[97]
There is a law to the effect that “the
man who refuses to support his parents is liable to
imprisonment.” A certain man fails to support his
parents and none the less objects to going to prison.
He advances the hypothesis that he would be exempt
from such a penalty if he were a soldier, an infant.
or if he were absent from home on the service of
the state. Again in the case where a hero is allowed
to choose his reward1 we might introduce the
hypotheses of his desiring to make himself a tyrant
or to overthrow the temples of the gods.
1 cp. VII. v. 4.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1921.
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