69.66
Another, being asked a question, answered No. And when the questioner said, You lie, the other said, You see, then, that it is silly of you to ask questions to which you know the answer!
69.67
Once upon a time, ambassadors from Sparta arrived at the court of Lygdamis the despot. But as he tried to put them off and repeatedly postponed the interview, and, to crown all, it was asserted that he was in a delicate condition, the Spartans said, Tell him, in God’s name, that we have not come to wrestle with him, but to have a talk with him.
69.68
When someone, initiating a Spartan into the Mysteries, asked him what his conscience told him was the most unholy deed he had ever done, he said, The gods know. And when the other became even more insistent, and said, It is absolutely necessary that you tell, the Spartan asked in turn, To whom must I tell it? To you or to the god? And when the other said, To the god, the Spartan said, You go away then. A similar story is told of Antalcidas, Moralia, 217 C (1), and of Lysander, Moralia, 229 D (10), supra.
69.69
Another, passing by a tomb at night, and imagining that he saw a ghost, ran at it with uplifted spear, and, as he thrust at it, he exclaimed, Where are you fleeing from me, you soul that shall die twice?
69.70
Another, having vowed to throw himself from the Leucadian cliff, went up and came down again after seeing the height. Being jeered at for this, he said, I did na think my vow needed anither greater vow to dae it!
69.71
Another, in the thick of the fight, was about to bring down his sword on an enemy when the recall sounded, and he checked the blow. When someone inquired why, when he had his enemy in his power, he did not kill him, he said, Because it is better to obey one’s commander than to slay an enemy. Cf. Moralia, 273 F; Plutarch’s Comparison of Pelopidas and Marcellus, chap. iii. (317 D); Epictetus, ii. 6. The source is doubtless Xenophon, Cyropaedia, iv. 1. 3, and Chrysantas is the man’s name.
