[158]
Now Draco, in this group of laws, marked the terrible wickedness of
homicide by banning the offender from the lustral water, the libations, the
loving-cup, the sacrifices and the market-place; he enumerated everything that
he thought likely to deter the offender; but he never robbed him of his claim to
justice; he defined the circumstances that make homicide justifiable and
proclaimed the accused in such case free from taint. If, then, your laws can
justify homicide, is this fellow's law to forbid any claim, even a just one, to
recompense? Not so, men of Athens!
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by C. A. Vince, M. A. and J. H. Vince, M.A. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1926.
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