Laws
belong to any other citizen, the public shall pay a price on his behalf
to the owner; and let the magistrates take heed that no one wrongs him
out of revenge, because he has given information.
Cases in which one man injures another by poisons, and which prove
fatal, have been already discussed; but about other cases in which a
person intentionally and of malice harms another with meats, or drinks,
or ointments, nothing has as yet been determined. For there are two
kinds of poisons used among men, which cannot clearly be distinguished.
There is the kind just now explicitly mentioned, which injures bodies
by the use of other bodies according to a natural law; there is also
another kind which persuades the more daring class that they can do
injury by sorceries, and incantations, and magic knots, as they are
termed, and makes others believe that they above all persons are injured
by the powers of the magician. Now it is not easy to know the nature of
all these things; nor if a man do know can he readily persuade others to
believe him. And when men are disturbed in their minds at the sight of
waxen images fixed either at their doors, or in a place where three
ways meet, or on the sepulchres of parents, there is no use in trying to
persuade them that they should despise all such things because they have
no certain knowledge about them. But we must have a law in two parts,
concerning poisoning, in whichever of the two ways the attempt is made,
and we must entreat, and exhort, and advise men not to have recourse to
such practises, by which they scare the multitude out of their wits, as
if they were children, compelling the legislator and the judge to heal
the fears which the sorcerer arouses, and to tell them in the first
place, that he who attempts to poison or enchant others knows not what
he is doing, either as regards the body (unless he has a knowledge of
medicine), or as regards his enchantments (unless he happens to be a
prophet or diviner). Let the law, then, run as follows about poisoning
or witchcraft: He who employs poison to do any injury, not fatal, to a
man himself, or to his servants, or any injury, whether fatal or not,
to his cattle or his bees, if he be a physician, and be convicted of
poisoning, shall be punished with death; or if he be a private person,
the court shall determine what he is to pay or suffer. But he who
seems to be the sort of man who injures others by magic knots, or
enchantments, or incantations, or any of the like practices, if he be
a prophet or diviner, let him die; and if, not being a prophet, he be
convicted of witchcraft, as in the previous case, let the court fix what
he ought to pay or suffer.
When a man does another any injury by theft or violence, for the greater
injury let him pay greater damages to the injured man, and less for the
smaller injury; but in all cases, whatever the injury may have been, as
much as will compensate the loss. And besides the compensation of the
wrong, let a man pay a further penalty for the chastisement of his
offence: he who has done the wrong instigated by the folly of another,
through the lightheartedness of youth or the like, shall pay a lighter
penalty; but he who has injured another through his own folly, when
overcome by pleasure or pain, in cowardly fear, or lust, or envy, or
implacable anger, shall endure a heavier punishment. Not that he is
punished because he did wrong, for that which is done can never be
undone, but in order that in future times, he, and those who see him
corrected, may utterly hate injustice, or at any rate abate much of
their evil-doing. Having an eye to all these things, the law, like a
good archer, should aim at the right measure of punishment, and in all
cases at the deserved punishment. In the attainment of this the judge
shall be a fellow-worker with the legislator, whenever the law leaves
to him to determine what the offender shall suffer or pay; and the
legislator, like a painter, shall give a rough sketch of the cases in
which the law is to be applied. This is what we must do, Megillus and
Cleinias, in the best and fairest manner that we can, saying what the
punishments are to be of all actions of theft and violence, and giving
laws of such a kind as the Gods and sons of Gods would have us give.
If a man is mad he shall not be at large in the city, but his relations
shall keep him at home in any way which they can; or if not, let them
pay a penalty--he who is of the highest class shall pay a penalty of one
hundred drachmas, whether he be a slave or a freeman whom he neglects;
and he of the second class shall pay four-fifths of a mina; and he of
the third class three-fifths; and he of the fourth class two-fifths. Now
there are many sorts of madness, some arising out of disease, which we
have already mentioned; and there are other kinds, which originate in an
evil and passionate temperament, and are increased by bad education;
out of a slight quarrel this class of madmen will often raise a storm of
abuse against one another, and nothing of that sort ought to be allowed
to occur in a well-ordered state. Let this, then, be the law about
abuse, which shall relate to all cases: No one shall speak evil of
another; and when a man disputes with another he shall teach and
learn of the disputant and the company, but he shall abstain from
evil-speaking; for out of the imprecations which men utter against one
another, and the feminine habit of casting aspersions on one another,
and using foul names, out of words light as air, in very deed the
greatest enmities and hatreds spring up. For the speaker gratifies his
anger, which is an ungracious element of his nature; and nursing up his
wrath by the entertainment of evil thoughts, and exacerbating that part
of his soul which was formerly civilised by education, he lives in a
state of savageness and moroseness, and pays a bitter penalty for
his anger. And in such cases almost all men take to saying something
ridiculous about their opponent, and there is no man who is in the
habit of laughing at another who does not miss virtue and earnestness
altogether, or lose the better half of greatness. Wherefore let no one
utter any taunting word at a temple, or at the public sacrifices, or at
the games, or in the agora, or in a court of justice, or in any public
assembly. And let the magistrate who presides on these occasions
chastise an offender, and he shall be blameless; but if he fails in
doing so, he shall not claim the prize of virtue; for he is one who
heeds not the laws, and does not do what the legislator commands. And if
in any other place any one indulges in these sort of revilings, whether
he has begun the quarrel or is only retaliating, let any elder who is
present support the law, and control with blows those who indulge in
passion, which is another great evil; and if he do not, let him be
liable to pay the appointed penalty. And we say now, that he who deals
in reproaches against others cannot reproach them without attempting to
ridicule them; and this, when done in a moment of anger, is what we make
matter of reproach against him. But then, do we admit into our state
the comic writers who are so fond of making mankind ridiculous, if they
attempt in a good-natured manner to turn the laugh against our citizens?
