Letter 164: On the text: "He stands in every way that is not good" [Psalm 36:1], and on "His soul shall be blessed in his life"...

To Artemidorus. There is an ordinance, well ratified from of old, and an unwritten law that looks toward love of mankind: that those who prevail by arms should be overcome by suppliants, and that those who conquer in war should give way to pity. But you, as they say, having reverenced neither the inborn ordinances nor the unwritten laws, dishonored those who took up the advocacy on behalf of the household servants. Know therefore that it is likely you will come round into that very plight which, when you beheld others in it, you felt nothing human, but, showing yourself implacable, you outraged both nature itself and mercy.

Θεσμός ἐστιν ἄνωθεν καλῶς κεκυρωμένος, καὶ νόμος ἄγραφος πρὸς φιλανθρωπίαν βλέπων, τοὺς κρατοῦντας τοῖς ὅπλοις τῶν ἱκετευόντων ἡττᾶσθαι, καὶ τοὺς πολέμῳ νικῶντας παραχωρεῖν τῷ οἴκτῳ. Σὺ δ᾽, ὥς φασιν, οὔτε τοὺς ἐμφύτους θεσμούς, οὔτε τοὺς ἀγράφους νόμους αἰδεσθείς, τοὺς περὶ τῶν οἰκετῶν τὴν συνηγορίαν ἀναδεξαμένους ἠτίμασας. Ἴσθι τοίνυν ὅτι εἰκός σε εἰς τοῦτο περιστῆναι τὸ σχῆμα, ὃ ἄλλους θεασάμενος ἔχοντας, οὐκ ἔπαθές τι ἀνθρώπινον, ἀλλ᾽ ἀμείλικτος ὀφθείς, καὶ τὴν φύσιν αὐτὴν καὶ τὸν ἔλεον ὕβρισας.