Moral essays. With an English translation by J.W. Basore

ON MERCY, I. XIV. 3-xv. 4and blood ; aye, after severing he would yearn torestore them, and while severing he would groanaloud, hesitating often and long ; for he comes nearto condemning gladly who condemns swiftly, and topunishing unjustly who punishes unduly.Within my memorv^ the people in the forum stabbedTricho, a Roman knight, \\ith their -wTiting-stylesbecause he had flogged his son to death ; AugustusCaesar's authorit\" barely rescued him from the indignanthands of fathers no less than of sons. Tarius,on the other hand, having detected his son in a plotagainst his hfe, when after investigating the case hefound him guilty, won the admiration of ever}" onebecause, satisfying himself ^\^th exile—and a luxuriousexile—he detained the parricide at Marseilles,"furnishing him with the same liberal allowance that hehad been in the habit of giving him before his guilt ;the effect of this generosity was that, in a communitywhere a \-illain never lacks a defender, no one doubtedthat the accused man had been justly condemned,since the father who could not hate him had found itpossible to condemn him.I will now use tins ver}^ case to show you an exampleof a good prince v\ithwhom you may compare thegood father. When Tarius was ready to open theinquir}^ on his son, he invited Augustus Caesar toattend the council ; Augustus came to the hearthof a private citizen, sat beside him, and took partin the dehberation of another household. He didnot say, " Rather, let the man come to my house " ;for, if he had, the inquiry would have been conductedby Caesar and not by the father. When the casehad been heard and all the evidence had been sifted—what the young fellow said in his defence, andVOL. I 2 p 401