Plutarch, Aussprüche von Spartanern (Moralia 218 E-F):

Archidamos III. war König von Sparta von 361 bis 338 v.u.Z.

Archidamus, the son of Agesilaus, when Philip, after the battle of Chaeroneia (1), wrote him a somewhat haughty letter, wrote in reply, “If you should measure your own shadow, you would not find that it has become any greater than before you were victorious. [εἰ μετρήσεις τὴν σαυτοῦ σκιάν, οὐκ ἂν εὕροις μείζονα γεγενημένην ἢ πρὶν νικᾶν.]”

[i[[Plutarch: Moralia III. Ed. by Frank Cole Babbitt. Cambridge (Mass.)/London ⁷2004, pp. 308 sq.][/i]

(1) 338 v.u.Z. besiegte Philipp II. von Makedonien hier die antimakedonische Allianz griechischer Staaten.