Note 94 — Chapter IV · THE AGE OF ATHLETIC FESTIVALS, SIXTH CENTURY B.C.
Reading edition
The attitude of the Spartans towards athletics is expressed in a poem of Tyrtaeus (Bergk, No. 12), in which he declares that he would set no store by speed of foot or skill in wrestling, apart from warlike might. Later their contempt of training and skill degenerated into sheer brutality. Phil. Gym. 9 and 58; Plutarch, Apophthegm. Lac. Var. 25 (233 E); Anth. Plan. i. 1.