Plutarch, Agis and Cleomenes, ed. Bernadotte Perrin, Cleomenes.13.3

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[3]
τῶν δὲ δείπνων αὐτοῦ τὸ μὲν καθημερινὸν ἦν ἐν τρικλίνῳ σφόδρα συνεσταλμένον καὶ Λακωνικόν, εἰ δὲ πρέσβεις ἢ ξένους δέχοιτο, δύο μὲν ἄλλαι προσπαρεβάλλοντο κλῖναι, μικρῷ δὲ μᾶλλον οἱ ὑπηρέται τὴν τράπεζαν ἐπελάμπρυνον, οὐ καρυκείαις τισὶν οὐδὲ πέμμασιν, ἀλλʼ ὥστε ἀφθονωτέρας εἶναι τὰς παραθέσεις καὶ φιλανθρωπότερον τὸν οἶνον. καὶ γὰρ ἐπετίμησέ τινα τῶν φίλων ἀκούσας ὅτι ξένους ἑστιῶν ζωμὸν αὐτοῖς μέλανα καὶ μάζαν, ὥσπερ ἔθος ἦν ἐν τοῖς φιδιτίοις, παρέθηκεν· οὐ γὰρ ἔφη δεῖν ἐν τούτοις οὐδὲ πρὸς τοὺς ξένους λίαν ἀκριβῶς λακωνίζειν.

Agis and Cleomenes. Plutarch. ed. Bernadotte Perrin. Cambridge, MA. 1921.

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Ἄγις καὶ Κλεομένης (Greek) (Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives, Vol. X. Perrin, Bernadotte, editor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1921.)

Translations (1)

Agis and Cleomenes Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives, Vol. X. Perrin, Bernadotte, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1921.) — Agis.13.3 focus

[3] This was also the opinion of Lysander, who was deceived in like manner by Agesilaüs. So they caused the mortgages (the Spartans call them klaria, or allotment pledges) to be brought into the market-place, heaped them altogether, and set fire to them. As the flames rose, the men of wealth and the lenders of money went away with heavy hearts; but Agesilaüs, as if in mockery of them, declared that his eyes had never seen a brighter or purer flame than that.

[3]
His usual supper was held in a room which had only three couches, and was very circumscribed and Spartan; but if he was entertaining ambassadors or guest-friends, two more couches would be brought in, and the servants would make the table a trifle more brilliant, not with sauces or sweetmeats, but with more generous dishes and a kindlier wine. And indeed he censured one of his friends, when he heard that in entertaining guest-friends he had set before them the black soup and barley-bread of the public mess-tables; for, said he, in these matters and before foreigners we must not be too strictly Spartan.

Plutarch Agis and Cleomenes Cleomenes.13.3

ed. Bernadotte Perrin

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