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| A representation of Lady Justice |
Fiat justitia ruat caelum is a Latin legal phrase meaning "let justice be done though the heavens fall". The maxim signifies the belief that justice must be realized regardless of the consequences. In De Ira (On Anger), Book I, Chapter XVIII, Seneca tells of Gnaeus Piso, a Roman governor and lawmaker.
Piso ordered the execution of a soldier who had returned from a leave of absence without his comrade, on the ground that if the man did not produce his companion, he had presumably killed the latter. As the condemned soldier was presenting his neck to the executioner's sword, there suddenly appeared the very comrade who was supposedly murdered!
The centurion overseeing the execution halted the proceedings and led the condemned soldier back to Piso, expecting a reprieve. But Piso mounted the tribunal in a rage, and ordered the three soldiers to be executed. He ordered the death of the soldier who was to have been executed, because the sentence had already been passed. He then ordered the death of the centurion who was in charge of the original execution, for failing to perform his duty. And finally, he ordered the death of the soldier who had been supposed to have been murdered, because he had caused the deaths of two innocent men.
In subsequent versions of this legend, this principle became known as "Piso’s justice", a term that characterizes sentences that are technically correct, but morally wrong. Although the phrase does not appear in De Ira, it is still linked to the legend.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_justitia_ruat_caelum#Seneca:_.22Piso.27s_justice.22
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Fiat justitia ruat caelum ("Let justice be done though the heavens fall")
The Roman governor Piso
promoted justice at any cost.
While his intention was
noble, his actions were not.
A soldier was thought
to have murdered a friend;
for a crime he didn’t
commit, the soldier was condemned.
But the friend turned
up; he had merely been lost!
“I will get a
reprieve”, was what the soldier thought.
“Justice be done!”
did Piso contend,
so he sentenced the
soldier, the executioner, and the friend.
'There is no justice
in mercy' is what we have been taught,
'An eye for an eye', and a penny for that thought!
But mercy is always
justified in the end,
because Christ came from
heaven and died for all men.
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You're off to a fine start with this blog. The layout is engaging and the posts are clearly expressed and thought provoking. The story of Piso is ironic and funny. His justice is not real; it becomes contorted by his anger and, maybe also, his pride and desire for power. Justice becomes a pretext for violence, which is then presented under the thin veneer of legal technicalities that are disconnected from real justice to the point of being humorous to the reader (above all no. three). What I see here is a lesson that deploys exaggeration and irony (playing off the meanings of guilt and innocence), a lesson teaching us that pure justice is something that human judges cannot attain, and that leads to tyranny and even madness. Just some of my thoughts. KEEP WRITING!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your encouragement and thoughts. I would love an informative critique of my work!
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