Laconic Apophthegms; or Remarkable Sayings of the Spartans. (1-5)

Agasicles the Spartan king, when one wondered why, since he was a great lover of instruction, he would not admit Philophanes the Sophist, freely said, I ought to be their scholar whose son I am. And to one enquiring how a governor should be secure without guards, he replied, If he rules his subjects as fathers do their sons.

Agesilaus the Great, being once chosen steward of a feast, and asked by the butler how much wine he allowed every guest, returned: If you have a great deal provided, as much as every one calls for; if but a little, give them all an equal share. When he saw a malefactor resolutely endure his torments, How great a rascal is this fellow, he cried out, that uses patience, bravery, and courage, in such an impious and dishonest case! To one commending an orator for his skill in amplifying petty matters he said, I don’t think that shoemaker a good workman that makes a great shoe for a little foot. When one in discourse said to him, Sir, you have assented to such a thing already, and repeated it very often, he replied, Yes, if it is right; but if not, I said so indeed but never assented. And the other rejoining, But, sir, a king is obliged to perform Whatever he hath granted by his nod;[*] No more, he returned, than

those that petition him are bound to make none but good and just requests, and to consider all circumstances of time and what befits a king. When he heard any praise or censure, he thought it as necessary to enquire into the character of those that spake as of those of whom they spake. While he was a boy, at a certain solemnity of naked dancing, the person that ordered that affair put him in a dishonorable place; and he, though already declared king, endured it, saying, I’ll show that it is not the places that grace men, but men the places. To a physician prescribing him a nice and tedious course of physic, he said, By Castor and Pollux, unless I am destined to live at any rate, I surely shall not if I take all this. Whilst he stood by the altar of Minerva Chalcioecus sacrificing an ox, a louse bit him. At this he never blushed, but cracked him before the whole company, adding these words, By all the Gods, it is pleasant to kill a plotter at the very altar. Another time seeing a boy pull a mouse by the tail out of his hole, and the mouse turn and bite the boy’s fingers and so escape; he bade his companions take notice of it, saying, If so little a creature will oppose injurious violence, what think ye that men ought to do?

Being eager for war against the Persians to free the Asiatic Greeks, he consulted the oracle of Jupiter at Dodona; and that telling him to go on as he designed, he brought the answer to the Ephors, upon which they ordered him to go to Delphi and put the same question. He went, and put it in this form: Apollo, are you of the same mind with your father? And the oracle agreeing, he was chosen general and the war began. Now Tissaphernes, at first being afraid of Agesilaus, came to articles, and agreed that the Greek cities should be free and left to their own laws; but afterward procuring a great army from the king, he declared war against him unless he should presently leave Asia. Glad of this treachery of Tissaphernes, he marched

as if his design was to make an inroad upon Caria; but when Tissaphernes had brought his troops thither, he turned upon Phrygia, and took a great many cities and abundance of rich spoil, saying to his friend: To break one’s promise is indeed impious; but to outwit an enemy is not only just and glorious, but profitable and sweet. Being inferior to the enemy in horse, he retreated to Ephesus, and ordered all the wealthy to provide each a man and horse, which should excuse them from personal service in his wars. By which means, in the room of rich cowards, he was soon furnished with stout men and able horses; and this he said he did in imitation of Agamemnon, who agreed for a serviceable mare to discharge a wealthy coward. When he ordered the captives to be sold naked and the chapmen came, a thousand bid money for the clothes, but all derided the bodies of the men, which were tender and white by reason of their delicate breeding, as useless and worth nothing. He said to his soldiers, Look, those are the things for which ye fight, and these are the things with whom ye fight. Having beaten Tissaphernes in Lydia and killed many of his men, he wasted the territories of the king; and the king sending money and desiring a peace, Agesilaus replied: To grant peace is in the power only of the commonwealth. I delight to enrich my soldiers rather than myself, and think it agreeable to the honor of the Greeks not to receive gifts from their enemies but to take spoils.

