The Game of Chess

...to perish by a death. And we read of cruel men who were overtaken by a cruel punishment.

Phalaris

¶ For Orosius original: "orosius"; referring to Paulus Orosius, a 5th-century historian and theologian relates that a certain man named Perillus, a craftsman in bronze and metal, believed he could please Phalaris original: "phallaridi"; the tyrant of Acragas known for his extreme cruelty, a cruel tyrant who was depopulating the people of Agrigento and torturing them with refined torments. He made a great bronze bull and constructed a small door in its side through which those condemned to death could be placed inside. A fire would then be set beneath the bull so that they would be burned. The design was such that the screams of those trapped inside would not sound like a human voice, but like the bellowing of a beast. Thus, the victims would be less likely to move the listeners to pity. When he had finished the work with great skill, he presented it to King Phalaris. The king praised the work, but, dismissing the inventor, he said: "You shall be the first to experience and prove that you have shown yourself more cruel than others toward the cruel." For he punished the craftsman himself with his own invention.

Ovid

There is no law more just than that the architects of death should perish by their own art, as Ovid says. original: "Nulla ē lex equoꝛ q necis artifices arte pire sua"; a reference to Ovid's Ars Amatoria

Augustine, The City of God

¶ In this, there must be justice, for when kingdoms are without justice, they are nothing more than great robberies. original: "remota itaque iustitia quid sunt regna nisi magna latrocinia," from Augustine's De Civitate Dei 4.4

¶ And therefore Augustine relates in The City of God that there was a certain man named Dionides usually identified as Diomedes the pirate in other versions of this tale who infested the sea with a single galley, capturing and plundering neighbors. After he had been a nuisance to travelers for a long time, word of his deeds was brought to King Alexander the Great. Alexander, taking note of this, ordered several galleys to be prepared and had Dionides pursued, ordering him to be captured and presented before him. When this had been done, the king questioned Dionides, saying: "Why do you keep the sea in such turmoil?" To which Dionides replied: "For the same reason you keep the whole world in turmoil. But because I do this with a single vessel, I am called a thief. Because The sentence continues onto the next page