Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

When the Ephors ordered him to turn over soldiers to a traitor to lead, he said that he did not entrust another’s men to the man that betrayed his own. [*](Attributed to Agis II. in Moralia, 215 C.)

Somebody promised to give to Cleomenes cocks that would die fighting, but he retorted, No, don’t, but give me those that kill fighting. [*](Cf. Moralia, 224 B, infra, and Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus, chap. xx. (52 E).)

When Paedaretus was not chosen to be one of the three hundred, [*](Cf. Herodotus, vii. 205, and viii. 124; Thucydides, v. 72; Xenophon, Constitution of Sparta, 4.3.) an honour which ranked highest in the State, he departed, cheerful and smiling, with the remark that he was glad if the State possessed three hundred citizens better than himself. [*](Cf. Moralia, 231 B, and Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus, chap. xxv. (55 C).)

When Damonidas was assigned to the last place in the chorus by the director, he said, Good ! You have discovered a way by which even this place may come to be held in honour. [*](Cf. Moralia, 149 A and 219 E. A similar remark is attributed to Agesilaus in Moralia, 208 D, and the idea is also accredited to Aristippus by Diogenes Laertius, ii. 73. )

Nicostratus, the general of the Argives, [*](At the time of ARchidamus III., 261-338 B.C.) was urged by Archidamus to betray a certain stronghold, his reward to be a large sum of money and marriage with any Spartan woman he wished, save only the royal family; but his reply was that Archidamus was not descended from Heracles, for Heracles, as he went about, punished the bad men, but Archidamus made the good men bad.