Noctes Atticae

Why Quintus Claudius Quadrigarius, in the nineteenth book of his Annals, wrote that missiles hit their mark more accurately and surely if they are hurled from below, than if they are hurled from above.

When Quintus Claudius, in the nineteenth book of his Annals, was describing an attack upon a town by the proconsul Metellus, and its defence against him by the townspeople from the top of the walls, he wrote these words: [*](Fr. 85, Peter2.)

The archers and slingers on both sides showered their weapons with the utmost vigour and courage. But there is this difference between shooting an arrow or a stone downward or upward; for neither missile can be discharged accurately downward, but both upwards with excellent effect. Therefore the soldiers of Metellus suffered far fewer wounds, and, what was of the greatest importance, they very easily drove the enemy back from the battlements by means of their slingers.

I asked Antonius Julianus, the rhetorician, why what Quadrigarius had said was so; namely, that the shots of missiles are closer and more accurate if you discharge a stone or an arrow upwards rather than downwards, in spite of the fact that a throw from above downward is swifter and easier than one in the opposite direction. Then

His statement about an arrow and a stone may be made about almost any missile weapon. But, as you have said, throwing is easier if you throw downwards, provided you wish only to throw, and not to hit a mark. But when the direction and force of the throw must be regulated and guided, then, if you are throwing downwards, tile control and command of the marksman are impaired by the downward impulse itself, such as it is, and by the weight of the falling missile. But if you throw your weapon upwards, and direct hand and eye to hitting something above you, the missile which you have hurled will go to the spot to which the impulse which you have given bears it.

With regard to the remark of the same Claudius,

they very easily drove the enemy from the battlements,

to run against something and fall upon it,

to avert and drive away

In what terms Herodes Atticus reproved a man who in appearance and dress falsely laid claim to the title and character of philosopher.

To Herodes Atticus, the ex-consul, renowned for his personal charm and his Grecian eloquence, there

for bread.

I see,

a beard and a cloak; the philosopher I do not yet see. Now, I pray you, be so good as to tell me by what evidence you think we may recognize you as a philosopher.

Let us give him some money, whatever his character may be, not because he is a man, but because we are men,

Then, turning to those of us who were with him, he said:

Musonius [*](p. 132, Hense.) ordered a thousand sesterces to be given to a fakir of this sort who posed as a philosopher, and when several told him that the fellow was a rascal and knave and deserving of nothing good, Musonius, they say, replied with a smile: a)/cios ou)=n e)sti\n a)rguri/ou, 'then he deserves money.' But,

it is rather this that causes me resentment and vexation, that foul and evil beasts of this sort usurp a most sacred name and call themselves philosophers. Now, my ancestors the Athenians by public decree made it unlawful for slaves ever to be given the names of those valiant youths Harmodius

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and Aristogeiton, who to restore liberty tried to slay the tyrant Hippias; [*](In 514 B.C. They slew Hipparchus, brother of Hippias and son of Pisistratus. Hippias was afterwards driven from the city and the tyrannicides, who had lost their lives in their attempt, received almost divine honours.) for they thought it impious for the names of men who had sacrificed themselves for their country's freedom to be disgraced by contact with slavery. Why then do we allow the glorious title of philosopher to be defiled in the person of the basest of men? Moreover,

I hear that the early Romans, setting a similar example in a case of the opposite nature, voted that the forenames of certain patricians who had deserved ill of their country and for that reason had been condemned to death should never be given to any patrician of the same clan, in order that their very names might seem to be dishonoured and done to death, as well as the malefactors themselves.

A letter of king Philip to the philosopher Aristotle with regard to the recent birth of his son Alexander.

PHILIP, son of Amyntas, was king of the land of Macedonia. Through his valour and energy the Macedonians had greatly increased and enriched their kingdom, and had begun to extend their power over many nations and peoples, so that Demosthenes, in those famous orations and addresses, [*](The Philippics.) insists that his power and arms are to be feared and dreaded by all Greece. This Philip, although almost constantly busied and distracted by the labours and triumphs of war, yet never was a stranger to the Muse of the liberal arts and the pursuit of culture, but his

Since this letter is an encouragement to care and attention in the education of children, I thought that it ought to be quoted in full, as an admonition to parents. It may be translated, then, about as follows:

Philip to Aristotle, Greeting.

