על החוקים לפרטיהם, ספר ג ל״גOn the Special Laws, Book III 33
א׳
1[181] The legislators deserve censure who prescribe for malefactors punishments which do not resemble the crime, such as monetary fines for assaults, disfranchisement for wounding or maiming another, expulsion from the country and perpetual banishment for wilful murder or imprisonment for theft. For inequality and unevenness is repugnant to the commonwealth which pursues truth.
ב׳
2[182] Our law exhorts us to equality when it ordains that the penalties inflicted on offenders should correspond to their actions, that their property should suffer if the wrongdoing affected their neighbour’s property, and their bodies if the offence was a bodily injury, the penalty being determined according to the limb, part or sense affected, while if his malice extended to taking another’s life his own life should be the forfeit. For to tolerate a system in which the crime and the punishment do not correspond, have no common ground and belong to different categories, is to subvert rather than uphold legality.
ג׳
3[183] In saying this I assume that the other conditions are the same, for to strike a stranger is not the same as to strike a father nor the abuse of a ruler the same as abuse of an ordinary citizen. Unlawful actions differ according as they are committed in a profane or sacred place, or at festivals and solemn assemblies and public sacrifices as contrasted with days which have no holiday associations or are even quite inauspicious. And all other similar facts must be carefully considered with a view to making the punishment greater or less.
ד׳
4[184] Again he says that if anyone knocks out the eye of a manservant or maidservant he must set him or her at liberty. Why is this? Just as nature conferred the sovereignty of the body on the head when she granted it also possession of the citadel as the most suitable position for its kingly rank, conducted it thither to take command and established it on high with the whole framework from neck to foot set below it, like the pedestal under the statue, so too she has given the lordship of the senses to the eyes. Thus to them too as rulers she has assigned a dwelling right above the others in her wish to give them amongst other privileges the most conspicuous and distinguished situation.