Quid abest igitur quin publica dementia sit existimanda summo consensu maximas virtutes quasi gravissima delicta punire, beneficiaque iniuriis rependere? quod cum ubique tum praecipue Athenis intolerabile videri debet, in qua urbe adversus ingratos actio constituta est, et recte, quia dandi et accipiendi beneficii commercium, sine quo vix vita hominum exstaret, tollit quisquis bene merito parem referre gratiam neglegit.
What is wanting then that we should judge it public insanity to punish by general consent the greatest of merits like the worst of offences and to repay benefactions with injuries? That should seem intolerable anywhere, but particularly in Athens, in which city prosecution of ingrates was legalized and rightly so, since whoever neglects to make equal return to a benefactor abolishes the interplay of giving and receiving benefits without which life would be hardly livable.
final_alignments\Valerius_Memorable_Book5.json