De Virtutibus

These, then, are the ordinances which he enacts for the sojourners in respect of those who have received them into their land, and he also establishes other merciful laws, full of gentleness and humanity, on behalf even of enemies;" [*]( Deuteronomy xx. 10.) for he thinks it right with respect to them, even if they are at the gates, and standing under the very walls ready to attack them in their complete armour, and raising their warlike engines against them, that they shall, nevertheless, not be accounted enemies until the citizens have sent heralds to them and invited them to peace, that so, if they will yield, they may find that greatest of all blessings, namely, friendship; but if they are uncomplying and refuse, then the citizens, having also gained the alliance and co-operation of justice, might go to repel them with a good hope of victory.

Moreover, if, after having taken prisoners in a sally, you should entertain a desire for a beautiful woman amongst them, [*]( Deuteronomy xxi. 10. ) do not satiate your passion, treating her as a captive, but act with gentleness, and pity her change of fortune, and alleviate her calamity, regulating everything for the best;

and you will alleviate her sufferings if you cut the hair of her head, and trim her nails, and take off from her the garment which she wore when she was taken prisoner, and leave her alone for thirty days, during which period you shall permit her with impunity to mourn and bewail her father and her mother, and her other relations, from whom she has been separated by their death, or by their being subjected to the calamity of slavery which is worse than death.

And, after that period, you shall cohabit with her as with a legitimate wedded wife; for it is right that one who is about to ascend the bed of her husband, not for hire, like a harlot who makes a traffic of the flower of her beauty, but either out of love for him who has espoused her, or for the sake of the procreation of children, should be thought worthy of the ordinances which belong to a legitimate marriage.

On which account the lawgiver has given all his laws with great beauty. For, in the first place, he had not permitted appetite to proceed onwards in its unbridled course, with stiff-necked [*]( Deuteronomy xx. 10.) [*]( Deuteronomy xxi. 10. )

And, in the third place, he shows his compassion for the captive, if she is a virgin, because it is not her parents who are now giving her in marriage, arranging for her a most desirable connection; and if she is a widow, because she, being deprived of her first husband, is about now to make experiment of another, and this too while he still holds over her the power of a master, even though he studies to exhibit equality; for that which is subject to a master must always be apprehensive of his power, even though he may be very merciful.

But if any one, being filled with desire, and being afterwards sated with enjoyment, no longer chooses to continue his cohabitation with his captive, then the lawgiver does not so much punish him as admonish him and correct him, with a view to the improvement of his disposition, for he commands him in such a case not to sell her, [*](Deuteronomy xxi. 14.) nor to retain her any longer as a slave, but to give her liberty freely, and to allow her to depart from his house with impunity, in order that she may not be exposed to some intolerable suffering when any other woman is introduced into the house, by their both quarrelling, as is often the case, out of jealousy, the master being at the same time brought into subjection to more recent charms, and despising those by which he was previously allured.