The Laconian Sayings gathers three collections transmitted together among Plutarch's Moral Essays; whether Plutarch assembled them himself is uncertain. The first and longest, the Sayings of Spartans, gives the remarks of Spartan men under their speakers' names in alphabetical order, kings and commanders from Agasicles and Agesilaus to Charillus, among them Callicratidas, Cleomenes, Leonidas and Lysander, followed by the sayings of unnamed Spartans. The second, on the institutions of the Spartans, describes the customs ascribed to Lycurgus rather than single sayings: the common meals and their black broth, one cloak a year, beds of reeds, burial without grave goods and the expulsion of foreigners. It ends with Sparta's refusal to follow Philip and Alexander and its fall into tyranny and then Roman rule.
The third, the Sayings of Spartan Women, collects the words of mothers, wives and daughters, among them Archileonis, mother of Brasidas, and Gorgo, daughter of Cleomenes; most are unnamed mothers who send their sons to battle or disown them as cowards. The sayings are short, often a single reply. Many of them recur in Plutarch's Lives of Lycurgus, Agesilaus and other Spartans.
Plutarch of Chaeronea Laconian Sayings: summary and contents (PDF)
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Contents
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Ἀποφθέγματα Λακωνικά Sayings of Spartans
The sayings of Spartan men are arranged under their speakers in alphabetical order, kings and commanders from Agasicles and Agesilaus onwards, among them Cleomenes, who called Homer the poet of the Spartans and Hesiod the poet of the Helots. Callicratidas refuses to withdraw before Arginusae though the omens foretell his death. Anonymous Spartans follow, among them the soldier who held back his sword at the signal for recall, since obedience was better than killing.
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Τὰ Παλαιὰ τῶν Λακεδαιμονίων Ἐπιτηδεύματα Spartan Institutions
Plutarch describes the customs of Lycurgus' Sparta rather than single sayings: the common meals and their black broth, which a Spartan cook told Dionysius of Syracuse could only be relished after exercise and a bathe in the Eurotas, one cloak a year, beds of reeds, burial without grave goods, the expulsion of foreigners and the red cloaks of war. He ends with Sparta's refusal to follow Philip and Alexander, and its fall into tyranny and then Roman rule.
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Λακαινῶν Ἀποφθέγματα Sayings of Spartan Women
Spartan mothers, wives and daughters speak here, from Brasidas' mother Archileonis, who told the Amphipolitans that Sparta had many better men than her son, to Gorgo, who warned her father Cleomenes against Aristagoras. Most are unnamed mothers who send sons to battle or disown cowards. The last are captives for sale: asked by the crier what she knew, one answered 'to be free', and when her buyer set her tasks unfit for a free woman she took her own life.