Laconic Apophthegms; or Remarkable Sayings of the Spartans. (42-45)

Hippocratidas, when the governor of Caria sent him word that he had a Spartan in his hands who concealed a conspiracy that he was privy to, and asked how he should deal with him, returned this answer: If you have done him any great kindness, kill him; if not, banish him as a base fellow, too mean-spirited to be good. A youth whom his lover followed meeting him and blushing at the encounter, he said: You should keep such company that, whoever sees you, you will have no reason to change color.

Callicratidas the admiral, when some of Lysander’s friends desired him to permit them to kill one of the enemy, and offered fifty talents for the favor, though he wanted money extremely to buy provision for his soldiers, refused; and when Cleander urged him, and said, Sir, I would have taken the money if I were you, he replied, So would I, were I Cleander. When he came to Sardis to Cyrus the Younger, who was then an ally of the Lacedaemonians, about a sum of money to equip his navy, on the first day he ordered his officers to tell Cyrus that he desired audience; but being told that he was drinking, Well, said he, I shall stay till he hath done. But understanding that he could not be admitted that day, he presently left the court, and thereupon was thought a rude and uncivil fellow. On the next day, when he received the same answer and could not be admitted, he said, I must not be so eager for money as to do any thing unbecoming Sparta. And presently he returned to Ephesus, cursing those who had first endured the insolence of the barbarians, and had taught them to

rely upon their wealth and abuse others; and he swore to his companions that as soon as ever he came to Sparta, he would do all that lay in his power to reconcile the Greek states, that they might be more dreadful to the barbarians, and not forced to seek assistance from them to ruin one another. Being asked what manner of men the Ionians were, he replied, Bad freemen, but good slaves. When Cyrus sent his soldiers their pay, and some particular presents to himself, he received the pay, but sent back the presents, saying that there was no need of any private friendship between them, for the common league with the Lacedaemonians included him. Designing to engage near Arginusae, when Hermon the pilot said, It is advisable to tack about, for the Athenians exceed us in number; he exclaimed: What then! it is base and dishonorable to Sparta to fly, but to stand to it and die or conquer is brave and noble. As he was sacrificing before the battle, when he heard the priest presaging that the army would conquer but the captain fall, undauntedly he said: Sparta doth not depend on one man; my country will receive no great loss by my death, but a considerable one by my yielding to the enemy. And ordering Cleander to succeed as admiral, he readily engaged, and died in the battle.

Cleombrotus, the son of Pausanias, when a friend of his contended with his father which was the best man, said, Sir, my father must be better than you, till you get a son as well as he.

Cleomenes, the son of Anaxandridas, was wont to say that Homer was the poet of the Lacedaemonjans, Hesiod of the Helots; for one taught the art of war, and the other husbandry. Having made a truce for seven days with the

Argives, he watched his opportunity the third night, and perceiving them secure and negligent by reason of the truce, he fell upon them whilst they were asleep, killed some, and took others prisoners. Upon this being upbraided for breach of articles, he said that his oath did not extend to night as well as day, and to hurt a man’s enemies any way, both before God and man, was much better than to be just. It happened that he missed taking Argos, in hopes of which he broke his oath; for the women taking the old arms out of the temples defended the city. And afterwards running stark mad, he seized a knife, and ripped himself up from the very ankles to the vital parts, and thus died grinning and laughing. The priest advising him not to march to Argos, — for he would be forced to a dishonorable retreat, — when he came near the city and saw the gates shut and the women upon the walls, he said: What, sir priests, will this be a dishonorable retreat, when, the men being all lost, the women have shut the gates? When some of the Argives railed at him as an impious and forsworn wretch, he said, Well, it is in your power to rail at me, and in mine to mischief you. The Samian ambassadors urging him to make war on the tyrant Polycrates, and making long harangues on that account, he said: The beginning of your speech I don’t remember, and therefore I cannot understand the middle, and the last I don’t like. A pirate spoiling the country, and when he was taken saying, I had no provision for my soldiers, and therefore went to those who had store and would not give it willingly, to force it from them; Cleomenes said, True villainy goes the shortest way to work. A base fellow railing at him, he said, Well, I think thou railest at everybody, that being employed to defend ourselves, we may have no time to speak of thy baseness.

One of the citizens saying that a good king should be always mild and gracious, True, said he, as long as he doth

not make himself contemptible. Being tormented with a long disease, he consulted the priests and expiators, to whom he formerly gave no credit; and when a friend of his wondered at the action, Why dost thou wonder, said he, for I am not the same man I was then; and since I am not the same, I do not approve the same things. A Sophist discoursing of courage, he laughed exceedingly; and the Sophist saying, Why do you laugh, Cleomenes, when you hear one treat of courage, especially since you are a king? Because, sir, said he, if a swallow should discourse of it, I should laugh; but if an eagle, I should hearken attentively.

When the Argives boasted that they would retrieve their defeat by a new battle, he said, I wonder if the addition of two syllables[*] has made you braver than you were before. When one railed at him, and said, Thou art luxurious, Cleomenes; Well, he replied, that is better than to be unjust; but thou art covetous, although thou art master of abundance of superfluities. A friend willing to recommend a musician to him, besides other large commendations, said he was the best musician in all Greece. Cleomenes, pointing to one that stood by, said, Faith, sir, that fellow is my best cook. Maeander the Samian tyrant, flying to Sparta upon the invasion of the Persian, discovering what treasure he had brought, and offering Cleomenes as much as he would have, Cleomenes refused, and beside took care that he should not give any of the citizens a farthing; but going to the Ephors, told them that it would be good for Sparta to send that Samian guest of his out of Peloponnesus, lest he should persuade any of the Lacedaemonians to be a knave. And they taking his advice ordered Maeander to be gone that very day. One asking why, since they had beaten the Argives so often, they did not totally destroy them, he replied, That we may have some to exercise our

youth. One demanding why the Spartans did not dedicate the spoils of their enemies to the Gods, Because, said he, they are taken from cowards; and such things as are betrayed to us by the cowardice of the possessors are fit neither for our youth to see, nor to be dedicated to the Gods.