Apophthegmata Laconica

Plutarch

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

When someone else said, They are near to us, he said, Then we also are near to them. [*](Cf.Moralia, 194 D, supra, and 234 B.)

When someone said, Leonidas, are you here to take such a hazardous risk with so few men against so many? he said, If you men think that I rely on numbers, then all Greece is not sufficient, for it is but a small fraction of their numbers; but if on men’s valour, then this number will do.

When another man remarked the same thing he said, In truth I am taking many if they are all to be slain. [*](Cf.Moralia, 225 A (3), supra, and 866 B.)