[7] Nor does he escape who is found to have accused one of his fellows unfairly.

And there is one charge the judges do not hesitate to deal with, a charge which is the source of much hatred among grown men, but which they seldom press in the courts, the charge of ingratitude.

The culprit convicted of refusing to repay a debt of kindness when it was fully in his power meets with severe chastisement.

They reason that the ungrateful man is the most likely to forget his duty to the gods, to his parents, to his fatherland, and his friends.

Shamelessness, they hold, treads close on the heels of ingratitude, and thus ingratitude is the ringleader and chief instigator to every kind of baseness.