Megabytes the son of Spithridates, a very pretty boy, who thought himself very well beloved, coming to him to offer a kiss and an embrace, he turned away his head. But when the boy had not appeared a long time, Agesilaus enquired after him; and his friends replied, that it was his own fault, since he derided the kiss of the pretty boy, and the youth was afraid to come again. Agesilaus, standing silent and musing a pretty while, said: Well, I will use no

persuasions, for methinks I had rather conquer such desires than take the most popular city of my enemies; for it is better to preserve our own than rob others of their liberty. In all things else he was very exact, and a strict observer of the law; but in his friends’ concerns he thought that to be too scrupulous was a bare pretence to cloak unwillingness to use his interest. And agreeable to this, there is extant a small note of his, interceding for a friend to one Idrieus a Carian: If Nicias is not guilty, discharge him; if he is, discharge him for my sake; but by all means pray let him be discharged. This was his usual humor in his friends’ concerns, yet sometimes profit and convenience was preferred; for once breaking up his camp in disorder, and leaving one that he loved behind him sick, when he begged and beseeched him with tears to have compassion, he turned and said, How hard it is to be pitiful and wise at once! His diet was the same with that of his attendants; he never fed to satisfy, nor drank himself drunk; he used sleep not as a master, but as a servant to his affairs; and was so fitted to endure heat or cold, that he alone was undisturbed at the change of seasons. He lodged amongst his soldiers, and his bed was as mean as any; and this he had always in his mouth: It befits a governor to excel private men not in delicacy and softness, but in bravery and courage. And therefore when one asked him what good Lycurgus’s laws had brought to Sparta, he replied, Contempt of pleasure. And to one that wondered at his and the other Lacedaemonians’ mean fare and poor attire, he said, From this course of life, sir, we reap liberty. And to one advising him to indulge more, saying, Chance is uncertain, and you may never have the opportunity again, he replied, I accustom myself so that, let whatever change happen, I shall need no change. When he was grown old, he continued the same course; and to one asking him why at his age in very cold weather he would not wear a coat, he replied, that the youth may imitate, having the old men and governors for example.

The Thasians, when he marched through their country, presented him with corn, geese, sweetmeats, honey-cakes, and all sorts of delicacies, both of meat and drink; he accepted the corn, but commanded them to carry back the rest, as useless and unprofitable to him. But they importunately pressing him to take all, he ordered them to be given to the Helots; and when some asked the reason, he replied, They that profess bravery ought not to meddle with such delicacies; and whatever takes with slaves cannot be agreeable to the free. Another time the Thasians, after considerable benefits received, made him a God and dedicated temples to his honor, and sent an embassy to compliment him on that occasion. When he had read over the honors the ambassadors had brought him, Well, said he, and can your country make men Gods? And they affirming, Go to, he rejoined, make yourselves all Gods first; and when that is done, I’ll believe you can make me one. The Greeks in Asia decreeing him statues, he wrote thus to them: Let there be no representation of me, either painted, founded, or engraved. In Asia, seeing a house roofed with square beams, he asked the master whether trees in their country were grown square. And he replying, No, but round; What then, said he, if they grew square, would you make them round? Being asked how far Sparta’s bounds extended, shaking a spear he replied, As far as this will reach. And to another enquiring why Sparta was without walls, he showed the citizens in arms, saying, Look, these are the walls of Sparta. And to another that put the same question he replied, Cities should be walled not with stones and timber, but with the courage of the inhabitants; and his friends he advised to strive to be rich not in money, but in bravery and virtue. When he would have his soldiers do any thing quickly, he before them all put the

first hand to it; he was proud that he wrought as much as any, and valued himself more upon ruling his own desires than upon being king. When one saw a lame Spartan marching to the war, and endeavored to procure a horse for him, How, said he, don’t you know that war needs those that will stay, not those that will fly? Being asked how he got this greateatreputation, he replied, By contemning death. And another time, one enquiring why the Spartans used pipes and music when they fought, he said, When all move in measure, it may be known who is brave and who a coward. When he heard one magnifying the king of Persia’s happiness, who was but young, Yes, said he, Priam himself was not unhappy at that age.

When he had conquered a great part of Asia, he designed to march against the King himself, to break his quiet and hinder him from corrupting the popular men amongst the Greeks; but being recalled by the Ephors to oppose the designs which the other Greek states, bought with the King’s gold, were forming against Sparta, he said, A good ruler should be governed by the laws, — and sailed away from Asia, leaving the Greeks there extremely sorry at his departure. And because the stamp of the Persian money was an archer, he said, when he broke up his camp, that he was driven out of Asia by thirty thousand of the King’s archers. For so many pieces of gold being carried to Thebes and Athens by Timocrates, and distributed amongst the popular men, the people were excited to war upon the Spartans. And this epistle he sent to the Ephors: —

Agesilaus to Ephors, Greeting.
We have subdued a great part of Asia, driven out the barbarians, and furnished Ionia with arms. But since you command me back, I follow, nay almost come before this epistle; for I am not governor for myself, but for the

commonwealth. And then a king truly rules according to justice, when he is governed by the laws, the Ephors, or others that are in authority in the commonwealth.

