50.1
When Leo, the son of Eurycratidas, was asked what kind of a city one could live in so as to live most safely, he said, Where the inhabitants shall possess neither too much nor too little, and where right shall be strong and wrong shall be weak.
50.2
Seeing that the runners at Olympia were eager to gain some advantage in starting, he said, How much more eager are the runners for a quick start than for fair play!
50.3
When someone, at an inappropriate time, discoursed about some matters which were not unprofitable, he said, My friend, in needless time you dwell upon the need! Cf. the note on Moralia, 216 F (2), supra.
LEONIDAS, SON OF ANAXANDRIDAS The hero of Thermopylae. These sayings were doubtless incorporated, or meant to be incorporated, in Plutarch’s Life of Leonidas, according to what he says in Moralia, 866 B; and some of them may be found in Moralia, 854 E-874 D (De Herodoti malignitate).
51.1
Leonidas, the son of Anaxandridas and the brother of Cleomenes, in answer to a man who remarked, Except for your being king, you are no different from the rest of us, said, But if I were no better than you others, I should not be king.
51.2
His wife Gorgo inquired, at the time when he was setting forth to Thermopylae to fight the Persian, if he had any instructions to give her, and he said, To marry good men and bear good children. Cf. Moralia, 240 E (6), infra, and 866 B.