> [A Spartan mother], as she handed her son his shield, exhorted him, saying, "Either this or upon this."
The Loeb editor comments: "[Attributed] to Gorgo by Aristotle in his Aphorisms, as quoted by Stobaeus, Florilegium VII.31, but it is often spoken of as a regular Spartan custom. Cf., for example, the scholium on Thucydides II.39. Ancient writers were not agreed whether the second half meant to fall upon the shield (dead or wounded) or to be brought home dead upon it. In support of the second (traditional) interpretation cf. Moralia 235A, and Valerius Maximus II.7 ext. 2."
Valerius Maximus II.7 ext. 2 is "maternarum blanditiarum memores, quibus [...] monebantur ut aut vivi cum armis in conspectum earum venirent aut mortui in armis referrentur" — "remembering their mothers' admonition [...] that they should next be seen alive with their armor or reported dead in it."
Plutarch's Moralia 235A, in the Sayings of Spartans, is a verse attributed to Dioscurides: "Lifeless to Pitane came, on his shield upborne, Thrasybulus..."
Moralia 235B supplies my new favorite laconism:
> When Philip of Macedon sent some orders to the Spartans by letter, they wrote thus in reply: "As to what you wrote about: No."
> [A Spartan mother], as she handed her son his shield, exhorted him, saying, "Either this or upon this."
The Loeb editor comments: "[Attributed] to Gorgo by Aristotle in his Aphorisms, as quoted by Stobaeus, Florilegium VII.31, but it is often spoken of as a regular Spartan custom. Cf., for example, the scholium on Thucydides II.39. Ancient writers were not agreed whether the second half meant to fall upon the shield (dead or wounded) or to be brought home dead upon it. In support of the second (traditional) interpretation cf. Moralia 235A, and Valerius Maximus II.7 ext. 2."
Valerius Maximus II.7 ext. 2 is "maternarum blanditiarum memores, quibus [...] monebantur ut aut vivi cum armis in conspectum earum venirent aut mortui in armis referrentur" — "remembering their mothers' admonition [...] that they should next be seen alive with their armor or reported dead in it."
Plutarch's Moralia 235A, in the Sayings of Spartans, is a verse attributed to Dioscurides: "Lifeless to Pitane came, on his shield upborne, Thrasybulus..."
Moralia 235B supplies my new favorite laconism:
> When Philip of Macedon sent some orders to the Spartans by letter, they wrote thus in reply: "As to what you wrote about: No."