Plato, Laws 630d

τιμία εἶναι λέγοιτʼ ἂν ὀρθότατα. ὦ ξένε, τὸν νομοθέτην ἡμῶν ἀποβάλλομεν εἰς τοὺς πόρρω νομοθέτας. οὐχ ἡμεῖς γε, ὦ ἄριστε, ἀλλʼ ἡμᾶς αὐτούς, ὅταν οἰώμεθα πάντα τά τʼ ἐν Λακεδαίμονι καὶ τὰ τῇδε πρὸς τὸν πόλεμον μάλιστα βλέποντας Λυκοῦργόν τε καὶ Μίνω τίθεσθαι τὰ νόμιμα. τὸ δὲ πῶς χρῆν ἡμᾶς λέγειν; ὥσπερ τό τε ἀληθὲς οἶμαι καὶ τὸ δίκαιον ὑπέρ γε

fair though it be and fitly glorified by the poet, deserves nevertheless to be placed no higher than fourth in order and estimation. We are degrading our own lawgiver, Stranger, to a very low level! Nay, my good Sir, it is ourselves we are degrading, in so far as we imagine that it was with a special view to war that Lycurgus and Minos laid down all the legal usages here and in Lacedaemon. How, then, ought we to have stated the matter? In the way that is, as I think, true and proper