The lovers of the boys also shared their honour or disgrace; it is said
that once when a boy in a fight let fall an unmanly word, his lover was
fined by the magistrates. Thus was love understood among them; for even
fair and honourable matrons loved young maidens, but none expected their
feelings to be returned. Rather did those who loved the same person make
it a reason for friendship with each other, and vie with one another in
trying to improve in every way the object of their love.
XVIII. The boys were taught to use a sarcastic yet graceful style of
speaking, and to compress much thought into few words; for Lykurgus made
the iron money have little value for its great size, but on the other
hand he made their speech short and compact, but full of meaning,
teaching the young, by long periods of silent listening, to speak
sententiously and to the point. For those who allow themselves much
licence in speech seldom say anything memorable. When some Athenian
jeered at the small Laconian swords, and said that jugglers on the stage
could easily swallow them, King Agis answered, "And yet with these
little daggers we can generally reach our enemies." I think that the
Laconian speech, though it seems so short, yet shows a great grasp of
the subject and has great power over the listeners. Lykurgus himself
seems to have been short and sententious, to judge from what has been
preserved of his sayings; as, for instance, that remark to one who
proposed to establish a democracy in the state, "First establish a
democracy in your own household.
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