Passing the Hellespont, he marched through Thrace, but made no applications to any of the barbarians, only sending to know whether he marched through the country of an enemy or a friend. All the others received him as friends and guided him in his march; only the Troadians (of whom, as story says, even Xerxes bought his passage) demanded of Agesilaus a hundred talents of silver and as many women. But he scoffingly replied, Why then do not you come presently to receive what you demand? And leading on his army, he fought them; and having destroyed a considerable number, he marched through. To the king of Macedon he sent the same question; and he replying that he would consider of it, Let him consider, saith he, and we will be marching on. Upon which the king, surprised at his daring temper and afraid of his force, admitted him as a friend. The Thessalians having assisted his enemies, he wasted their country, and sent Xenocles and Scythes to Larissa in order to make a treaty. These being seized and detained, all others stomached it extremely, and were of opinion that Agesilaus should besiege and storm Larissa. But he replying that he would not give either of their lives for all Thessaly, he had them delivered upon articles. Hearing of a battle fought near Corinth, in which very few of the Spartans, but many of the Corinthians, Athenians, and their allies were slain, he did not appear joyful, or puffed up with his victory, but fetching a deep sigh cried out, Unhappy Greece, that hath destroyed herself men enough to have conquered all the barbarians! The Pharsalians pressing upon him and distressing his forces with five hundred horse, he charged them, and after the rout raised a trophy at the foot of

Narthacium. And this victory pleased him more than all the others he had won, because with his single cavalry he had beaten those that vaunted themselves as the best horsemen in the world. Diphridas bringing him commands immediately upon his march to make an inroad into Boeotia, — though he designed the same thing in a short time, when he should be better prepared, — he obeyed, and sending for twenty thousand men from the camp at Corinth, marched into Boeotia; and at Coronea joining battle with the Thebans, Athenians, Argives, Corinthians, and Locrians altogether, he won, though desperately wounded himself, the greatest battle (as Xenophon affirms) that was fought in his age. And yet when he returned, after so much glory and so many victories, he made no alteration in his course of life.

When he saw some of the citizens think themselves brave fellows for breeding horses for the race, he persuaded his sister Cunisca to get into a chariot and put in for the prize at the Olympian games, intending by that way to convince the Greeks that it was no argument of bravery, but of wealth and profuse expense. Having Xenophon the philosopher at his house, and treating him with great consideration, he urged him to send for his children and have them brought up in Sparta, where they might learn the most excellent of arts, how to govern and how to be governed. And at another time being asked by what means the Lacedaemonians flourished above others, Because, says he, they are more studious than others how to rule and how to obey. When Lysander was dead, he found a strong faction, which Lysander upon his return from Asia had associated against him, and was very eager to show the people what manner of citizen Lysander was whilst he lived. And finding among Lysander’s papers an oration composed by Cleon of Halicarnassus, about new designs and changing the government, which

Lysander was to speak to the people, he resolved to publish it. But when an old politician, perusing the discourse and fearing its effect upon the people, advised him not to dig up Lysander but rather bury the speech with him, he followed the advice, and made no more of it. Those of the contrary faction he did not openly molest, but by cunning contrivance he got some of them into office, and then showed them to be rascals when in power. And then defending them or getting their pardon when accused, he brought them over to his own side, so that he had no enemy at last. To one desiring him to write to his acquaintance in Asia, that he might have justice done him, he replied, My acquaintance will do thee justice, though I do not write. One showed him the wall of a city strongly built and well fortified, and asked him whether he did not think it a fine thing. Yes, by heaven, he replied, for women, but not for men to live in. To a Megarian talking great things of his city he said, Youth, thy words want an army.

What he saw others admire he seemed not so much as to know; and when Callipides, a man famous among the Greeks for acting tragedies and caressed by all, met him and saluted him, and then impudently intruding amongst his companions showed himself, supposing that Agesilaus would take notice of him and begin some familiar discourse, and at last asked, Doth not your majesty know me? Have not you heard who I am? — he looked upon him and said, Art not thou Callipides, the Merry Andrew? [*] (For that is the name the Lacedaemonians give an actor.) Being once desired to hear a man imitate a nightingale,.he refused, saying, I have often heard the bird itself. Menecrates the physician, for his good success in some desperate diseases, was called Jupiter; and priding himself in the name, he presumed to write to Agesilaus thus: Menecrates Jupiter to King Agesilaus wisheth good health. Reading

no more, he presently wrote back: King Agesilaus to Menecrates wisheth a sound mind.

