Apophthegmata Laconica

When someone said to him, You have agreed, and kept repeating the same thing, Agesilaus said, Yes, of course, if it is right; but if not, then I said so, but I did not agree. And when the other added, But surely kings ought to carry out whatsoe’er they confirm by the royal assent, [*](Adapted from Homer, Il. i. 527.) Agesilaus said, No more than those who approach kings ought to ask for what is right and say what is right, trying to hit upon the right occasion and a request fitting for kings to grant.

Whenever he heard people blaming or praising, he thought it was no less necessary to inform himself about the ways of those who spoke than of those about whom they spoke. [*](In almost the same words, but with a diffrent turn of the thought, in Xenophon, Agesilaus, 11. 4.)

When he was still a boy, at a celebration of the festival of the naked boys the director of the dance assigned him to an inconspicuous place; and he obeyed, although he was already destined to be king, [*](Plutarch in his Life of Agesilaus, chaps. i. and ii. (596 A and 597 B), says that Agesilaus was brought up as a private citizen and di not become king until after the death of Agis.) saying, Good! I shall show that it is not the places that make men to be held in honour, but the men the places. [*](Cf.Moralia, 149 A. In 219, infra the remark is attributed to Damonidas, and Diogenes Laertius, ii. 73, assigns it to Aristippus.)