Apophthegmata Laconica

A certain pirate overran the country, and, when he was captured, said, I had not the means to provide subsistence for my soldiers; therefore, to

When a certain low fellow spoke ill of him, he said, So it is for this reason, is it, that you speak ill of everyone, that we, busied in defending ourselves, may not have time to speak of your baseness?

When one of the citizens said that the good king ought to be mild at all times and in every way, he remarked, Yes, but not to the extent of being despised.

When he was afflicted with a lingering illness, and began to give attention to mind-healers and seers, to whom formerly he had given no attention, someone expressed surprise. Why are you surprised? said he; for I am not now the same man that I was, and, not being the same man, I do not approve the same things. [*](For a similar change in the attitude of Pericles and of Bion Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Pericles, chap. xxxviii. (173 A) and Diogenes Laertius, iv. 54.)

When a public lecturer spoke at considerable length about bravery, he burst out laughing; and when the man said, Why do you laugh, Cleomenes, at hearing a man speak about bravery, and that, too, when you are a king? Because, my friend, he said, if it had been a swallow speaking about it, T should have done the same thing, but if it had been an eagle, I should have kept very quiet.

When the people of Argos asserted that they would wipe out their former defeat [*](Presumably in the battle over Thyrea in 546 B.C. Cf. Herodotus, i. 82, and the reference in Plato, Phaedo, 89 C.) by fighting again, he said, I wonder if by the addition of a word of two syllables [*](The word again. They had lost in the previous fighting.) you have now become more powerful than you were before!

When someone upbraided him, saying, You are inclined to luxury, Cleomenes, he said, Well,

When someone, wishing to introduce a musician to him, said, in addition to other commendations, that the man was the best musician among the Greeks, Cleomenes pointed to one of the persons near, and said, Yonder man, I swear, ranks with me as the best soup-maker. [*](Cf.Moralia, 218 C (3) supra, where the saying is attributed to Archidamus II.)

Maeandrius, the despot of Samos, because of the inroad of the Persians, fled to Sparta, and exhibited all the gold and silver vessels which he had brought with him, and offered to favour Cleomenes with as many as he wished; but he would have none, and, taking good care that the man should not distribute any among the rest of the citizens, he went to the Ephors and said that it was better for Sparta that his own friend and guest from Samos should withdraw from the Peloponnesus, so that he should not persuade anyone of the Spartans to become a bad man. And they listened to his advice and proclaimed the expulsion of Maeandrius that very day. [*](The story is taken from Herodotus, iii. 148, in part word for word.)

When someone said, Why have you not killed off the people of Argos who wage war against you so often? he said, Oh, we would not kill them off, for we want to have some trainers for our young men.

When somebody inquired of him why Spartans do not dedicate to the gods the spoils from their enemies, he said, Because they are taken from cowards. [*](Cf.Moralia, 224 F (4), infra. )

Cleomenes, the son of Cleombrotus, when someone offered him fighting cocks and said that they would die fighting for victory, said, Well then, give me some of those that kill them, for those are better than these. [*](Cf. the note on Moralia, 191 F, supra. )

Labotas, when someone spoke at very great length, said, Why, pray, such a big introduction to a small subject? For proportionate to the topic should be the words you use. [*](Cf. the note on Moralia, 208 C (3), supra. )

Leotychidas the First, when somebody remarked to him that he was very changeable, said, Yes, because of varying occasion; not like all you because of your baseness.

In answer to the man who asked how any man could best preserve his present state of good fortune, he said, By not trusting everything to chance.

Being asked what freeborn boys had best learn, he said, Those things which may help them when they become men. [*](Cf. the note on Moralia, 213 D (67), supra. )

When someone inquired for what reason the Spartans drank so little, he said,So that others may not deliberate over us, but we over others.

Leotychidas, the son of Ariston, in answer to a man who said that the sons of Demaratus were speaking ill of him, remarked, Egad, I don’t wonder; for not one of them could ever speak a good word. [*](The same story is found in Diogenes Laertius, ii. 35 (of Socrates), and in Stobaeus, Florilegium, xix. 5 (of Plato).)

When at the adjacent gate a snake had coiled around the key, and the soothsayers declared this to be a prodigy, he said, It doesn’t seem so to me, but if the key had coiled around the snake, that would be a prodigy! [*](The saying is attributed to the others also; Cf. Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, viii. 843 ed. Potter; or iii. 18, ed. Stahlin; Cicero, De divinatione, ii. 28 (62).)

This is his retort to Philip, the priest of the Orphic mysteries, who was in the direst straits of poverty, but used to assert that those who were initiated under his rites were happy after the conclusion of this life; to him Leotychidas said, You idiot! Why then don’t you die as speedily as possible so that you may with that cease from bewailing your unhappiness and poverty? [*](Cf. Diogenes Laertius, vi. 4, where the remark is attributed to Antisthenes.)