Sayings of the Spartans

by Plutarch, Frank Cole Babbit (Translator)

In this compilation from Plutarch's Moralia of famous sayings from over sixty Spartans we are shown that not were these ancients brave warriors in battle but had a complete philosophy of life which guided all their actions. Include all 372 footnotes.

Genres: History

102 pages, Paperback

Published June 1, 2018

About the author

Plutarch (later named, upon becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus; AD 46–AD 120) was a Greek historian, biographer, and essayist, known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia. He is classified as a Middle Platonist. Plutarch's surviving works were written in Greek, but intended for both Greek and Roman readers.

Reviews

[Stephen Ede-Borrett · Rating 1 out of 5]

I REALLY didn't like this book and, to be honest, I couldn't even see why it was published (except as a shameless way to make money of course)! It was a great disappointment.

I was expecting Spartan 'Sayings' (surprisingly just what the title says), but this is actually 'Things that Plutarch says a Spartan said' - NOT the same thing at all. Many of these quotes are, of course as with 99% of such reported words, simply made up by the writer, and in this case have merely been extracted from Plutarch's writing so are even further divorced from their supposed origin.

To compound the mistitling for some quite unknown reason the 'speeches' or 'comments' have been rendered into pseudo-Gaelic or Scots colloquial language. This is both annoying and weird and it isn't even consistent as it is just random. So one quote from an individual might be in standard English, the next in Scots colloquial, the next in standard English, etc.

The text has been extracted, as is readily acknowledged, from 'Moralia' (Frank Babbit, 1931) and I would advise anyone interested just to buy the original source book.

I am not even sure that I can inflict this book on my local charity shop, but I suppose it will recycle!

[Alex.Rosetti]

Dezbătând filosofii din Academie mult și cu noimă și apoi după aceasta fiind întrebat Panthoidas cum găsește că sunt aceste cuvântări, spuse: "Cum altfel decât cu noimă? Dar de niciun folos, dacă nu sunt puse în aplicare!"