, the former.’

PHOEBIDAS⁴⁹

When some people were saying prior to the peril of Leuctra that this day would prove who was brave, Phoebidas remarked that a day which was able to prove who was brave was indeed valuable.

soüs

(Early Eurypontid king)

There is a story that when Soüs was being besieged by the Cleitorians in a rugged waterless spot, he agreed to surrender them the territory which he had gained in the fighting, if all those with him might drink from the spring nearby, which the enemy were guarding. Once the oaths had been taken, he assembled his men and offered to confer the kingship of the area upon the one who refrained from drinking. Not one, however, possessed such self-restraint, but they all drank. Soüs went down after everyone else, and with the enemy still there just splashed himself. Then he moved off, but retained control of the land because he had not drunk.

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TELECLUS

(Eighth-century Agiad king)

1. Teleclus said to the man who told him that his father was slandering him: ‘Unless he had a reason for speaking, he would not have spoken.’

2. When his brother mentioned that, even though they were from the same family, the citizens' behaviour towards himself was not the same as it was towards him, but was less courteous, he said: ‘Yes, for you don't know how to suffer injustice, but I do.

3. When asked the reason for their custom whereby the younger men get up and give their places to the older ones, he said: ‘So that in showing such respect to men not related to them they may respect their parents all the more.’

4. When someone asked him how much property he owned, he said: ‘No more than enough.’

CHARILLUS

(Eighth-century Eurypontid king, also called Charilaus)

1. When asked why Lycurgus made so few laws, Charillus said: ‘Because men of few words need only a few laws too.’

2. When someone was asking why they let unmarried girls appear in public unveiled, but their wives veiled, he said: ‘Because the girls need to find husbands, whereas the wives must stick to their own husbands.’

3. When one of the helots behaved rather insolently towards him, he said: ‘Were I not angry, I would have killed you.’

4. When someone asked him which type of government he considered the best, he said: ‘The one in which the largest number of citizens are willing to compete with each other in excellence and without civil discord.’

5. When someone was inquiring why all the statues of the gods set up by them have weapons, he said: ‘So that we may not blame the gods for cowardice just as we blame men, and so that our young men may not pray to unarmed gods.’

6. He said to the man who asked why they wear their hair long: ‘This is the natural means of personal adornment, and it costs nothing.’