be pardoned for it.
And the parts of this division of the case are two: purgation and
deprecation. Purgation is that by which (not the action, but) the
intention of the person who is accused, is defended. That has three
subdivisions,--ignorance, accident, necessity.

Ignorance is when the person who is accused declares that he did not
know something or other. As, "There was a law in a certain nation
that no one should sacrifice a calf to Diana. Some sailors, when in a
terrible tempest they were being tossed about in the open sea, made a
vow that if they reached the harbour which they were in sight of, they
would sacrifice a calf to the god who presided over that place. Being
ignorant of the law, when they landed, they sacrificed a calf." They
are prosecuted. The accusation is, "You sacrificed a calf to a god to
whom it was unlawful to sacrifice a calf." The denial consists in the
admission which has been already stated. The reason is, "I was not
aware that it was unlawful." The argument brought to invalidate that
reason is, "Nevertheless, since you have done what was not lawful, you
are according to the law deserving of punishment." The question for
the decision of the judge is, "Whether, as he did what he ought not to
have done, and was not aware that he ought not to have done so, he is
worthy of punishment or not."

But accident is introduced into the admission when it is proved that
some power of fortune interfered with his intention; as in this
case:--"There was a law among the Lacedaemonians, that if the
contractor failed to supply victims for a certain sacrifice, he should
be accounted guilty of a capital offence; and accordingly, the man who
had contracted to supply them, when the day of the sacrifice was at
hand, began to drive in cattle from the country into the city. It
happened on a sudden that the river Eurotus, which flows by Lacedaemon,
was raised by some violent storms, and became so great and furious
that the victims could not by any possibility be conveyed across. The
contractor, for the sake of showing his own willingness, placed all
the victims on the bank of the river, in order that every one on
the other side of the river might be able to see them. But though,
everyone was aware that it was the unexpected rise of the river
which hindered him from giving effect to his zeal, still some people
prosecuted him on the capital charge." The charge was, "The victims
which you were bound to furnish for the