Institutio Oratoria

We may also begin with the reason and then proceed to the conclusion as in another passage from the same speech [*](ib. iii. 9. ) :

But if the Twelve Tables permitted the killing of a thief by night under any circumstances, and by day if he used a weapon to defend himself, who is there who will contend that the slayer must be punished under whatever circumstances a man has been killed?

'The process is still further varied by Cicero, and the reason placed third, as in the phrase,

When he sees that the sword is sometimes placed in our hands by the laws themselves.