The manner of their repartees, which, as I said, were seasoned with humour, may be gathered from these instances. When a troublesome fellow was pestering Demaratus with impertinent questions, and this in particular several times repeated, "Who is the best man in Sparta?" He answered, "He that is least like you." To some who were commending the Eleans for managing the Olympic games with so much justice and propriety, Agis said, "What great matter is it, if the Eleans do justice once in five years?" When a stranger was professing his regard for Theopompus, and saying that his own countrymen called him Philolacon (a lover of the Lacedæmonians), the king answered him, "My good friend, it were much better, if they called you Philopolites" (a lover of your own countrymen). Plistonax, the son of Pausanias, replied to an orator of Athens, who said the Lacedæmonians had no learning. "True, for we are the only people of Greece that have learned no ill of you." To one who asked what number of men there was in Sparta, Archidamidas said, "Enough to keep bad men at a distance." Even when they indulged a vein of pleasantry, one might perceive that they would not use one unnecessary word, nor let an expression escape them that had not some sense worth attending to. For one being asked to go and hear a person who imitated the nightingale to perfection, answered, "I have heard the nightingale herself." Another said, upon reading this epitaph, Victims of Mars, at Selinus they fell, Who quench'd the rage of tyranny-- "And they deserved to fall, for, instead of _quenching_ it, they should have let it _burn out_." A young man answered one that promised him some game-cocks that would stand their death, "Give me those that will be the death of others." Another seeing some people carried into the country in litters, said, "May I never sit in any place where I cannot rise before the aged!" This was the manner of their apophthegms: so that it has been justly enough observed that the term _lakonizein_ (to act the Lacedæmonian) is to be referred rather to the exercises of the mind, than those of the body. Nor were poetry and music less cultivated among them, than a concise dignity of expression. Their songs had a spirit, which could rouse the soul, and impel it in an enthusiastic manner to action. The language was plain and manly, the subject serious and moral. For they consisted chiefly of the praises of heroes that had died for Sparta, or else of expressions of detestation for such wretches as had declined the glorious opportunity, and rather chose to drag on life in misery and contempt. Nor did they forget to express an ambition for glory suitable to their respective ages. Of this it may not be amiss to give an instance. There were three choirs on their festivals, corresponding with the three ages of man. The old men began, Once in battle bold we shone; the young men answered, Try us: our vigour is not gone; and the boys concluded,