Most true; the law shall bruise him.
Absolutely right; the law will punish him.
Second Senator · Act 3, Scene 5
A Senator agrees with another that the law will punish a friend of Alcibiades who committed a crime, and nothing will stop that justice. The words carry weight because they assert the absolute power of law over friendship and mercy. They reveal that the Senators believe the law is a force that moves independently, crushing whoever stands in its way, and they take comfort in that certainty.
We are for law: he dies; urge it no more, On height of our displeasure: friend or brother, He forfeits his own blood that spills another.
We follow the law: he dies; don’t press it further, At the height of our anger: friend or brother, He loses his own life who takes another’s.
Second Senator · Act 3, Scene 5
The First Senator declares that Athens stands for law above all else, and therefore the condemned man must die, and he forbids Alcibiades to press the matter further. The declaration is significant because it treats law as something beyond choice or mercy—a thing that moves on its own and drags everyone along. It tells us that in Athens, the machinery of state is more important than the lives of individual men, and once it begins to move, nothing can stop it.
These walls of ours Were not erected by their hands from whom You have received your griefs; nor are they such That these great towers, trophies and schools should fall For private faults in them.
These walls of ours Were not built by the hands of those Who caused your troubles; nor are they the kind That these great towers, trophies, and schools Should fall For private wrongs committed within them.
Second Senator · Act 5, Scene 4
A Senator argues to Alcibiades that the walls of Athens were built by the whole city, not just by those who wronged him, and therefore he should not destroy them in revenge. The argument matters because it tries to separate the individual from the collective—to say that punishment should not fall on the innocent because of the guilty. It reveals that even as the city falls, the Senators cling to the language of justice and proportion, trying to limit the damage of their own creation.
