Injustice strikes the unjust. A two-membered maxim, each clause turned inward: TERMthe one who errs (ὁ ἁμαρτάνων) errs "against himself" (ἑαυτῷ); the unjust is unjust "to himself." The proof is in the closing participle: ἑαυτὸν TERMκακὸν ποιῶν — "making himself bad." The real damage of a wrong is borne not by the victim (only "indifferents" — his body, his goods — are touched) but by the doer: he spoils the one thing truly his own — the ruling part — turning himself into a κακός.

The reverse of invulnerability. This is the paired theorem to DOGMA"the virtuous cannot be harmed": if the external cannot make me bad without my assent, then what harms a person is only what makes him worse — and that is his own vice alone. Hence neither envy of the "successful" scoundrel nor anger at a wrongdoer: he is already punished by having become unjust (cf. 8.55 — κακία harms only its bearer; 4.26; and 02-01 — the wrongdoer errs through ignorance of good and evil, and so deserves pity, not spite). The governing discipline is action (justice), the sustaining one assent (to place rightly where harm lives).