Laconic speech

Named from Laconia, and attested as a Spartan habit by writers who were not Spartan. Herodotus gives an early instance: Samian envoys make a long speech asking for help, and the Spartans reply that they have forgotten the beginning and cannot understand the end. The Samians come back with a bag and the words that the bag wants barley, and are told the word bag was unnecessary.

The best-known exchange is preserved by Plutarch. Philip of Macedon writes that if he enters Laconia he will level Sparta, and receives one word in reply: if.

Xenophon connects the habit to upbringing rather than temperament, describing boys trained to answer questions briefly and to stand in silence with their hands inside their cloaks and their eyes down.