Laconic phrase

A laconic phrase or laconism is a concise or terse statement,

especially a blunt and elliptical rejoinder.[1][2] It is named after
Laconia, the region of Greece including the city of Sparta, whose
ancient inhabitants had a reputation for verbal austerity and were
famous for their blunt and often pithy remarks.

Contents
Uses
In humor
Theater of ancient Sparta with Mt. Taygetus in the
History background
Examples
Spartan
Other historical examples
See also
Notes
References
External links

Uses
A laconic phrase may be used for efficiency (as in military jargon), for emphasis, for philosophical reasons (especially among
thinkers who believe in minimalism, such as Stoics), or to better deflate a pompous individual.

A prominent example involves Philip II of Macedon. After invading southern Greece and
receiving the submission of other key city-states, he turned his attention to Sparta and asked
menacingly whether he should come as friend or foe. The reply was "Neither."[3]

Losing patience, he sent the message:

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.[4]

The Spartan ephors again replied with a single word:

Philip II (Roman copy
of a Hellenistic bust)
If.[5]

Subsequently, neither Philip nor his son Alexander the Great attempted to capture the city.[note 1]

In humor
The Spartans were especially famous for their dry, understated wit,[7] which is now known as "laconic humor". This can be
contrasted with the "Attic salt" or "Attic wit" – the refined, poignant, delicate humour of Sparta's chief rival, Athens.[8]

Various more recent groups also have a reputation for laconic humor: Icelanders in the sagas,[9] and in the Anglophone world,
Australians (cf. Australian humor),[10][11][12] American cowboys,[13] New Englanders,[14] and people from the North of
England.[15]

History
Spartans paid less attention than other ancient Greeks to the development of
education, arts, and literature.[16] Some view this as having contributed to the
characteristically blunt Laconian speech. However, Socrates, in Plato's dialogue
Protagoras, appears to reject the idea that Spartans' economy with words was
simply a consequence of poor literary education: "... they conceal their wisdom,
and pretend to be blockheads, so that they may seem to be superior only because
of their prowess in battle ... This is how you may know that I am speaking the
truth and that the Spartans are the best educated in philosophy and speaking: if
you talk to any ordinary Spartan, he seems to be stupid, but eventually, like an
expert marksman, he shoots in some brief remark that proves you to be only a
child".[17][note 2] Socrates was known to have admired Spartan laws,[20] as did
many other Athenians,[21] but modern scholars have doubted the seriousness of Chilon of Sparta
his attribution of a secret love of philosophy to Spartans.[22][23][18] Still, the
Spartans Myson of Chenae and Chilon of Sparta have traditionally been counted
among the Seven Sages of Greece; both were famous for many laconic sayings.[note 3]

In general, however, Spartans were expected to be men of few words, to hold rhetoric in disdain, and to stick to the point.
Loquacity was considered frivolous and unbecoming of sensible, down-to-earth Spartan peers. A Spartan youth was reportedly
liable to have his thumb bitten as punishment for too verbose a response to a teacher's question.[26]

Examples

Spartan
A witticism attributed to Lycurgus, the possibly legendary lawgiver of Sparta,
was a response to a proposal to set up a democracy there: "Begin with your
own family."[27]
On another occasion, Lycurgus was reportedly asked the reason for the less-
than-extravagant size of Sparta's sacrifices to the gods. He replied, "So that
we may always have something to offer."[27]
When he was consulted on how Spartans might best forestall invasion of their
homeland, Lycurgus advised, "By remaining poor, and each man not desiring
to possess more than his fellow."[27]
When asked whether it would be prudent to build a defensive wall enclosing
the city, Lycurgus answered, "A city is well-fortified which has a wall of men Lycurgus
instead of brick."[27] (When another Spartan was later shown an Asian city with
impressive fortifications, he remarked, "Fine quarters for women!"[28])
Responding to a visitor who questioned why they put their fields in the hands of the helots rather than cultivate
them themselves, Anaxandridas explained, "It was by not taking care of the fields, but of ourselves, that we
acquired those fields."[29]
King Demaratus, being pestered by someone with a question concerning who the most exemplary Spartan was,
answered "He that is least like you."[27]
 On her husband Leonidas's departure for battle with the Persians at
Thermopylae, Gorgo, Queen of Sparta asked what she should do.
He advised her: "Marry a good man and bear good children."[30][31]

