Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

When Thrasybulus, who was in love with the daughter of Peisistratus, kissed her one day on meeting her, Peisistratus, when incited by his wife against the man, said, If we hate them that love us, what shall we do to them that hate us ? And thereupon he gave the maiden as wife to Thrasybulus. [*](Cf. Valerius Maximus, v. 1, ext. 2. Plutarch also refers to the incident in Moralia, 457 F.)

Some revellers fell in with his wife, and did and said a good many ribald things. The next day when they besought Peisistratus with many tears, he said, As for you, do you try to conduct yourselves in a seemly manner hereafter, but as for my wife, she did not go out at all yesterday. [*](Musonius in Stobaeus, Florilegium, xix. 16, records a similar action on the part of Phocion.)

When he was bent on marrying a second wife, his children inquired whether he had any fault to find with them. By no means, he said, but only

Demetrius of Phalerum recommended to Ptolemy the king to buy and read the books dealing with the office of king and ruler. For, as he said, those things which the kings’ friends are not bold enough to recommend to them are written in the books.

Lycurgus, the Spartan, introduced the custom among his citizens of wearing their hair long, saying that it made the beautiful more comely and the ugly more frightful. [*](Cf. Moralia, 228 F, infra, Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus, chap. xxii. (53 D) and Life of Lysander, chap. i. (434 A). The Spartan custom of wearing the hair long is often referred to; for example Moralia, 189 F and 230 B, infra, Xenophon, Constitution of Sparta, xi. 3.)

To the man who urged him to create a democracy in the State his answer was, Do you first create a democracy in your own house. [*](Repeated in Moralia, 155 D, 22 D, and Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus, chap. xix. (52 A).)

He ordered that the people build their houses with saw and axe only; for he knew that men are ashamed to bring into simple houses costly vessels, rugs, and tables. [*](Cf. Moralia, 227 B, infra, and Life of Lycurgus, chap. xiii. (47 B).)

He prohibited boxing and prize-fighting so that the people might not even in sport get the habit of crying off. [*](See Moralia, 228 D, infra, and cf. Life of Lycurgus, chap. xix. (52 A), and Seneca, De Beneficiis, v. 3.)

He prohibited making war upon the same people many times, so that they should not make their opponents too belligerent. And it is a fact that years later, when Agesilaus was wounded, Antalcidas said of him that he was getting a beautiful return from the Thebans for the lessons he had taught them in habituating and teaching them to make war against their will. [*](Cf. Moralia, 213 F, 217 E, 227 C, infra; Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus, chap. xiii. (47 D); Life of Pelopidas, chap. xv. (285 D); Life of Agesilaus, chap. xxvi. (610 D); Polyaenus, Strategemata, i. 16. 2.)

Charillus the king, being asked why Lycurgus enacted so few laws, replied that people who used few words had no need of many laws. [*](Cf. Moralia, 232 B, infra, and Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus, chap. xx. (52 D).)

When one of the helots conducted himself rather boldly towards him, he said, By Heaven, I would kill you if I were not angry. [*](Cf. Moralia, 232 D, infra.)

In answer to the man who inquired why he and the rest wore their hair long, he said that of all ornaments this was the least expensive. [*](Attributed to Nicander, Moralia, 230 B, and to Agesilaus by Stobaeus, Florilegium, lxv. 10.)

Teleclus the king answered his brother, who complained against the citizens because they conducted themselves with less consideration towards him than towards the king, by saying, The reason is that you do not know how to submit to injustice. [*](Repeated in Moralia, 232 B, infra; cf. also the similar remark of Chilon reported in Diogenes Laertius, i. 68, and the general statement in Menander’s Farmer, Kock, Com. Att. Frag. iii. p. 29, Menander no. 95; or Allinson’s Menander in L.C.L., p. 338.)

When Theopompus was in a certain city, a man pointed out the wall to him and inquired if it seemed to him to be beautiful and high, and he replied, It isn’t a dwelling-place for women, is it ? [*](Cf. Moralia, 221 F. The remark in varied form is attributed to Agesilaus in Moralia, 212 E; to Agis in Moralia, 215 D; and to Panthoidas in Moralia, 230 C; and to an unnamed Spartan by Valerius Maximus, iii. 7, ext. 8.)