[11]
For laws are silent when arms are
raised, and do not expect themselves to be waited for, when he who waits
will have to suffer an undeserved penalty before he can exact a merited
punishment.
The law very wisely, and in a manner silently, gives a man a right to defend
himself, and does not merely forbid a man to be slain, but forbids any one
to leave a weapon about him with the object of slaying a man; so that as the
object and not the weapon itself, is made the subject of the inquiry, the
man who had used a weapon with the object of defending himself would be
decided not to have had his weapon about him with the object of killing a
man. Let, then, this principle remembered by you in this
trial, O judges; for I do not doubt that I shall make good my defence before
you, if you only remember—what you cannot forget—that a
plotter against one may be lawfully slain.
This text is part of:
M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. George Bell & Sons, York Street, Covent Garden. 1891.
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