Zaleucus

, a lawgiver of the Locrians in Italy, and one of the disciples of Pythagoras, 550 B.C. He was very humane, and at the same time very austere, and he attempted to enforce his laws more by inspiring shame than dread. He had wisely decreed that a person guilty of adultery should lose both his eyes. His philosophy was called to a trial when he was informed that his son was an adulterer. He ordered the law to be executed; the people interfered, but Zaleucus resisted, and rather than violate his own institutions, he commanded one of his own eyes, and one of those of his son, to be put out. This made such an impre ion upon the people, that while Zaleucus presided over the Locrians, no person was again found guilty of adultery. Valerius Maximus , bk. 1 , ch. 2 ; bk. 6 , ch. 5 .— Cicero , de Legibus , bk. 2 , ch. 6 ; Letters to Atticus , bk. 6 , ltr. 1 .— Ælian , Varia Hist or i a , bk. 2 , ch. 37 ; bk. 3 , ch. 17 ; bk. 13 , ch. 24 .— Strabo , bk. 6 .