Plutarch's essays and miscellanies, Vol. 1 · Plutarch
LACONIC APOPHTHEGMS; OR REMARKABLE SAYINGS OF THE SPARTANS.
_Of Zeuxidamus._ Zeuxidamus, when one asked him why they did not set down all their laws concerning bravery and courage in writing and let the young men read them, answered, Because they should be accustomed to mind valiant actions, rather than books and writings. An Aetolian saying that war was better than peace for those that would be brave men, No, faith, said he, but death is better than life. _Of Herondas._ Herondas, when one at Athens was condemned for idleness, being informed of it desired one to show him the man that had been convicted of so gentlemanly an offence. _Of Thearidas._ Thearidas whetting his sword, being asked, Is it sharp, Thearidas? replied, Yes, sharper than a slander. _Of Themisteas._ 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. _Of Theopompus._
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. _Of Thorycion._ 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.
_Of Thectamenes._ 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. _Of Hippodamus._ Hippodamus, when Agis was joined in command with Archidamus, being sent with Agis to Sparta to look after affairs there, said, But shall I not die a more glorious death fighting valiantly in defence of Sparta? He was above fourscore years of age, yet he put on his armor, fought on the right hand of the king, and died bravely. _Of Hippocratidas._ 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.
_Of Callicratidas._ 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.
_Of Cleombrotus the Son of Pausanias._ 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. _Of Cleomenes the Son of Anaxandridas._ Cleomenes, the son of Anaxandridas, was wont to say that Homer was the poet of the Lacedaemonians, 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[180] 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.
_Of Cleomenes the Son of Cleombrotus._ Cleomenes, the son of Cleombrotus, to one that presented him some game-cocks, and said, Sir, these will die before they run, returned: Pray let me have some of that breed which will kill these, for certainly they are the better of the two. _Of Labotus._ Labotus said to one that made a long discourse: Why such great preambles to so small a matter? A speech should be no bigger than the subject. _Of Leotychidas._ Leotychidas the First, when one said he was very inconstant, replied, My inconstancy proceeds from the variety of times, and not as yours from innate baseness. And to another asking him what was the best way to secure his present happiness, he answered, Not to trust all to Fortune. And to another enquiring what free-born boys should principally learn, That, said he, which will profit them when they are grown men. And to another asking why the Spartans drink little, he replied, That we may consult concerning others, and not others concerning us. _Of Leotychidas the Son of Aristo._ Leotychidas the son of Aristo, when one told him that Demaratus’s sons spake ill of him, replied, Faith, no wonder, for not one of them can speak well. A serpent twisting about the key of his inmost door, and the priests declaring it a prodigy; I cannot think it so, said he, but it had been one if the key had twisted round the serpent. To Philip, a priest of Orpheus’s mysteries, in extreme poverty, saying that those whom he initiated were very happy after death, he said, Why then, you sot, don’t you die quickly, and bewail your poverty and misery no more?
_Of Leo the Son of Eucratidas._ Leo the son of Eucratidas, being asked in what city a man might live with the greatest safety, replied, In that where the inhabitants have neither too much nor too little; where justice is strong and injustice weak. Seeing the racers in the Olympian games very solicitous at starting to get some advantage of one another, he said, How much more careful are these racers to be counted swift than just! To one discoursing of some profitable matters out of due season he said, Sir, you do a very good thing at a very bad time. _Of Leonidas the Son of Anaxandridas._ Leonidas, the son of Anaxandridas and brother to Cleomenes, when one said to him, Abating that you are king, you are no better than we, replied, But unless I had been better than you, I had not been king. His wife Gorgo, when he went forth to Thermopylae to fight the Persian, asked him what command he left with her; and he replied, Marry brave men, and bear them brave children. The Ephors saying, You lead but few to Thermopylae; They are many, said he, considering on what design we go. And when they again asked him whether he had any other enterprise in his thought, he replied, I pretend to go to hinder the barbarians’ passage, but really to die fighting for the Greeks. When he was at Thermopylae, he said to his soldiers: They report the enemy is at hand, and we lose time; for we must either beat the barbarian or die ourselves. And to another saying, What, the flights of the Persian arrows will darken the very sun, he said, Therefore it will be pleasant for us to fight in the shade.
