A way with words?

My mum always used to tell me “Never use five words where one will do the job” – being a literal child I took this very seriously. Reading the BBC website today I discovered this may have been the benefit of a classical education:

It is said Philip of Macedon once sent a hostile message to the Spartans saying something along the lines of “if I bring my army down to Sparta, I will knock down the walls and kill everybody”. The Spartan oligarchs reportedly sent back the one-word reply “if”.