Laws of Athens
idea · 3 works · 3 mentions · 5 anchored passages
the laws · law · laws · the laws and the commonwealth · us, the laws
spoken of as
1 expressionThe Laws of Athens2 mentions
Exordia (Greek) · Crito (Greek)
but, while holding them in check so far as lies in your power, you must yourselves, as becomes men deliberating on behalf of the State, put aside your own private feuds and aim at what is most to the common good, reflecting that the punishment of no individual, nor even of all the politicians in a body, can square the account if once the laws should be destroyed on which your very life depends.
in the texts
Against Aristogeiton I
The legal and moral norms that the speaker says Aristogeiton violates and the jurors must uphold.
For surely you will never go individually to consult the laws as if they were still valid, unless you have now collectively confirmed them before you depart.
Therefore the one thing left, men of Athens, for those who wish to get rid of this man, now that they can charge him with a clear and manifest offence against the laws, is, if possible, to punish him with death, or, if not, to impose such a money fine as he will not be able to pay.
What will you have to say for yourselves, Athenians, if you emerge after betraying the laws?
Exordia
The body of Athenian law described as the foundation of the city's very existence, whose preservation the speaker ranks above the punishment of individual political rivals.
but, while holding them in check so far as lies in your power, you must yourselves, as becomes men deliberating on behalf of the State, put aside your own private feuds and aim at what is most to the common good, reflecting that the punishment of no individual, nor even of all the politicians in a body, can square the account if once the laws should be destroyed on which your very life depends.
Crito
The personified laws and constitution of Athens, imagined by Socrates as speaking to him and reproaching his plan to escape
What then if the laws should say, Socrates, is this the agreement you made with us, or did you agree to abide by the verdicts pronounced by the state?
If, as I was on the point of running away (or whatever it should be called), the laws and the commonwealth should come to me and ask, Tell me, Socrates, what have you in mind to do?
but if you escape after so disgracefully requiting wrong with wrong and evil with evil, breaking your compacts and agreements with us, and injuring those whom you least ought to injure—yourself, your friends, your country and us—we shall be angry with you while you live, and there our brothers, the laws in Hades’ realm, will not receive you graciously;