And another saying, What, Leonidas, do you come to fight so great a number with so few?—he returned: If you esteem number, all Greece is not able to match a small part of that army; if courage, this number is sufficient. And to another discoursing after the same manner he said, I have enough, since they are to be killed. When Xerxes wrote to him thus, Sir, you may forbear to fight against the Gods, but may follow my interest and be lord of all Greece, he answered: If you understood wherein consisted the happiness of life, you would not covet other men’s; but know that I would rather die for the liberty of Greece than be a monarch over my countrymen. And Xerxes writing to him again thus, Send me thy arms, he returned, Come and take them. When he resolved to fall upon the enemy, and his captains of the war told him he must stay till the forces of the allies had joined him, he said: Do you think all those that intend to fight are not here already? Or do you not understand that those only fight who fear and reverence their kings? And he ordered his soldiers so to dine, as if they were to sup in another world.
And being asked why the bravest men prefer an honorable death before an inglorious life, he replied, Because they believe one is the gift of Nature, while the other is peculiarly their own. Being desirous to save the striplings that were with him, and knowing very well that if he dealt openly with them none would accept his kindness, he gave each of them privately letters to carry to the Ephors. He desired likewise to save three of those that were grown men; but they having some notice of his design refused the letters. And one of them said, I came, sir, to be a soldier, and not a courier; and the second, I shall be a better man if here than if away; and the third, I will not be behind these, but the first in the fight. _Of Lochagus._ Lochagus the father of Polyaenides and Siron, when one told him one of his sons was dead, said, I knew long ago that he must die. _Of Lycurgus the Lawgiver._
Lycurgus the lawgiver, designing to reclaim his citizens from their former luxury and bring them to a more sober course of life and make them brave men (for they were then loose and delicate), bred up two whelps of the same litter; one he kept at home, bred him tenderly, and fed him well; but the other he taught to hunt, and used him to the chase. Both these dogs he brought out into the public assembly, and setting down some scraps of meat and letting go a hare at the same time, each of the dogs ran greedily to what they had been accustomed. And the hunter catching the hare, Lycurgus said: See, countrymen, how these two, though of the same litter, by my breeding them are become very different; and that custom and exercise conduces more than Nature to make things brave and excellent. Some say that he did not bring out two whelps of the same kind, but one a house dog and the other a hunter; the former of which (though the baser kind) he had accustomed to the woods, and the other (though more noble) kept lazily at home; and when in public, each of them pursuing his usual delight, he had given a clear evidence that education is of considerable force in raising bad or good inclinations, he said: Therefore, countrymen, our honorable extraction, that idol of the crowd, though from Hercules himself, profits us little, unless we learn and exercise all our life in such famous exploits as made him accounted the most noble and the most glorious in the world.
When he made a division of the land, giving each man an equal portion, it is reported that some while after, in his return from a journey, as he past through the country in harvest time and saw the cocks of wheat all equal and lying promiscuously, he was extremely pleased, and with a smile said to his companions, All Sparta looks like the possession of many loving brothers who have lately divided their estate. Having discharged every man from his debts, he endeavored likewise to divide all movables equally amongst all, that he might have no inequality in his commonwealth. But seeing that the rich men would hardly endure this open and apparent spoil, he cried down all gold and silver coin, and ordered nothing but iron to be current; and rated every man’s estate and defined how much it was worth upon exchange for that money. By this means all injustice was banished Sparta; for none would steal, none take bribes, none cheat or rob any man of that which he could not conceal, which none would envy, which could not be used without discovery, or carried into other countries with advantage.
