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Wrong acts are
greater in proportion to the injustice from which they spring. For this reason
the most trifling are sometimes the greatest, as in the charge brought by
Callistratus1 against Melanopus that he had fraudulently kept back three
consecrated half-obols from the temple-builders2; whereas, in the case of just actions, it is quite the
contrary. The reason is that the greater potentially inheres in the less; for he
who has stolen three consecrated half-obols will commit any wrong whatever.
Wrong acts are judged greater sometimes in this way, sometimes by the extent of
the injury done.
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