XV How a Land Steward Plucked Out His Own Eye and That of His Son to the End That Justice Might Be Observed
Valerius Maximus in his sixth book narrates that Calognus1 being steward of some land, ordered that whoever should commit a certain crime, should lose his eyes.
When a little time had passed, his own son fell into this very crime. All the people cried out for pity, and he remembering that mercy is a good and useful thing, and reflecting that no injury must be done to justice, and the love of his fellow citizens urging him, he provided that both justice and mercy should be observed.
He gave judgment and sentence that one eye be taken from his son, and one from himself.2
Notes
1 Other readings have Seleucus.
2 Appears also in Cicero, De Legg. II, 6.