The Roman History · Amm. 16.5.12
Having been approached by the parents of a virgin who had been ravished, seeking for justice, he gave sentence that the ravisher, on conviction, should be banished; and when the parents complained of this sentence as unequal to the crime, because the criminal had not been condemned to death, he replied, "Let the laws blame my clemency: but it is fitting that an emperor of a most merciful disposition should be superior to all other laws."Read in context ›
Ammianus Marcellinus · translated by C. D. Yonge · 1911 reprint
C. D. Yonge translation (preface dated February 1862); G. Bell and Sons, 1911; Project Gutenberg #28587
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