When Conon and Pharnabazus with the king’s navy were masters of the sea and wasted the coasts of Laconia, and Athens — Pharnabazus defraying the charges — was surrounded with a wall, the Lacedaemonians made a peace with the Persian; and sending Antalcidas, one of their citizens, to Tiribazus, they agreed to deliver into the King’s hands all the Asiatic Greeks, for whose freedom Agesilaus fought. Upon which account Agesilaus was not at all blemished by this dishonorable treaty; for Antalcidas was his enemy, and clapped up a peace on purpose because the war raised Agesilaus and got him glory. When one said, The Lacedaemonians are becoming medized, he replied, Rather the Medes are becoming laconized. And being asked which was the better virtue, courage or justice, he said: Courage would be good for nothing, if there were no justice; and if all men were just, there would be no need of courage. The Asians being wont to style the king of Persia The Great; How, said he, is he greater than I am, if he is not more just or temperate? And he used to say, The Greeks in Asia are mean-spirited freemen, but stout slaves. And being asked how one might get the greatest reputation amongst men, he replied, By speaking the best and doing the bravest things. And he had this saying commonly in his mouth, A commander should be daring against his enemy, and kind and good-natured to his own soldiers. When one asked him what boys should learn; That, said he, which they shall use when men. When he sat judge upon a cause, the accuser spake floridly and well; but the defendant meanly and ever now and then repeated these words, Agesilaus, a king should assist the laws. What, said he, dost thou think, if any one dug down thy house or took away thy coat, a mason or a weaver would assist thee?

A letter being brought him from the king of Persia by

a Persian that came with Callias the Spartan, after the peace was concluded, offering him friendship and kind entertainment, he would not receive it, bidding the messenger tell the king that there was no need to send private letters to him; for if he was a friend to Sparta and meant well to Greece, he would do his best to be his friend; but if he designed upon their liberty, he might know that, though he received a thousand- letters from him, he would be his enemy. He was very fond of his children; and it is reported that once toying with them he got astride upon a reed as upon a horse, and rode about the room; and being seen by one of his friends, he desired him not to speak of it till he had children of his own. When he had fought often with the Thebans and was wounded in the battle, Antalcidas, as it is reported, said to him: Indeed, sir, you have received a very fair reward for instructing the Thebans, whom, when ignorant and unwilling, you have forced to learn the art of war. For story tells us, the Lacedaemonians at that time by frequent skirmishes had made the Thebans better soldiers than themselves. And therefore Lycurgus, the old lawgiver, forbade them to fight often with the same nation, lest the enemy should learn their discipline. When he understood that the allies took it very ill, that in their frequent expeditions they, being great in number, followed the Spartans that were but few; designing to show their mistake about the number, he ordered all the allies to sit down in one body and the Lacedaemonians in another by themselves. Then he made proclamation that all the potters should rise first; and when they stood up, the braziers next; then the carpenters, next the masons, and so all other traders in order. Now almost all the allies stood up and not one of the Spartans, for their law forbids them all mechanical employments. Then said Agesilaus, with a smile, See now how many soldiers we provide more than you. When at the battle of Leuctra many of the Spartans fled and upon that account were obnoxious to the laws, the Ephors, seeing the city had but few men and stood in great need of soldiers at that time, would free them from the infamy and yet still keep the laws in force. Upon that account they put the power of making laws into the hands of Agesilaus; and he coming into the assembly said, I will make no new laws, nor will I add any thing to those you already have, nor take therefrom, nor change them in any wise; but I will order that the laws you already have be in force from to-morrow.

Epaminondas rushing on with a torrent and tide of force, and the Thebans and their allies being puffed up with this victory, though he had but an inconsiderable number, Agesilaus repulsed them from the city and forced them to retreat. In the battle at Mantinea, he advised the Spartans to neglect the others and fight Epaminondas only, saying: The wise alone is the stout man, and the cause of victory; and therefore if we take him off, we shall quickly have the rest; for they are fools and worth nothing. And it happened accordingly; for Epaminondas having the better of the day and the Spartans being routed, as he turned about and encouraged his soldiers to pursue, a Lacedaemonian gave him his death-wound. He falling, the Spartans that fled with Agesilaus rallied and turned the victory; the Thebans appearing to have much the worse, and the Spartans the better of the day. When Sparta had a great many hired soldiers in pay, and wanted money to carry on the war, Agesilaus, upon the king of Egypt’s desire, went to serve him for money. But the meanness of his habit brought him into contempt with the people of that country; for they, according to their bad notions of princes, expected that the king of Sparta should appear like the Persian, gaudily attired. But in a little time he sufficiently convinced them that majesty and glory were to be gotten by prudence and courage. When he found his men discouraged

