Self-Defense
idea · 2 works · 2 mentions · 4 anchored passages
defend myself · defending himself · defensive · self-defence · self-defense
in the texts
The Third Tetralogy
The justification, argued at length by the defense, that responding to an aggressor's violence is lawful and not subject to the penalties applied to unprovoked killing.
I would not have defended myself unless I had been struck by him.
whereas no penalty is ever prescribed for him who defends himself.
an aggressor deserves to be answered with, not the same, but more and worse than he gave.
Against Aristocrates
Legal justification for killing someone who is violently and unlawfully seizing another.
If any man while violently and illegally seizing another shall be slain straightway in self-defence, there shall be no penalty for his death.
If any man, while violently and illegally seizing another, shall be straightway slain in self-defence, the legislator ordains that there shall be no penalty for his death.
you say, without qualification, if any man slay Charidemus, he shall be seized, though he do it unwittingly, or righteously, or in self-defence, or for a purpose permitted by law, or in any way whatsoever.