Apophthegmata Laconica

Plutarch

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

When a man from Argos said that the Spartans became more unscrupulous on going abroad and being out of the control of their long-established laws, [*](Lions at home, but foxes abroad was proverbial. Cf. Plutarch’s Comparison of Lysander and Sulla, chap. iii. (476 E).) he said, But you, when you come to Sparta, do not become worse, but better.