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[107]
Furthermore, we have laws regulating warfare, 1
and fidelity to an oath must often be observed in
dealings with an enemy: for an oath sworn with the
clear understanding in one's own mind that it should
be performed must be kept; but if there is no such
understanding, it does not count as perjury if one
does not perform the vow. For example, suppose
that one does not deliver the amount agreed upon
with pirates as the price of one's life, that would be
accounted no deception—not even if one should fail
to deliver the ransom after having sworn to do so;
for a pirate is not included in the number of lawful
enemies, but is the common foe of all the world;
and with him there ought not to be any pledged
[p. 387]
word nor any oath mutually binding.
1 What is perjury?
M. Tullius Cicero. De Officiis. With An English Translation. Walter Miller. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1913.
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