What they had to
consider was what course would be most conducive to the interests of
Athens. According to Cleon, those interests would be best served by a
wholesale massacre of the inhabitants of Mytilene, which would strike
terror into the other subjects of Athens, and prevent them from
yielding to the same temptation. But, reasoned Diodotus, experience
had shown that intending criminals were not deterred from wrongdoing
by the increased severity of penal statutes. For a long time lawgivers
had framed their codes in this belief, thinking to drive mankind into
the path of rectitude by appealing to their terrors. Yet crime had not
diminished, but rather increased. And what was true of individuals,
was still more true of cities, where each man hoped to be concealed
among the crowd of transgressors. Criminals, whether they acted
singly, or in large numbers, were only rendered desperate, if all
degrees of crime were confounded in one common penalty of death.
Such were the enlightened principles of jurisprudence set forth by an
Athenian of the fifth century before Christ--principles which were
first recognised in modern Europe within the memory of men still
living. Then, bringing his theories to a practical test, he pointed
out the gross impolicy of driving a revolted city to desperation, by
excluding all rebels from the hope of pardon.
Pages:
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118