or do we draw the distinction of jest and earnest, and allow a man
to make use of ridicule in jest and without anger about any thing or
person; though as we were saying, not if he be angry and have a set
purpose? We forbid earnest--that is unalterably fixed; but we have still
to say who are to be sanctioned or not to be sanctioned by the law in
the employment of innocent humour. A comic poet, or maker of iambic or
satirical lyric verse, shall not be permitted to ridicule any of the
citizens, either by word or likeness, either in anger or without anger.
And if any one is disobedient, the judges shall either at once expel him
from the country, or he shall pay a fine of three minae, which shall be
dedicated to the God who presides over the contests. Those only who have
received permission shall be allowed to write verses at one another, but
they shall be without anger and in jest; in anger and in serious earnest
they shall not be allowed. The decision of this matter shall be left to
the superintendent of the general education of the young, and whatever
he may license, the writer shall be allowed to produce, and whatever he
rejects let not the poet himself exhibit, or ever teach anybody else,
slave or freeman, under the penalty of being dishonoured, and held
disobedient to the laws.
Now he is not to be pitied who is hungry, or who suffers any bodily
pain, but he who is temperate, or has some other virtue, or part of a
virtue, and at the same time suffers from misfortune; it would be an
extraordinary thing if such an one, whether slave or freeman, were
utterly forsaken and fell into the extremes of poverty in any tolerably
well-ordered city or government. Wherefore the legislator may safely
make a law applicable to such cases in the following terms: Let there
be no beggars in our state; and if anybody begs, seeking to pick up a
livelihood by unavailing prayers, let the wardens of the agora turn him
out of the agora, and the wardens of the city out of the city, and
the wardens of the country send him out of any other parts of the land
across the border, in order that the land may be cleared of this sort of
animal.
If a slave of either sex injure anything, which is not his or her own,
through inexperience, or some improper practice, and the person who
suffers damage be not himself in part to blame, the master of the slave
who has done the harm shall either make full satisfaction, or give up
the slave who has done the injury. But if the master argue that the
charge has arisen by collusion between the injured party and the
injurer, with the view of obtaining the slave, let him sue the person,
who says that he has been injured, for malpractices. And if he gain a
conviction, let him receive double the value which the court fixes as
the price of the slave; and if he lose his suit, let him make amends for
the injury, and give up the slave. And if a beast of burden, or horse,
or dog, or any other animal, injure the property of a neighbour, the
owner shall in like manner pay for the injury.
If any man refuses to be a witness, he who wants him shall summon him,
and he who is summoned shall come to the trial; and if he knows and is
willing to bear witness, let him bear witness, but if he says he does
not know let him swear by the three divinities Zeus, and Apollo, and
Themis, that he does not, and have no more to do with the cause. And
he who is summoned to give witness and does not answer to his summoner,
shall be liable for the harm which ensues according to law. And if a
person calls up as a witness any one who is acting as a judge, let him
give his witness, but he shall not afterwards vote in the cause. A free
woman may give her witness and plead, if she be more than forty years of
age, and may bring an action if she have no husband; but if her husband
be alive she shall only be allowed to bear witness. A slave of either
sex and a child shall be allowed to give evidence and to plead, but only
in cases of murder; and they must produce sufficient sureties that they
will certainly remain until the trial, in case they should be charged
with false witness. And either of the parties in a cause may bring an
accusation of perjury against witnesses, touching their evidence in
whole or in part, if he asserts that such evidence has been given; but
the accusation must be brought previous to the final decision of the
cause. The magistrates shall preserve the accusations of false witness,
and have them kept under the seal of both parties, and produce them on