Study Break:

It Was Easy to Have a Quick Chat With a Spartan

The Originators of Laconic Speech

"Laconic" derives from the district of Laconia which, in ancient Greece, surrounded the city of Lacedaemon, more commonly known today as Sparta. Webster's New World Dictionary defines "laconic", as in laconic speech, as "brief or terse in speech or expression; using few words." For instance:

• "….did they send you to bring us the bad news?" was the only question asked by a Spartan mother whose son told her he was the lone survivor of a lost battle. She reasoned if he was alive it was because he'd run away. She didn't wait for his answer. She threw a tile at him and killed him on the spot.
• Philip of Macedon tried to beat the Spartans at their own game. He ordered the Spartans to surrender because, "If I enter Laconia, I will level Lacedaemon to the ground." He couldn't out-laconic the Spartans, though. They sent him a one word reply, "If."
• "Archidamus to the Eleans: Inaction is good," was Archidamus son of Agesilaus' response to the news the Eleans were rushing to help the Arcadians whose territory the Spartans had just invaded.
• On hearing his soldiers complain the sun would be blotted out by the masses of arrows the Persians would fire at the battle of Thermopylae, the Spartan king Leonidas calmly replied, "How pleasant then, if we are going to fight them in the shade." His vastly outnumbered force was wiped out. The Spartans Were Not Alone.
• In 47 B. C., Julius Caesar summed up his campaign, battle and defeat of King Anatolia in a three-word report that is a laconic classic, "Veni, vidi, vici" (translation: "Came, saw, conquered").
• Or how about this message sent by Vicomte Turenne in 1658 after the battle of Dunen, "The enemy came. He was beaten. I am tired. Good night."
• Don't count the Americans out. In World War II American General A. C. McAuliffe turned down a German surrender demand with the single word, "Nuts" (as in "Nuts to you"). American naval officer Donald Mason radioed this laconic description of the first United States naval success in World War II, "Sighted sub, sunk same." What else was there to say?