In the canon
Plutarch on Sparta
- Form
- Form Non-fiction
- Year
- Year 100 CE
- Originally in
- Originally in Ancient Greek
- Pages
- Pages 320
Philip of Macedon warned the Spartans that if he entered Laconia he would raze their city, and they sent back one word: "If." Plutarch gathered hundreds of such answers and set them beside the life of Lycurgus, the lawgiver said to have abolished greed by minting money in iron so heavy that a modest fortune needed a cart to move it. Under those laws boys were underfed on purpose so that they would learn to steal, then flogged for being caught, and mothers handed over shields with the instruction to come back holding it or lying on it.
The city is well fortified which hath a wall of men instead of brick.
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