Not, however, to insist on such points as these, let us proceed to examine the intellectual cultivation of the Dorians.[895] That the art of writing never flourished very generally at Sparta appears to be on all hands admitted, though we can by no means doubt that among them numerous individuals possessing this accomplishment might always be found. Thus, in the old story of the combat of the three hundred Spartans and Argives, it is related that Othryades, the sole survivor of the Laconian band, having remained last on the field of battle, erected a trophy and wrote upon it with his blood Λακεδαιμόνιοι κατ᾽ Ἀργείων, immediately after which he died of his wounds.[896] Generally, however, no great stress was laid on a knowledge of the art of writing, which, in the opinion of some authors, was of comparatively little value where the people were taught to chant their laws as well as their songs. Similar customs and regulations prevailed on this head in Crete, where, nevertheless, letters appear to have been viewed with a more favourable eye.[897] In addition to their body of legal poetry, which was probably less voluminous than a metrical version of the statutes at large, the youth were taught to sing hymns in honour of the gods and the praises of illustrious men.[898] In music, too, they were permitted to make some proficiency, though generally, we are told, it was their ambition to excel rather in the regularity of their manners than in the extent of their acquirements. Footnote 895: Cf. Ælian. Var. Hist. xii. 50. Footnote 896: Stob. Florileg. vii. 67. Footnote 897: Plut. Inst. Lac. § 14. seq.—The Spartans sacrificed to the muses before going to battle in order that they might perform something worthy of notice by them.—Id. § 16. It is remarked of king Cleomenes that he studied philosophy under Sphæros the Borysthenite who was likewise permitted to impart his system to the other youth.—Id. Cleom. § 2.—Cf. Diog. Laert. vii. 6. Footnote 898: In later times learning grew to be more highly valued. Thus it was ordained by law that the youth should assemble annually in the Hall of the Ephori to hear the work of Dicæarchos on the constitution of their country read to them.—Suid. v. Δικαίαρχ. t. i. p. 730. d. With respect to the Spartans it is probable, though the testimony of ancient writers be sufficiently contradictory, that no great stress was laid even on the ability to read; for, while Plutarch[899] conceives this art to have been among their ordinary acquirements, Isocrates, a grave and more competent authority, is decidedly of the opposite opinion.[900] Footnote 899: Inst. Lac. § 4. Lycurg. § 16. Footnote 900: Panathen. § 83. Τοσοῦτον ἀπολελειμμένοι τῆς κοινῆς παιδείας καὶ φιλοσοφίας εἰσιν ὥστ᾽ οὐδὲ γράμματα μανθάνουσιν.