"The king marched against the enemy in close companionship with one who had been crowned victor in the great games. And they tell of a certain Spartan who refused to be bought off from a contest at Olympia by large sums of money, and after a long struggle outwrestled his antagonist. When some one said to him then: "What advantage, O Spartan, hast thou got from thy victory?" he answered, with a smile: "I shall stand in front of my king when I fight our enemies.""
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Plutarch, Plutarch's Lives: Volume I
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sparta
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Sparta
1822 – 1881
Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon, while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement on the banks of the Evrotas River in the Evrotas Valley, Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. Around 650 BC, it rose to be
15 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Sparta →
Related Quotes
"To understand Plato, and indeed many later philosophers, it is necessary to know something of Sparta. Sparta had a do…"
"Four hundred thousand slaves must be devoted to forty thousand citizens; weak and deformed children must be exposed; …"
"The institution of Lycurgus was well calculated to preserve the independence of his country, but had no regard to its…"
"There are, at any rate, two or three things in Spartan life that I think ought to appeal to all sections of this gene…"
"I like to think of the earth being stirred over grim Sparta. To all boys—and I am speaking of my own recollections—sh…"
"Here is what you do, friends. Forget country. Forget king. Forget wife and children and freedom. Forget every concept…"
"The ideal Spartan was plucky, indifferent to hardship and pain, a first-rate athlete. The less he talked or, for that…"
"The idea that underlay the young Spartans' training was their obligation to maintain the power of the state and ignor…"
"It was natural for [Spartan women] to think and speak as Gorgo, the wife of Leonidas, is said to have done, when some…"
"Their [Lacadaemonian] women, it is said, were bold and masculine, overbearing to their husbands in the first place, a…"