A collection of over 230 short, pointed sayings attributed to named Spartan kings, generals, and ordinary citizens, illustrating the famous Laconic style.
Apophthegmata Laconica ("Sayings of Spartans") is one of the moral-philosophical essays gathered in Plutarch's Moralia. It is not a narrative but a catalog: hundreds of brief anecdotes, each ending in a terse remark attributed to a specific Spartan, arranged roughly by the fame of the speaker. The collection opens with kings and generals such as Agasicles, Agesilaus the Great, Agis, and Callicratidas, then moves through lesser-known Spartans, and closes with a long run of sayings credited simply to unnamed "another" Spartan, plus a separate section of Spartan women's sayings elsewhere in the Moralia.
The throughline is character revealed through speech. A king refuses a sophist's company because the sophist's own children are no wiser for his teaching. Agesilaus, asked how much wine to pour at a party, ties the answer to whether the men present must ride or exercise the next day. Asked where the borders of Laconia lie, a Spartan brandishes his spear; asked why Sparta has no walls, another points to armed citizens and says, "These are the walls of the Lacedaemonians." A father is fined because his quarreling sons proved he had raised them badly. A man who vowed to leap from a cliff climbs up, loses his nerve, and explains that he never vowed to make a second, harder vow good.
Read together, the sayings build a composite ethic: contempt for luxury and rhetoric, unsentimental discipline, obedience to command even when it thwarts personal glory (the soldier who lets an enemy live because the recall trumpet sounded), and a taste for turning an opponent's own words back on him. For a modern reader the appeal is partly historical evidence about Spartan self-image and partly literary: it is the ancient source and clearest surviving specimen of what "laconic" wit actually sounds like, one-liner after one-liner, largely unmediated by narrative framing.
“when someone marveled that although he was fond of listening he did not receive the sophist Philophanes, said, "I want to be a pupil only of those whose son I also am."”
— Apophthegmata Laconica · read this chapter →
“As far as this can reach.”
— Apophthegmata Laconica · read this chapter →
“These are the walls of the Lacedaemonians.”
— Apophthegmata Laconica · read this chapter →
“In exchange for this way of life, stranger, we reap freedom.”
— Apophthegmata Laconica · read this chapter →
“I did not think my vow needed a greater vow to carry it out.”
— Apophthegmata Laconica · read this chapter →
It is a section of Plutarch's Moralia collecting several hundred short sayings attributed to named Spartan kings, generals, and citizens, each anecdote ending in a terse, pointed remark. It is a sourcebook of "laconic" wit rather than a continuous narrative.
It comes from Laconia, the region of Sparta, whose people were famous for extreme brevity of speech. This text is the primary ancient collection illustrating that reputation, with sayings like a Spartan pointing to his spear when asked the borders of his land.
Agesilaus the Great was a Spartan king who appears repeatedly. He answers questions about wine-pouring by tying it to the next day's duties, refuses honors and statues offered by Greek cities of Asia, and generally models austerity and directness in his replies.
Yes. When asked why Sparta was unwalled, a Spartan pointed to the armed citizens and said, "These are the walls of the Lacedaemonians," and another added that cities should be walled with the virtues of their inhabitants rather than stone.
It is a collection of quotations and short anecdotes, not a connected historical narrative. Plutarch groups them by speaker, moving from famous kings to obscure individuals and finally to anonymous sayings simply credited to "another."
Austerity, obedience to command, disdain for flattery and luxury, and quick verbal wit that turns an opponent's own point against him. Several sayings link Sparta's harsh laws directly to the reward of political freedom.
Moralia: Ad Principem Ineruditum · Moralia: Adversus Colotem · Moralia: Amatoriae Narrationes · Moralia: Amatorius · Moralia: An Recte Dictum Sit Latenter Esse Vivendum · Moralia: An Seni Respublica Gerenda Sit · Moralia: An Virtus Doceri Possit · Moralia: An Vitiositas Ad Infelicitatem Sufficia · Moralia: Animine An Corporis Affectiones Sint Piores · Moralia: Aquane An Ignis Sit Utilior · Moralia: Bruta Animalia Ratione Uti · Moralia: Comparationis Aristophanes Et Menandri Compendium