Know that a son is born to me. For this indeed I thank the gods, not so much because he is born, as because it is his good fortune to be born during your lifetime. For I hope that as a result of your training and instruction he will prove worthy of us and of succeeding to our kingdom.

But Philip's own words are these:

Fi/lippos )Aristote/lei xai/rein.

)/Isqi moi gegono/ta ui(o/n. pollh\n ou)=n toi=s qeoi=s e)/xw xa/rin, ou)x ou(/tws e)pi\ th=| gene/sei tou= paido/s, w(s e)pi\ tw=| kata\ th\n sh\n h(liki/an au)to\n gegone/nai: e)lpi/zw ga/r au)to\n u(po\ sou= trafe/nta kai\ paideuqe/nta a)/cion e)/sesqai kai\ h(mw=n kai\ th=s tw=n pragma/twn diadoxh=s.

On some extraordinary marvels found among barbarian peoples; and on awful and deadly spells; and also on the sudden change of women into men.

WHEN I was returning from Greece to Italy and had come to Brundisium, after disembarking I was

propitious,

uninstructed,

Those books, then, contained matter of the following sort: that the most remote of the Scythians, who pass their life in the far north, eat human flesh and subsist on the nourishment of that food, and are called a)nqrwpofa/goi, or

cannibals.

In those same books I ran upon this statement too, which I later read also in the seventh book of the Natural History of Plinius Secundus, [*](vii. 16.) that in the land of Africa there are families of persons who work spells by voice and tongue; for if they should chance to have bestowed extravagant praise upon beautiful trees, plentiful crops, charming children, fine horses, flocks that are well fed and in good condition, suddenly, for no other cause than this, all these would die. That with the eyes too a deadly spell is cast, is written in those same books, and it is said that there are persons among the Illyrians who by their gaze kill those at whom they have looked for some time in anger; and that those persons themselves, both men and women, who possess this power of harmful gaze, have two pupils in each eye. Also that in the mountains of the land of India there are men who have the heads of dogs, and bark, and that they feed upon birds and wild animals which they have taken in the chase. That in the remotest lands of the east too there are

one-legged,

These and many other stories of the kind I read; but when writing them down, I was seized with disgust for such worthless writings, which contribute nothing to the enrichment or profit of life. Nevertheless, the fancy took me to add to this collection of marvels a thing which Plinius Secundus, a man of high authority in his day and generation by reason of his talent and his position, recorded in the seventh book of his Natural History, [*](vii. 36.) not as something that he had heard or read, but that he knew to be true and had himself seen. The words therefore which I have quoted below are his own, taken from that book, and they certainly make us hesitate to reject or ridicule that familiar yarn of the poets of old about Caenis and Caeneus. [*](Caenis was a girl whom her lover Poseidon changed into a man and who was then called Caeneus; see Ovid, Met. xii. 171 ff.; Virg. Aen. vi. 448.) He says that the change of women into men is not a fiction.

We find,

in the annals that in the consulship of Quintus Licinius Crassus and Gains Cassius Longinus [*](171 B.C.) a girl at Casinum was changed into a boy in the house of her parents and by direction of the diviners was deported to a desert island. Licinius Mucianus has stated

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that he saw at Argos one Arescontes, whose name had been Arescusa; that she had even been married, but presently grew a beard, became a man, and had taken a wife: and that at Smyrna also he had seen a boy who had experienced the same change. I myself in Africa saw Lucius Cossutius, a citizen of Thysdrus, who had been changed into a man on his wedding day and was still living when I wrote this.

Pliny also wrote this in the same book: [*](vii. 34.)

There are persons who from birth are bisexual, whom we call 'hermaphrodites'; they were formerly termed androgyni and regarded as prodigies, but now are instruments of pleasure.

Diverse views of eminent philosophers as to the nature and character of pleasure; and the words in which the philosopher Hierocles attacked the principles of Epicurus.

As to pleasure the philosophers of old expressed varying opinions. Epicurus makes pleasure the highest good, but defines it [*](Fr. 28, Usener.) as sarko\s eu)staqe\s kata/sthma, or

a well-balanced condition of body.

may I go mad rather than feel pleasure.

Pleasure an end, a harlot's creed; there is no Providence, not even a harlot's creed.

With what quantity the first syllable of the frequentative verb from ago should be pronounced.

