The Spartans are where we get the term 'laconic speech' from. They were considered a boorish and rough people, mostly by the Athenians for their verbal austerity, but were quite highly educated and gave some great lines to history.
When Philip II of Macedon invaded other parts of Greece he sent a message to the Spartans saying "If I invade Laconia, I shall turn you out."
Which is a stupid fucking line from them, if you think about it for more than 5 seconds. Always hated that people somehow thought there was something badass about that. There wasn't. There isn't.
Besides the fact that Sparta had a fork stuck in it from the Peloponnesian War and everybody knew it. Including the Spartans.
I didn't know that!I should read about it.
The Spartans are where we get the term 'laconic speech' from. They were considered a boorish and rough people, mostly by the Athenians for their verbal austerity, but were quite highly educated and gave some great lines to history.
When Philip II of Macedon invaded other parts of Greece he sent a message to the Spartans saying "If I invade Laconia, I shall turn you out."
The Spartans replied with just one word, "If."
Which is a stupid fucking line from them, if you think about it for more than 5 seconds. Always hated that people somehow thought there was something badass about that. There wasn't. There isn't.
Besides the fact that Sparta had a fork stuck in it from the Peloponnesian War and everybody knew it. Including the Spartans.
Badass.
Supposedly, when the Spartans were told that the Persian arrows could block out the sun, they replied: "great. We'll fight in the shade."