their short swords, and said that the jugglers on the stage
swallowed them with ease, answered him, "We find them long enough
to reach our enemies with;" and as their swords were short and
sharp, so, it seems to me, were their sayings. They reach the
point and arrest the attention of the hearers better than any
others. Lycurgus himself seems to have been short and sententious.
if we may trust the anecdotes of him; as appears by his answer to
one who by all means would set up 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."

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 blamed 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