Apophthegmata Laconica

Plutarch

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

When a physician prescribed for him an overelaborate

course of treatment, not at all simple, he said, Egad, it is not ordained that I must live at all hazards, and I refuse to submit to everything. [*](Cf. the similar attitude of Pompey, 204 B, supra. )

As he was standing at the altar of Athena of the Brazen House sacrificing a heifer, a louse bit him; but he did not turn a hair, and, picking it off, he cracked it openly before the eyes of all, saying, By Heaven, it is a pleasure to kill the plotter even at the altar.

At another time he saw a mouse being dragged from a hole by a boy who had hold of him, and the mouse turned and bit the hand that held him and escaped; whereupon Agesilaus called the attention of the bystanders to this, and said, When the smallest animal thus defends itself against those who do it wrong, consider what it becomes men to do. [*](Cf. the similar story about Brasidas in Moralia, 79 E, 190 B, and 219 C.)