at the number of the enemy (for they were 200,000) and their own fewness, just before the engagement, without any man’s privity, he contrived how to encourage them: in the hollow of his left hand he wrote VICTORY, and taking the liver from the priest, he put it into that hand, and held it a pretty while, pretending he was in doubt and perplexity at some appearance, till the characters were imprinted on the flesh; and then he showed it to the soldiers, telling them the Gods gave certain signs of victory by these characters. Upon which, thinking they had sure evidence of good success, they marched resolutely to the battle. When the enemy much exceeded them in number and were making an entrenchment round his camp, and Nectabius, whom then he assisted, urged him to fight; I would not, said he, hinder our enemies from making their number as small as ours. And when the trench was almost drawn round, ordering his army to the space between, and so fighting upon equal terms, with those few soldiers he had he routed and killed abundance of the enemy, and sent home a great treasure. Dying on his voyage from Egypt, he commanded his attendants not to make any figure or representation of his body; For, said he, if I have done any brave action, that will preserve my memory; if not, neither will a thousand statues, the works of base mechanics.

Agesipolis the son of Cleombrotus, when one told him that Philip had razed Olynthus in a few days, said, Well, but he is not able to build such another in twice that time. To one saying that whilst he was king he himself was an hostage with some other youths, and not their wives or children, he replied, Very good, for it is fit we ourselves should suffer for our own faults. When he designed to send for some whelps from home, and one said, Sir, none

must be carried out of the country, he replied, Nor men heretofore, but now they may.

Agesipolis the son of Pausanias, when the Athenians appealed to the Megarians as arbitrators of the differences between them, said, It is a shame, Athenians, that those who were once the lords of all Greece should understand what is right and just less than the people of Megara.

Agis the son of Archidamus, when the Ephors gave orders, Go take the youth, and follow this man into his own country, and he shall guide thee to the very citadel, said: How can it be prudent to trust so many youths to the fidelity of him who betrays his own country? Being asked what art was chiefly learned in Sparta, To know, he replied, how to govern and to be governed, he used to say, The Spartans do not enquire how many the enemy are, but where they are. At Mantinea, being advised not to fight the enemy, who exceeded him in number, he said, It is necessary for him to fight a great many that would rule a great many. To one enquiring how many the Spartans were, Enough, he replied, to keep rascals at a distance. Marching by the walls of Corinth, and perceiving them to be high and strong and stretching out to a great length, he said, What women live there? To an orator that said speech was the best thing, he rejoined, You then, when you are silent, are worth nothing. When the Argives, after they had been once beaten, faced him more boldly than before; on seeing many of the allies disheartened, he said, Courage, sirs! for when we conquerors shake, what do you think is the condition of the conquered? To an ambassador from the Abderites, after he had ended his long speech, enquiring what answer he should carry to his

city, he replied, This: As long as you talked, so long I quietly heard. Some commending the Eleans for exact justice in determining the prizes at the Olympian games, he said, What great wonder is it, that in four years they can be just one day? To some that told him he was envied by the heirs of the other royal family, Well, said he, their own misfortunes will torment them, and my own and my friends’ success besides. When one advised him to give the flying enemy room to run, he said, How shall we fight those that stand to it and resist, if we dare not engage those whom their cowardice makes fly? When one proposed a way to free Greece, well contrived indeed but hard to be brought about, he said, Friend, thy words want an army and a treasure. To one saying, Philip won’t let you set foot upon any other part of Greece, he returned, Sir, we have room enough in our own country. An ambassador from Perinthus to Lacedaemon, after a long tedious speech, asking what answer he should carry back to the Perinthians, he said, What but this? — that thou couldst hardly find an end to thy talk, and I kept silent. He went by himself ambassador to Philip; and Philip saying, What! but one? he replied, I am an ambassador but to one. An old man, observing that the ancient laws were neglected and that new evil customs crept in, said to him, when he was now grown old himself, All things here at Sparta are turned topsy-turvy. He replied with a joke: If it is so, it is agreeable to reason; for when I was a boy, I heard my father say that all things were then topsy-turvy; and he heard his father say the same; and it is no wonder if succeeding times are worse than the preceding; but it is a wonder if they happen to be better, or but just as good. Being asked how a man could be always free, he replied, If he contemns death.