6
and it is that sort of thing which free men should especially resent and for which they should obtain the greatest requital. I observe that you, when you find anyone guilty of the robbery of a temple or of theft, do not assess the fine according to the value of what is stolen, but that you condemn all alike to death, and that you consider it just that thosewho attempt to commit the same crimes should pay the same penalty.For the same argument cf. Lyc. 1.65-66.
7
You should, therefore, be of the same mind with respect to those who commit battery, and not consider whether they did not maul their victims thoroughly, but whether they transgressed the law, and you should punish them, not merely for the chance outcome of the attack, but for their character as a whole, reflecting that often ere now petty causes have been responsible for great evils,
8
and that, because there are persons who have the effrontery to beat others, there have been cases where men have become so enraged that wounds, death, exile, and the greatest calamities have resulted. That no one of these consequences happened in my case is not due to the defendant; on the contrary, so far as he is concerned they have all taken place, and it was only by the grace of fortune and my character that no irreparable harm has been done.
