Apophthegmata Laconica
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng3
54.1
54.1
When Dionysius, the despot of Sicily, sent costly garments for Lysander’s daughters, he would not accept them, saying that he was afraid that because of them his daughters would appear ugly rather than beautiful.
54.1
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54.1
But a little later, when he was sent as ambassador to the same despot from the same State, Dionysius sent to him two robes and bade him choose whichever one of them he would, and take it to his daughter; but Lysander said that
54.1
she herself would make a better choice, and, taking them both, he departed.
54.2
54.2
Lysander, who was a clever quibbler, and given to employing cunning deceptions to further most of his designs, counted justice as mere expediency, and honour as that which is advantageous. He said that the truth is better than falsehood, but that the worth and value of either is determined by the use to which it is put.
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54.3
54.3
In answer to those who blamed him because of his carrying out most of his designs through deception, which they said was unworthy of Heracles
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and gaining his successes by wile in no straightforward way, he said laughing that where he could not get on with the lion’s skin it must be pieced out with the skin of the fox.
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54.4
54.4
When others censured him for his violation of his oaths which he had made in Miletus he said that one must trick children with knuckle-bones, but men with oaths,
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54.5
54.5
He conquered the Athenians by a ruse at Aegospotami, and by pressing them hard through famine he forced them to surrender their city, whereupon he wrote to the Ephors,
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Athens is taken.
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54.6
54.6
In answer to the Argives, who were disputing with the Spartans in regard to the boundaries of their land and said that they had the better of the case,
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he drew his sword and said,
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He who is master of this talks best about boundaries of land.
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54.7
54.7
Seeing that the Boeotians were wavering at the time when he was about to pass through their country he sent to them to inquire whether he should march through their land with spears at rest or ready for action.
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54.8
54.8
When a Megarian in the common council used plain words to him, he said,
54.8
My friend, your words need a city to back them.
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54.9
54.9
When the Corinthians had revolted and he was going through their country along by the walls and saw that the Spartans were reluctant to attack, a hare was seen leaping across the ditch, whereupon he said,
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Are you not ashamed, men of Sparta, to be afraid of such enemies as these, who are so slack that hares sleep in the walls of their city?
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54.10
54.10
As he was consulting the oracle in Samothrace, the priest bade him tell what was the most lawless deed that had ever been committed by him in his lifetime. Lysander asked,
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Must I do this at your command or at the command of the gods?
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When the priest said,
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At the command of the gods,
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Lysander said,
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Then do you take yourself out of my way, and I will tell them in case they inquire.
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54.11
54.11
When a Persian asked what kind of a government he commended most highly, he said, The government which duly awards what is fitting to both the brave and the cowardly.
54.12
54.12
In answer to a man who said that he commended him and was very fond of him, he said I have two oxen in a field, and although they both may utter no sound, I know perfectly well which one is lazy and which one is the worker.
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54.13
When someone was reviling him, he said, Talk right on, you miserable foreigner, talk, and don’t leave out anything if thus you may be able to empty your soul of the vicious notions with which you seem to be filled.
54.14
54.14
Some time after his death, when a dispute arose regarding a certain alliance, Agesilaus came to Lysander’s house to examine the documents in regard to this, for Lysander had kept these at his own house. Agesilaus found also a book written by Lysander in regard to the government, to this effect: that the citizens should take away the kingship from the Eurypontids and the Agiads
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and put it up for election, and make their choice from the best men, so that this high honour should belong not to those who were descended from Heracles, but to men like Heracles, who should be selected for their excellence; for it was because of such excellence that Heracles was exalted to divine honours. This document Agesilaus was bent upon publishing to the citizens, and demonstrating what kind of a citizen Lysander had been in secret, and with the purpose also of discrediting the friends of Lysander. But they say that Cratidas, who at that time was at the head of the Ephors, anxious lest, if the speech should be read, it might convert the people to this way of thinking, restrained Agesilaus and said that he ought not to disinter Lysander, but to inter the speech along with him, since it was composed with a vicious purpose and in a plausible vein.
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54.15
54.15
The suitors of his daughters, when after his death he was found to be a poor man, renounced their obligations; but the Ephors punished them because when they thought he was rich they courted his favour, but when they found from his poverty that he was just and honest they disdained him.
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