| I had some really good ones directly translated from Greek but I returned the book to the library. They greatly described how Spartan youths would be wipped every year in a contest to see who could go the longest without making a sound or falling over. Many would die from the experience. It was said that Spartan mothers would not shed a tear if thier sons died in this manner.
"A standing institution in their Army, that has nothing to do with religion. Rather, it is intended to make them advance evenly, and in time, without breaking thier order, as large armies customarily do at the moment of battle." Thucydides explaining why Spartans marched slowly and to the tune of flutes in battle.
"Marry a good man, and bear good children." King Leonidas to his wife as he left for Thermopylae. She had asked him what she should do with herself.
"The event that caused more surprise amoung Hellenes (greeks) than anything esle that happened in the war." Thucydides on the surrender of a Spartan force at Spharcteria.
"In Lacedaimon [Sparta] are to be found those who are most enslaved and those who are the most free." Critias of Athens
"My Lord, you know that amoung living creatures it is the mighty ones that god strikes down with his thunderbolt, in envy of their excessive pride. It is always the large buildings and the tallest trees that are blasted by lightning. It's god's way to bring the lofty low...For god tolerates pride in none but himself." Artavanus to Xerxes
"The Spartans are the equal of any men when they fight as individuals; fighting together as a collective, they surpass all other men." Damaratus to Xerxes.
"My men have become women, my women men" King Xerxes reaction to a Greek female commander fighting for the Persians who esacpted capture at the naval battle of Salamis by ramming and sinking one of her own ships.
"When Leonides was killed at Thermopylae, Mardonius and Xerxes had him decapitated and his head stuck on a pole. If you now pay them back in kind, you will win the applause of not only Spartans but the whole of Greece. Impale Mardonius's body, and then Leonidas, your father's brother, will be avenged." Aeginetan to Lampon after the victory at Platea 479 BC.
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"The best form of taking care of troops is first-class training, for this saves unnecessary casualties." Erwin Rommel
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