[32]
Now one of the friends of Sphodrias in conversation with Etymocles, said to him: “I suppose,” said he, “that you, the friends of Agesilaus, are all for putting Sphodrias to death.” And Etymocles replied: “By Zeus, then we shall not be following the same course as Agesilaus, for he says to all with whom he has conversed the same thing, — that it is impossible that Sphodrias is not guilty of wrong-doing; but that when, as child, boy, and young man, one has continually performed all the duties of a Spartan, it is a hard thing to put such a man to death; for Sparta has need of such soldiers.”
Xenophon. Xenophon in Seven Volumes, 1 and 2. Carleton L. Brownson. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA; William Heinemann, Ltd., London. vol. 1:1918; vol. 2: 1921.
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