Other historical examples

When Ben-Hadad I, king of Aram-Damascus, attacked Ahab, king of
Israel, he sent a message: "May the gods deal with me, be it ever so
severely, if enough dust remains in Samaria to give each of my men
a handful." Ahab replied, "One who puts on his armor should not
boast like one who takes it off."[32]
A traveler from Sybaris, a city in southern Italy (which gave rise to
the word sybarite) infamous in the ancient world for its luxury and
gluttony, was invited to eat in a Spartan mess hall and tasted their
black broth. Disgusted, he remarked, "No wonder Spartans are the
bravest of men. Anyone in their right mind would rather die a
thousand times than live like this."[33]
When news of the death of Philip II reached Athens in 336 BC, the
strategos Phocion banned all celebratory sacrifice, saying: "The
army which defeated us at Chaeronea has lost just one man."[34]
Leonidas, a sculpture (c. 475 BC)
The heavy price of defeating the Romans in the Battle of Asculum
unearthed in Sparta in 1926
(279 BC) prompted Pyrrhus to respond to an offer of congratulations
with "If we win one more battle we will be doomed" ("One more such (Archaeological Museum of Sparta)
victory and the cause is lost"; in Ancient Greek: Ἂν ἔτι μίαν μάχην
νικήσωμεν, ἀπολώλαμεν Án éti mían máchēn nikḗsōmen,
apolṓlamen).[35]

See also
Aphorism
One-line joke

Notes
1. Sparta then declined to participate in Macedon's invasion of the Persian Empire,
Pyrrhus of Epirus
a fact memorialized in a proclamation Alexander sent to Athens with armor
captured at the Battle of the Granicus: "Alexander, son of Philip, and all the
Greeks except the Lacedaemonians, present this offering from the spoils taken
from the foreigners inhabiting Asia."[6]
2. An alternative translation based on those by A. Beresford and R.E. Allen is as follows: "...they claim not to have
any interest in [philosophy] and put on this big show of being morons...because...they want people to think that
their superiority rests on fighting battles and being manly... You can tell that what I say is true, and that Spartans
are the best educated in philosophy and argument, by this: if one associates with the most inferior Spartan, one
at first finds him somewhat inferior in speech; but then at some chance point in the discussion he throws in a
remark worthy of noticing, brief and terse, like a skilled marksman, so that the person he's talking to appears no
better than a child."[18][19]
3. Examples include "We should not investigate facts by the light of arguments, but arguments by the light of facts"
for Myson,[24] and "Do not let one's tongue outrun one's sense" for Chilon.[25]