Besides, this contrivance freed them from all superfluous arts; for no merchant, Sophist, fortune-teller, or mountebank would live amongst them; no carver, no contriver ever troubled Sparta; because he cried down all money that was advantageous to them, and permitted none but this iron coin, each piece of which was an Aegina pound in weight, and less than a penny in value.[181] Designing farther to check all luxury and greediness after wealth, he instituted public meals, where all the citizens were obliged to eat. And when some of his friends demanded what he designed by this institution and why he divided the citizens, when in arms, into small companies, he replied: That they may more easily hear the word of command; and if there are any designs against the state, the conspiracy may join but few; and besides, that there may be an equality in the provision, and that neither in meat nor drink, seats, tables, or any furniture, the rich may be better provided than the poor. When he had by this contrivance made wealth less desirable, it being unfit both for use and show, he said to his familiars, What a brave thing is it, my friends, by our actions to make Plutus appear (as he is indeed) blind! He took care that none should sup at home and afterwards, when they were full of other victuals, come to the public entertainments; for all the rest reproached him that did not feed with them as a glutton and of too delicate a palate for the public provision; and when he was discovered, he was severely punished. And therefore Agis the king, when after a long absence he returned from the camp (the Athenians were beaten in the expedition), willing to sup at home with his wife once, sent a servant for his allowance; the officers refused, and the next day the Ephors fined him for the fault.
The wealthy citizens being offended at these constitutions made a mutiny against him, abused, threw stones, and designed to kill him. Thus pursued, he ran through the market-place towards the temple of Minerva of the Brazen House, and reached it before any of the others; only Alcander pursuing close struck him as he turned about, and beat out one eye. Afterward the commonwealth delivered up this Alcander to his mercy; but he neither inflicted any punishment nor gave him an ill word, but kindly entertained him at his own house, and brought him to be his friend, an admirer of his course of life, and very well affected to all his laws. Yet he built a monument of this sad disaster in the temple of Minerva, naming it Optiletis,—for the Dorians in that country call eyes _optiloi_. Being asked why he used no written laws, he replied, Because those that are well instructed are able to suit matters to the present occasion. And another time, when some enquired why he had ordained that the timber which roofed the houses should be wrought with the axe only, and the doors with no other instrument but the saw, he answered: That my citizens might be moderate in every thing which they bring into their houses, and possess nothing which others so much prize and value. And hence it is reported that King Leotychides the First, supping with a friend and seeing the roof curiously arched and richly wrought, asked him whether in that country the trees grew square. And some demanding why he forbade them to war often with the same nation, he replied, Lest being often forced to stand on their defence, they should get experience and be masters of our art. And therefore it was a great fault in Agesilaus, that by his frequent incursions into Boeotia he made the Thebans a match for the Lacedaemonians.
And another asking why he exercised the virgins’ bodies with racing, wrestling, throwing the bar, and the like, he answered: That the first rooting of the children being strong and firm, their growth might be proportionable; and that the women might have strength to bear and more easily undergo the pains of travail, or, if necessity should require, be able to fight for themselves, their country, and their children. Some being displeased that the virgins went about naked at certain solemnities, and demanding the reason of that custom, he replied: That using the same exercises with men, they might equal them in strength and health of body and in courage and bravery of mind, and be above that mean opinion which the vulgar had of them. And hence goes the story of Gorgo, wife of Leonidas, that when a stranger, a friend of hers, said, You Spartan women alone rule men, she replied, Good reason, for we alone bear men. By ordering that no bachelor should be admitted a spectator of these naked solemnities and fixing some other disgrace on them, he made them all eager to be married and get children; besides, he deprived them of that honor and observance which the young men were bound to pay their elders. And upon that account none can blame what was said to Dercyllidas, though a brave captain; for as he approached, one of the young men refused to rise up and give him place, saying, You have not begotten any to give place to me.
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