FROM ago and egi are derived the verbs actito and actitavi, which the grammarians call

frequentatives.

That the leaves of the olive tree turn over at the summer and the winter solstice, and that the lyre at that same season produces sounds from other strings than those that are struck.

IT is commonly both written and believed that at the winter and the summer solstice the leaves of olive trees turn over, and that the side which had been underneath and hidden becomes uppermost and is exposed to sight and to the sun. And 1 myself was led to test this statement more than once, and found it to be almost exactly true.

But about the lyre there is an assertion that is less often made and is even more remarkable. And this both other learned men and also Suetonius Tranquillus, in the first book of his History of the Games, [*](The title as given in full by Suidas is On the Festivals and Games of the Romans, two books. See Fr. 181, Reiff.)

That it is inevitable that one who has much should need much, with a brief and graceful aphorism of the philosopher Favorinus on that subject.

THAT is certainly true which wise men have said as the result of observation and experience, that he who has much is in need of much, and that great want arises from great abundance and not from great lack; for many things are wanted to maintain the many things that you have. Whoever then, having much, desires to provide and take precaution that nothing may fail or be lacking, needs to lose, not gain, and must have less in order to want less.

I recall that Favorinus once, amid loud and general applause, rounded off this thought, putting it into the fewest possible words: [*](Fr. 81, Marres. We may compare Hor. Epist. i. 6. 40 ff.)

It is not possible for one who wants fifteen thousand cloaks not to want more things; [*](ad ea quae habet tuenda; see § 1.) for if I want more than I possess, by taking away from what I have I shall be contented with what remains.

What method should be followed in translating Greek expressions; and on those verses of Homer which Virgil is thought to have translated either well and happily or unsuccessfully.

WHENEVER striking expressions from the Greek poets are to be translated and imitated, they say that

For example, when very recently the Bucolics of Theocritus and Virgil were being read together at table, we perceived that Virgil had omitted something that in the Greek is, to be sure, wonderfully pleasing, but neither could nor ought to have been translated. But what he has substituted for that omission is almost more charming and graceful. Theocritus writes: [*](Idyls v. 88 f; the translation is that of Edmonds, L.C.L.)

1. But when her goatherd boy goes by you should see my Cleärist
2. Fling apples, and her pretty lips call pouting to be kissed.

1. My Phyllis me with pelted apples plies,
2. Then tripping to the woods the wanton hies,
3. And wishes to be seen before she flies.

1. O Tityrus, well-belovéd, feed my goats,
2. And lead them to the fount, good Tityrus;
3. But 'ware yon buck-goat yellow, lest he butt.

well-beloved

1. Till I return—not long—feed thou my goats;
2. Then, Tityrus, give them drink, but as you go,
3. Avoid the buck-goat's horn—the fellow butts'

And since I am speaking on the subject of translation, I recall hearing from pupils of Valerius Probus, a learned man and well trained in reading and estimating the ancient writings, that he used to say that Virgil had never translated Homer less successfully than in these delightful lines which Homer wrote about Nausicaa: [*](Odyss. vi. 102 ff., translation by Dryden.)

1. As when o'er Erymanth Diana roves,
2. Or wide Taÿgetus' resounding groves,
3. A silver train the huntress queen surrounds,
4. Her rattling quiver from her shoulder sounds;
5. Fierce in the sport, along the mountain's brow
6. They bay the boar or chase the bounding roe;
7. High o'er the lawn, with more majestic pace,
8. Above the nymphs she treads with stately grace;
9. Distinguished excellence the goddess proves,
10. Exults Latona as the virgin moves:
11. With equal grace Nausicaa trod the plain,
12. And shone transcendent o'er the beauteous train.

1. As on Eurotas' banks or Cynthus' heights
2. Diana guides her dancing bands, whose train
3. A thousand Oreads follow, right and left;
4. A quiver bears she on her shoulder fair,
5. And as she treads, the goddesses o'ertops;
6. Joys thrill Latona's silent breast.

pressing on the work of her rising kingdom,

Leto rejoiced in heart,

1. And shone transcendent o'er the beauteous train. [*](Literally, "And is readily recognized, though all are fair.")

The low and odious criticism with which Annaeus Cornutus befouled the lines of Virgil in which the poet with chaste reserve spoke of the intercourse of Venus and Vulcan.

