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In this
case we shall not have two separate questions,
namely, whether every foreigner who goes up on
the wall is liable to the penalty, and whether this
particular foreigner is liable, since no more forcible
argument can be brought against the application of
the letter of the law than the fact in dispute, but the
only question to be raised will be whether a foreigner
may not go on to the wall even for the purpose of
saving the city. Therefore we shall rest our case on
equity and the intention of the law. It is, however,
sometimes possible to draw examples from other laws
to show that we cannot always stand by the letter,
as Cicero did in his defence of Caecina.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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