Laconic phrase
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A "Laconic phrase" is a very short or terse statement, named after Laconia, an area of modern and ancient Greece. Laconians focused less on the development of education, arts, and literature. Some view this as having contributed to the Laconian characteristically blunt speech. The Spartans were especially famous for their dry wit, which is called "laconic" after the region and its people. In modern parlance, "laconic" is used to describe speech and writing which uses few words and is terse and concise.
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[edit] Examples
[edit] Spartan
- A witticism attributed to Lycurgus, the legendary lawgiver of Sparta, is a response to a proposal to set up a democracy there: "Begin with your own family."[1]
- One famous example comes from the time of the invasion of Phillip II. With key Greek city-states in submission, he turned his attention to Sparta and sent a message: "If I win this war, you will be slaves forever." The Spartans sent back a one word reply: "If". In another version, Philip proclaims: "You are advised to submit without further delay, for if I bring my army into your land, I will destroy your farms, slay your people, and raze your city." Subsequently, Philip and Alexander both would leave them alone.
- Demetrius I of Macedon was offended when the Spartans sent his court a single envoy, and exclaimed angrily, "What! Have the Lacedaemonians sent no more than one ambassador?" The Spartan responded, "Aye, one ambassador to one king." [2]
- A Spartan king wanted his hair prepared, so he turned to his barber and said, "Cut it." When he was asked how he wanted it done, he answered "Short."
- When the Persians sent envoys to the Spartans demanding the traditional symbol of surrender, an offering of soil and water, the Spartans threw them into a deep well, suggesting that upon their arrival at the bottom, they could "Dig it out for yourselves." [3]
- On her husband Leonidas' departure for battle with the Persians at Thermopylae, Gorgo, Queen of Sparta asked what she should do. Knowing he was unlikely to return, he advised: "Marry a good man and bear good children."[4]
- Herodotus wrote that when before the Battle of Thermopylae, Dienekes the Spartan was told the Persian arrows would be so numerous as to blot out the sun. He responded with "So much the better, we shall fight in the shade." [5]Today Dienekes's phrase is the motto of the Greek 20th Armored Division.
- When the Spartan King Leonidas was in charge of guarding the narrow mountain pass at Thermopylae with just 7000 Greek men in order to delay the invading Persian army, the Persian leader Xerxes offered to spare his men if they gave up their arms. King Leonidas replied "Molon Labe" (Greek "Μολών Λαβέ"), which translates to "Come and take them."[6] This has been re-used by generals and politicians throughout history and repeated (in English) often in popular culture. It is today the emblem of the Greek 1st Army Corps.
- On the morning of the third and final day of the battle, Leonidas, knowing they were being surrounded, exhorted his men, "Eat well, for tonight we dine in Hades."
- When asked by a woman from Attica, "Why are you Spartan women the only ones who can rule men?" Gorgo replied, "Because we are also the only ones who give birth to men."
- Spartan mothers or wives gave a departing warrior his shield with the words: Συν ται η επι ται! or Ή ταν ή επί τας!, "With it or on it!", implying that he should return (victoriously) with his shield, or (his cremated body in an urn) upon it, but by no means after saving himself by throwing away his heavy shield and fleeing.[7]
- When a hoplite described his comrade's brave death in battle, a Spartan woman commented: "Such a noble journey; shouldn't you have gone too?"
- Spartans normally fought with a short sword. When its size was mocked, the Spartan responded with, "It's long enough to reach the heart."
- When a Spartan complained to his mother that his sword was too short, she replied, "It would be long enough if you took a step forward."
- Upon being asked to come hear a person who could perfectly imitate a nightingale, a Spartan answered, "I have heard the nightingale itself."
- When asked what dowry she was giving her bridegroom, a poor Spartan girl said: "My father's common sense."
- After an Athenian accused Spartans of being ignorant, a Spartan agreed: "What you say is true. We have learned none of your evil ways."
[edit] Other examples
- After defeating the Romans in the Battle of Asculum (279 BC), which was costly to both sides, Pyrrhus reportedly responded to an offer of congratulations with "One more such victory and the cause is lost" (In Greek: Ἂν ἔτι μίαν μάχην νικήσωμεν, ἀπολώλαμεν), or similar words to that effect.[8]
- After defeating King Pharnaces II of Pontus in the Battle of Zela in 47 BC, Julius Caesar memorialized his swift victory with the words "Veni, vidi, vici" ("I came, I saw, I conquered").[9]
- According to a legend recorded in the Primary Chronicle for year 6472, Sviatoslav I of Kiev (circa 962–972 AD) sent a message to the Vyatich rulers, consisting of a single phrase: "I come at you!" (Old East Slavic: "Иду на вы!")[10] . The chronicler may have wished to contrast Sviatoslav's open declaration of war to stealthy tactics employed by many other early medieval conquerors. This phrase is used in modern Russian to denote an unequivocal declaration of one's intentions.
- After the humiliation of his envoys in 1219, Genghis Khan's response to the Shah of the Khwarezmid Empire was "You have chosen war".
- In 1843, British forces led by General Charles Napier conquered the province of Sind in India. On his conquest he sent a one word message in Latin to his commander, Peccavi, meaning "I have sinned" ("I have Sind").
- When the 101st Airborne Division under General Anthony C. McAuliffe was beseiged in Bastogne on December 22, 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge, German emissaries asked for the American surrender, to which the General’s terse answer was, “Nuts!”.
[edit] References
- ^ http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/P/Plutarch/prose/plutachslives/lycurgus.html Plutarch: Life of Lycurgus
- ^ http://www.attalus.org/old/demetrius2.html Plutarch: Life of Demetrius
- ^ Herodotus The Histories, Book Seven, section 133.
- ^ Lacaenarum apophthegmata, Plutarch.
- ^ Herodotus The Histories, Book Seven, section 226.
- ^ Plutarch, Apophthegmata Laconica, 225c.11. This work may or may not be by Plutarch himself, but it is included among the Moralia, a collection of works attributed to him but outside the collection of his most famous works, the Parallel Lives.
- ^ http://www.pbs.org/empires/thegreeks/background/8c_p1.html PBS
- ^ http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/P/Plutarch/prose/plutachslives/pyrrhus.html Plutarch: Life of Pyrrhus
- ^ Julius Caesar,The Gallic Wars.
- ^ The Russian Primary Chronicle