THE poet Annianus, [*](A name of Celtic origin, according to Schulze, Eigenn. 426.) and with him many other devotees of the same Muse, extolled with high and constant praise the verses of Virgil in which, while depicting and describing the conjugal union of Vulcan and Venus, an act that nature's law bids us conceal, he veiled it with a modest paraphrase. For thus he wrote: [*](Aen. viii. 404 ff.)

1. So speaking, the desired embrace he gave,
2. And sinking on the bosom of his spouse,
3. Calm slumber then he wooed in every limb.

maiden girdle

the right of the couch

love's labours

But Annaeus Cornutus, a man in many other respects, to be sure, lacking neither in learning nor taste, nevertheless, in the second book of the work which he compiled On Figurative Language, defamed the high praise of all that modesty by an utterly silly and odious criticism. For after expressing approval of that kind of figurative language, and observing that the lines were composed with due circumspection, he added:

Virgil nevertheless was somewhat indiscreet in using the word membra.

Of Valerius Corvinus and the origin of his surname,

THERE is not one of the well-known historians who has varied in telling the story of Valerius Maximus, who was called Corvinus because of the help and defence rendered him by a raven. That truly remarkable event is in fact thus related in the annals: [*](e.q. Claud. Quad. Fr. 12, Peter2.) In the consulship of Lucius Furius and Appius Claudius, [*](349 B.C.) a young man of such a family [*](That is, as had been described in what preceded.) was appointed tribune of the soldiers. And at that time vast forces of Gauls had encamped in the Pomptine district, and the Roman army was being drawn up in order of battle by the consuls, who were not a little disquieted by the strength and number of the enemy. Meanwhile the leader of the Gauls, a man of enormous size and stature, his armour gleaming with gold, advanced with long strides and flourishing his spear, at the same time casting haughty and contemptuous glances

To that Corvinus the deified Augustus caused a statue to be erected in his Forum. [*](In the colonnades of his Forum Augustus placed statues of the leaders who had raised the estate of the Roman people from obscurity to greatness: see Suetonius, Aug. xxxi. 5.) On the head of this statue is the figure of a raven, a reminder of the event and of the combat which I have described.

On words which are used with two opposite meanings, both active and passive.

As the adjective formidulosus may be used both of one who fears and of one who is feared, invidiosus of

But the meaning which I gave first surely needs no illustration, so many are there who use infestus in the sense of hostile and adverse; but that second meaning is less familiar and more obscure. For who of the common run would readily call a man infestus to whom another is hostile? However, not only did many of the earlier writers speak in that way, but Marcus Tullius also gave the word that meaning in the speech which he wrote In Defence of Gnaeus Plancius, saying: [*](§ 1.)

I were grieved, gentlemen of the jury, and keenly distressed, if this man's safety should be more endangered (infestior) for the very reason that he had protected my life and safety by his own kindliness, protection and watchfulness.

Infestus is derived from festinare,

for one who threatens anyone, and is in haste to attack him, and hurries eagerly to crush him; or on the other hand one whose peril and ruin are being hastened— both of these are called infestus from the urgent imminence of the injury which one is either about to inflict on someone, or to suffer.

Now, that no one may have to search for an example of suspiciosus, which I mentioned above, and of formidulosus in its less usual sense, Marcus Cato, On the properly of Florius, used suspiciosus as follows: [*](lvii. 1, Jordan.)

But except in the case of one who practised public prostitution, or had hired himself out to a procurer, even though he had been ill-famed and suspected suspiciousus, they decided that it was unlawful to use force against the person of a freeman.

suspected,

suspecting.

To such men consequently no labour was unfamiliar, no region too rough or too steep, no armed foeman to be dreaded (formidulosus).

Gaius Calvus also in his poems uses laboriosus, not in the ordinary sense of

one who toils,

1. The hard and toilsome (laboriosum) country he will
2. shun.

1. By Castor! sleepy (somniculosum) wine!

1. As Punic Psyllus doth [*](Some such word as handle is to be supplied.) the sleepy (somniculosam) asp. [*](The Psylli, according to Pliny, Nat. Hist. vii. 14, were an African people whose bodies contained a poison deadly to serpents, and gave out an odour which put snakes to flight; see also Nat. Hist. viii. 93; Dio Cassius, li. 14. Psyllus came to be a general term for snake-charmers and healers of snakebites, as in Suetonius, Aug. xvii. 4.)

