59
Moreover, if you annul the decree, should anything happen to Charidemus, the legitimate means of avenging him are still there. On the other hand, if you let it stand, and if before he dies he maltreats any man, the man whom he insults has been defrauded of his legal remedy. Therefore on every ground the decree is contrary to law, and ought to be annulled.
60
Read the next statute.
60
Statute
60
If any man while violently and illegally seizing another shall be slain straightway in self-defence, there shall be no penalty for his death.
60
Here are other conditions of lawful homicide. If any man, while violently and illegally seizing another, shall be straightway slain in self-defence, the legislator ordains that there shall be no penalty for his death. I beg you to observe the wisdom of this law. By adding the word straightway after indicating the conditions of lawful homicide, the legislator has excluded any long premeditation of injury and by the expression, in self-defence, he makes it clear that he is giving indulgence to the actual sufferer, and to no other man. Thus the law permits homicide in immediate self-defence; but Aristocrates has made no such exception. He says, without qualification, if anyone ever kills,—that is, even if he kill righteously, or as the laws permit.