Atreus; Ribbeck2, 227-228
Fregistín[359] fidem?
Néque dedi neque do ínfideli cuíquam
quamquam ab impio rege dicitur, luculente tamen dicitur.
103 Addunt etiam, quem ad modum nos dicamus videri quaedam utilia, quae non sint, sic se dicere videri quaedam honesta, quae non sint, "ut hoc ipsum videtur honestum, conservandi iuris iurandi causa ad cruciatum revertisse; sed fit non honestum, quia, quod per vim hostium esset actum, ratum esse non debuit."
Addunt etiam, quicquid valde utile sit, id fieri honestum, etiamsi antea non videretur.
Haec fere contra Regulum. Sed prima quaeque[360] videamus.
Expediency inseparable from moral rectitude.
XXVIII. People overturn the fundamental principles established by nature, when they divorce expediency from moral rectitude. For we all seek to obtain what is to us expedient; we are irresistibly drawn toward it, and we cannot possibly be otherwise. For who is there that would turn his back upon what is to him expedient? Or rather, who is there that does not exert himself to the utmost to secure it? But because we cannot discover it anywhere except in good report, propriety, and moral rectitude, we look upon these three for that reason as the first and the highest objects of endeavour, while what we term expediency we account not so much an ornament to our dignity as a necessary incident to living.
Arguments against Regulus's fidelity to his oath:
(1) he had no need to fear God's wrath,