The most excellent Hugo Grotius, his three books treating of the rights of war & peace in the first is handled, whether any war be just : in the second is shewed, the causes of war, both just and unjust : in the third is declared, what in war is lawful, that is, unpunishable : with the annotations digested into the body of every chapter / translated into English by William Evats ...

I. In a just War some acts are not internally just.

NEITHER is that generally true that is commonly said,

He hazards all, who what is just denies.

That of Cicero is much better, There are some good offices to be performed,* 1.1 even to those who have injured us; there is also some moderation to be used even in revenge and punishments. And e∣ven in the sharpest War, there ought to be some grains of mildness and clemency, if it be regulated according to Christian Discipline.* 1.2 Nay the very Philosopher hath alrea∣dy pronounc'd them cruel, who though they have cause, yet know no measure in punishing. Ci∣cero commends that golden age of the Roman Empire,* 1.3 the end of whose Wars were mild and gentle, and never otherwise but upon necessity. Aristotle notes, That the punish∣ment taken on the Thebans and Heracleans, savoured more of cruelty than equity. And Thu∣cydides speaks of some, that suffered punishments greater than what were fit.* 1.4 So Tacitus taxeth Pompey, for exacting punishments far greater than the crimes deserved. And in the same Book he blames Aug. Caesar, that in punishing Adulteries he was more cruel than any of his Ancestors; yea, oft-times than his own Laws. Although as Juvenal speaks in this Case:

—Exegit autem Interdum ille dolor plus quam lex ulla dolori Concessit.—

This Grief sometimes far greater licence pleads, Than any Law to other grief concedes.

So Quintilian, A punishment beyond what is humane, is not to be exacted from any, unless it be from the very worst of Parricides.* 1.5 And therefore M. Antoninus the Emperour did well when he wrote to the Senate, To be careful that their proscriptions were not too severe, nor their punishments too cruel. Whereof Ammianus likewise complains, Their rage a∣gainst many was much greater, than either their errours or crimes deserved. It is possible, saith Aristides, that they who take revenge for an injury done to themselves, may be unjust, if they shall exceed in measure; for he that in this case, proceeds beyond his just bounds, is the Author of a new quarrel. And he that punisheth a Malefactor beyond what he hath deserved, deserves himself to be punished. This was Ovids opinion of a King:

—Caede nocentum Si nimis ulciscens extitit ipse nocens.

He that for Blood too great revenge doth take, Doth (sure) himself the greatest Murtherer make.

The Plataeans in Isocrates demand, Whether it be fit or reasonable, to require for so small faults, so great and grievous punishments. And in his second Oration for Peace, the same Aristides gives this wholesom advice, Look not so much at the crimes, as at the persons to be punished; and at your own frailty and propensity to fall, that are about to punish: and lastly, at the measure how far you may with equity punish. Minos in Propertius is highly commended in that,

* 1.6Victor erat quam diu aequus in hoste fuit.

Though Victor he even to his foes was just.

So he in Ovid, who,

In giving Laws to's Captives was most just.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Offic. l. 1. Vide lib. 2. ch. 20. §. 2.—28.
• * 1.2

  Sen. de Clem. lib. 2. c. 4.
• * 1.3

  De Off. l. 2. Pol. 5, 6. Lib. 3.
• * 1.4

  Annal. l. 3.
• * 1.5

  Lib. 26.
• * 1.6

  Ovid Trist. lib. 1. Eleg. 1.