Lycurgus   

we may trust the anecdotes of him; as appears by his answer to one
who by all means would set up a democracy in Lacedaemon. "Begin, friend,"
said he, "and set it up in your family." Another asked him why he
allowed of such mean and trivial sacrifices to the gods. He replied,
"That we may always have something to offer to them." Being asked
what sort of martial exercises or combats he approved of, he answered,
"All sorts, except that in which you stretch out your hands." Similar
answers, addressed to his countrymen by letter, are ascribed to him;
as, being consulted how they might best oppose an invasion of their
enemies, he returned this answer, "By continuing poor, and not coveting
each man to be greater than his fellow." Being consulted again whether
it were requisite to enclose the city with a wall, he sent them word,
"The city is well fortified which hath a wall of men instead of brick."
But whether these letters are counterfeit or not is not easy to determine.
Of their dislike to talkativeness, the following apophthegms are evidence.
King Leonidas said to one who held him in discourse upon some useful
matter, but not in due time and place, "Much to the purpose, Sir,
elsewhere." King Charilaus, the nephew of Lycurgus, being asked why
his uncle had made so few laws, answered, "Men of few words require
but few laws." When one, named Hecataeus the sophist, because that,
being invited to the public table, he had not spoken one word all
supper-time, Archidamidas answered in his vindication, "He who knows
how to speak, knows also when."
The sharp and yet not ungraceful retorts which I mentioned may be
instanced as follows. Demaratus, being asked in a troublesome manner
by an importunate fellow, Who was the best man in Lacedaemon? answered
at last, "He, Sir, that is the least like you." Some, in company where
Agis was, much extolled the Eleans for their just and honourable management
of the Olympic games; "Indeed," said Agis, "they are highly to be
commended if they can do justice one day in five years." Theopompus
answered a stranger who talked much of his affection to the Lacedaemonians,
and said that his countrymen called him Philolacon (a lover of the
Lacedaemonians), that it had been more for his honour if they had
called him Philopolites (a lover of his own countrymen). And Plistoanax,
the son of Pausanias, when an orator of Athens said the Lacedaemonians
had no learning, told him, "You say true, Sir; we alone of all the
Greeks have learned none of your bad qualities." One asked Archidamidas
what number there might be of the Spartans, he answered: "Enough,
Sir, to keep out wicked men."
We may see their character, too, in their very jests. For they did
not throw them out at random, but the very wit of them was grounded
upon something or other worth thinking about. For instance, one, being
asked to go hear a man who exactly counterfeited the voice of a nightingale,
answered, "Sir, I have heard the nightingale itself." Another, having
read the following inscription upon a tomb-
"Seeking to quench a cruel tyranny,
They, at Selinus, did in battle die," said, it served them right;
for instead of trying to quench the tyranny, they should have let
it burn out. A lad, being offered some game-cocks that would die upon
the spot, said that he cared not for cocks that would die, but for
such that would live and kill others. Another, seeing people easing
themselves on seats, said, "God forbid I should sit where I could
not get up to salute my elders." In short, their answers were so sententious
and pertinent, that one said well that intellectual much more truly
than athletic exercise was the Spartan characteristic.
Nor was their instruction in music and verse less carefully attended
to than their habits of grace and good-breeding in conversation. And
their very songs had a life and spirit in them that inflamed and possessed
men's minds with an enthusiasm and ardour for action; the style of
them was plain and without affectation; the subject always serious
and moral; most usually, it was in praise of such men as had died
in defence of their country, or in derision of those that had been
cowards; the former they declared happy and glorified; the life of
the latter they described as most miserable and abject. There were