page_title: Laconic phrase
section_title: Uses
hierarchical_section_title: Laconic phrase / Uses
caption_attribution_description: English: Bust of Philip II of Macedon, a 1st-century Roman-era copy of a Greek original. It is now housed in the Chiaramonti Museum of the Vatican Museums. For more information, see this link.
context_page_description: A laconic phrase or laconism is a concise or terse statement, especially a blunt and elliptical rejoinder. It is named after Laconia, the region of Greece including the city of Sparta, whose ancient inhabitants had a reputation for verbal austerity and were famous for their blunt and often pithy remarks.
context_section_description: A laconic phrase may be used for efficiency (as during military training and operations), for emphasis, for philosophical reasons (especially among thinkers who believe in minimalism, such as Stoics), or to deflate a pompous interlocutor.
  A prominent example involves Philip II of Macedon. After invading southern Greece and receiving the submission of other key city-states, he turned his attention to Sparta and asked menacingly whether he should come as friend or foe. The reply was "Neither."
  Losing patience, he sent the message: 
  You are advised to submit without further delay, for if I bring my army into your land, I will destroy your farms, slay your people, and raze your city.
   
  The Spartan ephors again replied with a single word: 
  If.
   
  Subsequently, neither Philip nor his son Alexander the Great attempted to capture the city.
caption: Philip II (Roman copy of a Hellenistic bust)
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