110. What regard
for virtue our forefathers had to avenge by a war the wrongs of one
woman which had been brought on her by her violation at the hands of
profligate men! Nay, when the people were conquered, they vowed
that they would not give their daughters in marriage to the tribe of
Benjamin! That tribe had remained without hope of posterity, had
they not received leave of necessity to use deceit. And this
permission does not seem to fail in giving fitting punishment for
violation, since they were only allowed to enter on a union by a rape,
and not through the sacrament of marriage. And indeed it was
right that they who had broken another’s intercourse should
themselves lose their marriage rites.