Plato in Italy

A man who presents himself to the people with a rope around his neck, gives a spectacle that offends the imagination more than reason. It is said that this degrades spirits. So be it. What harm is there in that? What is bad is not that new laws are lacking, but rather that respect for the ancient ones is extinguished. Whoever proposes fair things has nothing to fear, since, even when it happens that the ancient law is not changed, the people often interpret it, modify it, or suspend it.

Here are two examples — The laws of Charondas granted full freedom of divorce. A young girl, married to an elderly man, falls in love with a young man, and decides to abandon her first husband. The latter presents himself to the people, and implores justice against the ingratitude of a woman whom he had loved, whom he had taken from misery and filled with benefits, and who then, without reason, by a mere blind impulse of the senses, abandoned him in those few last days of life that remained to him, and in which he had greater need, if not of a lover, at least of a companion, of a friend. The people did not touch the law, but said it was indecent to abandon a good husband just to follow another who is younger — The ancient laws established the penalty of retaliation for crimes.