Metus also and iniuria, and some other words of the kind. may be used in this double sense; for metus hostium,

fear of the enemy,

the fear of Pompey,

That war was aroused by the fear of the victorious Pompey, who was restoring Hiempsal to his kingdom.

After the fear of the Carthaginians had been dispelled and there was leisure to engage in dissensions.

injuries,

The following passage from Virgil affords a similar instance of this kind of double meaning; he says: [*](Aen. ii. 436.)

1. Slow from Ulysses' wound,

1. In unknown (nesciis) realms are we where hope
2. knows naught (nescia). [*](That is, not knowing what to expect )

With the natural desire of mankind to visit unknown (ignara) places.

1. Unknown (ignarum) the Laurentine shore doth Mimas hold.

A passage from the history of Claudius Quadrigarius, in which he pictured the combat of Manlius Torquatus, a young noble, with a hostile Gaul, who challenged the whole Roman army.

TITUS MANLIUS was a man of the highest birth and of exalted rank. This Manlius was given the surname Torquatus. The reason for the surname, we are told, was that he wore as a decoration a golden neck-chain, a trophy taken from an enemy whom he had slain. But who the enemy was, and what his nationality, how formidable his huge size, how insolent his challenge, and how the battle was fought all this Quintus Claudius has described in the first book of his Annals with words of the utmost purity and clearness, and with the simple and unaffected charm of the old-time style. When the philosopher Favorinus read this passage from that work, he used to say that his mind was stirred and affected by no less emotion and excitement than if he were himself an eye-witness of their contest.

I have added the words of Quintus Claudius in which that battle is pictured:

In the meantime a Gaul came forward, who was naked except for a shield and two swords and the ornament of a neck-chain and bracelets; in strength and size, in youthful vigour and in courage as well, he excelled all the rest. In the very height of the battle, when the two armies were fighting with the utmost ardour, he began to make signs with his hand to both sides, to cease fighting. The combat ceased. As soon as silence was secured, he called out in a mighty voice that if anyone wished to engage him in single combat,

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he should come forward. This no one dared do, because of his great size and savage aspect. Then the Gaul began to laugh at them and to stick out his tongue. This at once roused the great indignation of one Titus Manlius, a youth of the highest birth, that such an insult should be offered his country, and that no one from so great an army should accept the challenge. He, as I say, stepped forth, and would not suffer Roman valour to be shamefully tarnished by a Gaul. Armed with a foot-soldier's shield and a Spanish sword, he confronted the Gaul. Their meeting took place on the very bridge, in the presence of both armies, amid great apprehension. Thus they confronted each other, as I said before: the Gaul, according to his method of fighting, with shield advanced and awaiting an attack; Manlius, relying on courage rather than skill, struck shield against shield, and threw the Gaul off his balance. While the Gaul was trying to regain the same position, Manlius again struck shield against shield, and again forced the man to change his ground. In this fashion he slipped in under the Gaul's sword and stabbed him in the breast with his Spanish blade. Then at once with the same mode of attack he struck his adversary's right shoulder, and he did not give ground at all until he overthrew him, without giving the Gaul a chance to strike a blow. After he had overthrown him, he cut off his head, tore off his neck-chain, and put it, covered with blood as it was, around his own neck. Because of this act, he himself and his descendants had the surname Torquatus.

From this Titus Manlius, whose battle Quadrigarius described above, all harsh and cruel commands are

Manlian;

That Quadrigarius also, with correct Latinity, used facies as a genitive; and some other observations on the inflection of similar words.

THE expression that I quoted above from Quintus Claudius, [*](2 ix. 13. 11)

On account of his great size and savage aspect (facies),

I remember too having found both facies and facii written in the same manuscript of Claudius [*](Frag. 30, Peter2.) in the library at Tibur. But facies was written in the text and facii, with double i, in the margin opposite; nor did I regard that as inconsistent with a certain early usage; for from the nominative dies they used both dies and dii as the genitive, and from fames, both famis and fami.

Quintus Ennius, in the sixteenth book of his Annals, wrote dies for diei in the following verse: [*](Ann. 413, Vahlen 2; Vahlen reads postremo and omits quod.)

1. Caused by the distant time of the last day (dies).

But the knights shall pay the penalty for that day (dies).

