20.5
And so our cities should not allow this irregularity, nor tolerate which age forbids and love does not invite, which do not fulfil the function of marriage, and defeat its object. Nay, to an old man who is marrying a young wife, any worthy magistrate or lawgiver might say what is said to PhiloctetesIn a play of this name, of uncertain authorship. See Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. (2), p. 841. Plutarch cites two entire verses in Morals, p. 789a. : Indeed, poor wretch, thou art in fine state for marrying! And if he discovers a young man in the house of a rich and elderly woman, waxing fat, like a cockpartridge, in her service, he will remove him and give him to some marriageable maid that wants a husband. Thus much, then, on this head.
21.1
Praise is given also to that law of Solon which forbids speaking ill of the dead. For it is piety to regard the deceased as sacred, justice to spare the absent, and good policy to rob hatred of its perpetuity. He also forbade speaking ill of the living in temples, courts-of-law, public offices, and at festivals; the transgressor must pay three drachmas to the person injured, and two more into the public treasury. For never to master one’s anger is a mark of intemperance and lack of training; but always to do so is difficult, and for some, impossible. And a law must regard the possibilities in the case, if its maker wishes to punish a few to some purpose, and not many to no purpose.
