1And so, while it can be understood from many facts that our ancestors surpassed other nations not only in arms but also in counsel and wisdom, it can be seen from this above all, that they devised a singular punishment for the impious. 1Consider in this matter how far they surpassed in foresight those who are said to have been the wisest among other peoples. 70The state of the Athenians is said to have been the most sagacious, while it held supremacy; 70and of that state, they say, the wisest man was Solon, the one who wrote the laws which they still use today. 70When he was asked why he had established no penalty against one who had killed a parent, he replied that he had thought no one would do it.
70He is said to have acted wisely in laying down nothing about a thing that had never before been committed, lest he should seem not so much to forbid it as to suggest it. 70How much more wisely our ancestors acted! 70for, understanding that nothing is so sacred that audacity will not at some time violate it, they devised a singular punishment for parricides, so that those whom nature herself had been unable to keep to their duty might be kept from crime by the severity of the penalty. 70They willed that they be sewn alive into a sack and thrown thus into the river.