Another tag with no exposition. As in the neighbouring 11.22, 11.23, 11.25, Marcus draws no rule from the example: a fact is recorded, and that is all. The interpretation is left to itself — a notebook does not explain what its owner already understands.

Where the point lies. The contrast rests on two locations: ὑπὸ τῇ σκιᾷ ("under the shade") for the guests and οὗ ἔτυχεν ("wherever it happened") for themselves. Οὗ ἔτυχεν is an idiom for "at random, without choosing"; there is neither sacrifice nor display in it. The hosts do not yield the better place — they simply do not take up the question of their own place at all.

Why this is not about courtesy. The subtlety is that the Spartans did not give their guests the seat of honour but took themselves out of the scale of seats altogether. Cf. 11.14, where those who despise one another fawn on one another and those who want to get above lay themselves lower: there everyone is occupied with the mutual reckoning of positions; here one side has stepped out of the reckoning. This is why the example stands two removes from 11.14 — as its solution.

The form of the verbs. ἐτίθεσαν and ἐκαθέζοντο are imperfects: not a single occasion but a custom. Marcus records not an act but a habit; and that is part of the lesson: fairness toward a stranger is not invented afresh each time but becomes a character. The governing discipline is action, the sustaining one assent.