The city of sparta was in laconia [b'kounja], so people sometimes gave the spartans the name of lacons. the lacons never spoke much, and they taught their children not to use more words than they needed. "if you listen more and speak less," they said, "you will learn many things. people that talk too much are usually not very clever! " so, it became a tradition in laconia to try to use less words. and even now we say that an answer in not many words is a laconic answer. phillip, the king of macedonia, hoped to become the king of all greece. he took city after city, until he came to laconia. when he was already near sparta, he sent a letter to spartans. "my army is the biggest and my soldiers are the strongest -in the world," he wrote. "and the highest city walls could not stop them. you must open your doors for me. if you refuse, there will be a war, and if i win, all of you will die. send your answer to me before i come to sparta! " * after some days brave spartans sent phillip an answer. when phillip opened the letter, he found only one word in it. that word was "if".
