Laconic Apophthegms; or Remarkable Sayings of the Spartans. (36-40)

Thearidas whetting his sword, being asked, Is it sharp, Thearidas replied, Yes, sharper than a slander.

Themisteas the prophet foretold to King Leonidas his own and his soldiers’ destruction at Thermopylae, and being commanded by Leonidas to return to Sparta, under pretence of informing the state how affairs stood, but really that he might not perish with the rest, he refused, saying, I was sent as a soldier, not as a courier to carry news.

Theopompus, when one asked him how a monarch may be safe, replied, If he will give his friends just freedom to speak

the truth, and to the best of his power not allow his subjects to be oppressed. To a guest of his that said, In my own country I am called a lover of the Spartans, he replied, It would be more honorable for you to be called a lover of your citizens than a lover of the Spartans. An ambassador from Elis saying that his city sent him because he was the only man amongst them that admired and followed the Spartan way of living, Theopompus asked, And pray, sir, which way is best, yours or the other citizens? And the ambassador replying, Mine; he subjoined, How then can that city stand, in which amongst so many inhabitants there is but one good man? When one said that Sparta was preserved because the kings knew how to govern; No, he replied, but because the citizens know how to be governed. The Pylians voting him greater honors, he wrote to them thus, Moderate honors time augments, but it defaces the immoderate.

Thorycion on his return from Delphi, seeing Philip’s army possessed of the narrow passage at the Isthmus, said, Peloponnesus hath very bad porters in you Corinthians.

Thectamenes, when the Ephors condemned him to die, went away smiling; and one of the company asked him whether he despised the judicial proceedings of Sparta. No, said he, but I am glad that I am ordered to pay a fine which I can pay out of my own stock, without being beholden to any man or taking up money upon interest.