References
1. Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Synonyms, 1984, s.v. 'concise' p. 172 (https://books.google.com/books?id=8N4
UReTJYhUC&pg=PA172).
 2. Henry Percy Smith, Synonyms Discriminated (1904) p. 541 (https://books.google.com/books?id=17sXAAAAYAAJ
&pg=PA541).
3. Plutarch, Apophthegmata Laconica, 233e 1 (http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Morali
a/Sayings_of_Spartans*/unknown.html) 2 (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0
198:chapter=69&highlight=neither%2Cphilip).
4. The Animal Spirit Doctrine and the Origins of Neurophysiology (https://books.google.com/books?id=5n4iLuNvHlc
C&printsec=frontcover&dq=isbn:0199766495&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwikk--Mr6bXAhVJ7GMKHRt2BxEQ6A
EIKDAA#v=snippet&q=raze&f=false), C.U.M. Smith, et al., Oxford University Press, 2012.
5. Plutarch, De garrulitate, 17 1 (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.028
8%3Asection%3D17) 2 (http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/De_garrulitate*.ht
ml) or 3 (https://web.archive.org/web/20140804211840/http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/49190/).
6. Arrian, Anabasis Alexandri, I, 16, 7.
7. Stuttard, David (14 October 2014). A History of Ancient Greece in Fifty Lives (https://books.google.com/books?id
=VAc7CwAAQBAJ&pg=PT88&q=laconic+wit). Thames & Hudson. p. 88. ISBN 978-0-500-77221-8.
8. Belfield, Henry H. (1897). Lord Chesterfield's letters to his son and godson (https://books.google.com/books?id=i
a8HAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA48&q=supposed+to+be+peculiar). Maynard, Merrill & Co. p. 48. ISBN 978-5871542569.
9. Peter Hallberg, The Icelandic Saga (https://books.google.com/books?id=sq0Ku9yBDJwC&printsec=frontcover#v
=snippet&q=laconic_repartee), p. 115.
10. Willbanks, R. (1991). Australian Voices: Writers and Their Work (https://books.google.com/books?id=4JShAwAA
QBAJ&pg=PA117). University of Texas Press. p. 117. ISBN 978-0-292-78558-8. OCLC 23220737 (https://www.w
orldcat.org/oclc/23220737).
11. Bell, S.; Bell, K.; Byrne, R. (2013). "Australian Humour: What Makes Aussies Laugh?" (https://web.archive.org/we
b/20130122091321/http://www.australian-information-stories.com/australian-humour.html). Australian Tales.
Australian-Information-Stories.com. Archived from the original (http://www.australian-information-stories.com/aust
ralian-humour.html) on 2013-01-22. Retrieved 2014-08-30.
12. Jones, D. (1993). "Edgy laughter: Women and Australian humour" (http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?articl
e=2368&context=lhapapers). Australian Literary Studies. 16 (2): 161–167. Retrieved 2016-09-03.
13. Collier, P.; Horowitz, D. (1995). Roosevelts: An American Saga (https://books.google.com/books?id=v37AtBGnLa
AC&pg=PA66). Simon & Schuster. p. 66. ISBN 9780684801407. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
14. "The Problems of Rural New England" (https://books.google.com/books?id=9PSQ3e00cgAC&pg=PA589&dq=lea
n+sharp+laconic). The Atlantic Monthly. Atlantic Monthly Company. May 1897. p. 589.
15. Urdang, L. (1988). Names and Nicknames of Places and Things (https://books.google.com/books?id=E9bt2QhyF
IsC&q=laconic). Penguin Group USA. ISBN 9780452009073. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
16. Plato, Hippias Major 285b–d.
17. Protagoras 342b, d–e, from the translation given at the end of the section on Lycurgus in e-classics.com (https://
web.archive.org/web/20050207014704/http://www.e-classics.com/index.html).
18. Beresford, A., Plato: Protagoras and Meno (https://books.google.co.in/books?id=5Uvfd2dixgMC&printsec=frontco
ver), Penguin Books 2005, p. 151.; see commentary (https://books.google.co.in/books?id=5Uvfd2dixgMC&q=Con
temporary%20readers#v=snippet&q=Contemporary%20readers) (click on "61" link).
19. Allen, R.E. (1984). The Dialogues of Plato (https://books.google.com/books?id=7StRBqCrebwC&pg=203). 3: Ion,
Hippias Minor, Laches, and Protagoras. Yale University Press. pp. 202–203. ISBN 978-0300074383.
20. Plato, Crito 52e.
21. Plato, Republic 544c.
22. Taylor, A.E., Plato: The Man and His Work (https://books.google.co.in/books?id=sb8KR_jVAy0C&printsec=frontco
ver), Meridian Books, 6th ed., 1949; on p. 255 (https://books.google.co.in/books?id=sb8KR_jVAy0C&pg=PA255)
Taylor suggests Socrates is mocking, in jest, other Greeks who affect a Spartan lifestyle as the epitome of rugged
manliness for not realizing their models are closet intellectuals.
23. Taylor, C.C.W., Plato: Protagoras (https://books.google.com/books?id=mXkxAQAAIAAJ&dq=9780199555659&fo
cus=searchwithinvolume&q=+ordinary+Spartan), Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0199555659, 2009; pp. 43,
83.
24. Diogenes Laërtius. Lives of the Eminent Philosophers (https://books.google.com/books?id=iHpVDwAAQBAJ&pri
ntsec=frontcover). Translated by Pamela Mensch. Oxford University Press. 2018. ISBN 978-0190862183 p. 52 (h
ttps://books.google.com/books?id=iHpVDwAAQBAJ&q=investigate+facts).
25. Diogenes Laërtius, p. 34 (https://books.google.com/books?id=iHpVDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA34).
26. Paul Cartledge (2003). Spartan Reflections (https://books.google.com/books?id=JgFlxZ14hkoC&pg=PA85).
University of California Press. p. 85. ISBN 978-0-520-23124-5. Retrieved 2012-12-13.
27. Plutarch, Life of Lycurgus 1 (http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/lycurgus.html) 2 (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1403
3/14033-h/14033-h.htm#LIFE_OF_LYKURGUS) 3 (http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarc
h/Lives/Lycurgus*.html).
28. Plutarch, Apophthegmata Laconica, 230c.
29. Plutarch, Apophthegmata Laconica (Sayings of Spartans), 217a. This work may or may not be by Plutarch
himself, but is included among the Moralia, a collection of works attributed to him but outside the collection of his
most famous works, the Parallel Lives.
30. Plutarch, Apophthegmata Laconica, 225a.
31. Plutarch, Lacaenarum Apophthegmata (Sayings of Spartan Women), 240e. This work may or may not be by
Plutarch himself, but is included among the Moralia, a collection of works attributed to him but outside the
collection of his most famous works, the Parallel Lives.
32. I Kings 20:10–11.
33. Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae Book IV, 138d; Book XII, 518e; trans. quoted in Dalby, A. Siren Feasts: A History of
Food and Gastronomy in Greece (https://books.google.com/books?ei=qZe4TquzL6qIiAK09KnwBA&ct=result&id=
wtLgAAAAMAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=senses+would+rather+die). London: Routledge, 1996. ISBN 0-
415-15657-2, p.126.
34. Plutarch, Parallel Lives, "Phocion", 16.6.
35. Plutarch, Parallel Lives, "Pyrrhus", 21.9.

External links
Quotations related to Laconic phrases at Wikiquote (additional examples of laconic phrases)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Laconic_phrase&oldid=896338237"

This page was last edited on 9 May 2019, at 20:26 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using
this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.