all good deeds are equally meritorious and all bad deeds equally heinous. all virtues are equal as this corresponds to the same impulse towards the good. cicero does not really attempt to defend the stoic position of the moral equality of all offenses; instead he offers a weakened version that offenses of the same sort are equal. he notes the stoic position that all crimes are equal since they all involve the same intent to break the law, but he then argues that crimes do not bear the same penalty since the matter depends on the status of the person injured and that of the criminal. thus he ends up imposing gradations of vice based on external factors.