1. When Libra [*](The constellation of the Balance.) shall make like the hours of day (dies) and sleep,

But just as in this place Virgil evidently wrote dies, so there is no doubt that he wrote dii for diei in the following line: [*](Aen. i. 636.)

1. As gifts for that day's (dii) merriment,

The women and children were driven out because of the famine (fami causa).

1. Wrinkled and full of hunger (fami).

That the Romans came for the purpose of dealing destruction (pernicii).

1. O sire supreme of our own race's (progenii) sire.

1. The army's (acii) other part the river's wave had shunned.

1. Or bides in death some semblance of a form (specii)
2. Of those who speak no more.

They say that those measures were taken because of luxury (luxurii casaa)

What is necessarily provided to sustain life is not luxury (luxuries),

We think that none of these things was produced by divine will for the purpose of dealing destruction (pernicii), but by the very force and greatness of Nature.

But in the dative case those who spoke the best Latin did not use the form faciei, which is now current, but facie. For example, Lucilius in his Satires: [*](1257, Marx, who fills out the second line with naturae dotibus aetas; tantis,w.)

1. Which first is joined to a fair face
2. And youth.

1. Who loves you, and who to your youth and charms (facie),
2. Plays courtier, promising to be your friend.

I have also found die in the genitive case in a manuscript of Sallust's Jugurtha of the utmost trustworthiness and of venerable age. These were the words: [*](Jug. xcvii. 3)

when scarcely a tenth part of the day (die) was left.

On the kind of debate which the Greeks call a)/poros.

WITH the rhetorician Antonius Julianus I had withdrawn to Naples during the season of the summer holidays, wishing to escape the heat of Rome. And there was there at the time a young man of the richer class studying with tutors in both languages, and trying to gain a command of Latin eloquence in order to plead at the bar in Rome; and he begged Julianus to hear one of his declamations. Julianus went to hear him and I went along with him. The young fellow entered the room, made some preliminary remarks in a more arrogant and presumptuous style than became his years, and then asked that subjects for debate be given him.

There was present there with us a pupil of Julianus, a man of ready speech and good ability, who was already offended that in the hearing of a man like Julianus the fellow should show such rashness and should dare to test himself in extempore speaking. Therefore, to try him, he proposed a topic for debate that was not logically constructed, of the kind which the Greeks call a)/poros, and in Latin might with some propriety be termed inexplicabile, that is,

unsolvable.

Seven judges are to hear the case of a defendant, and judgment is to be passed in accordance with the decision of a majority of their number. When the seven judges had heard the case, two decided that the defendant ought to be punished with exile; two, that he ought to be fined; the remaining three, that he should be put to death. The execution of the accused is demanded according to the decision of the three judges, but he appeals.

As soon as the young man had heard this, without any reflection and without waiting for other subjects to be proposed, he began at once with incredible speed to reel off all sorts of principles and apply then to that same question, pouring out floods of confused and meaningless words and a torrent of verbiage. All the other members of his company, who were in the habit of listening to him, showed their delight by loud applause, but Julianus blushed and sweat from shame and embarrassment. But when after many thousand lines of drivel the fellow at last came to an end and we went out, his friends and comrades followed Julianus and asked him for his opinion. Whereupon Julianus very wittily replied

Don't ask me what I think; without controversy [*](Sine controversia is of course used in a double sense: without question, and without an opponent (i.e., when there is no one to argue against him).) this young man is eloquent.

How Plinius Secundus, although not without learning, failed to observe and detect the fallacy in an argument of the kind that the Greeks call a)ntistre/fon.

PLINIUS SECUNDUS was considered the most learned man of his time. He left a work, entitled For Students of Oratory, which is by no manner of means to be lightly regarded. In that work he introduces much varied material that will delight the ears of the learned. He also quotes a number of arguments that he regards as cleverly and skilfully urged in the course of debates. For instance, he cites this argument from such a debate:

'A brave man shall be given the reward which he desires. A man who had done a brave deed asked for the wife of another in marriage, and received her. Then the man whose wife she had been did a brave deed. He demands the return of his wife, but is refused.' On the part of the second brave man, who demanded the return of his wife,

this elegant and plausible argument was presented: ' If the law is valid, return her to me; if it is not valid, return her.'

a convertible proposition.

If the law is valid, I do not return her; if it is not valid, I do not return her.