Laws
another, he shall enter naked, or wearing only a short tunic and without
a girdle, having first taken an oath by the customary Gods that he
expects to find it there; he shall then make his search, and the other
shall throw open his house and allow him to search things both sealed
and unsealed. And if a person will not allow the searcher to make his
search, he who is prevented shall go to law with him, estimating the
value of the goods after which he is searching, and if the other be
convicted he shall pay twice the value of the article. If the master
be absent from home, the dwellers in the house shall let him search the
unsealed property, and on the sealed property the searcher shall set
another seal, and shall appoint any one whom he likes to guard them
during five days; and if the master of the house be absent during a
longer time, he shall take with him the wardens of the city, and so make
his search, opening the sealed property as well as the unsealed, and
then, together with the members of the family and the wardens of the
city, he shall seal them up again as they were before. There shall be
a limit of time in the case of disputed things, and he who has had
possession of them during a certain time shall no longer be liable to be
disturbed. As to houses and lands there can be no dispute in this state
of ours; but if a man has any other possessions which he has used and
openly shown in the city and in the agora and in the temples, and no one
has put in a claim to them, and some one says that he was looking for
them during this time, and the possessor is proved to have made no
concealment, if they have continued for a year, the one having the goods
and the other looking for them, the claim of the seeker shall not be
allowed after the expiration of the year; or if he does not use or show
the lost property in the market or in the city, but only in the country,
and no one offers himself as the owner during five years, at the
expiration of the five years the claim shall be barred for ever after;
or if he uses them in the city but within the house, then the appointed
time of claiming the goods shall be three years, or ten years if he
has them in the country in private. And if he has them in another land,
there shall be no limit of time or prescription, but whenever the owner
finds them he may claim them.
If any one prevents another by force from being present at a trial,
whether a principal party or his witnesses; if the person prevented be
a slave, whether his own or belonging to another, the suit shall be
incomplete and invalid; but if he who is prevented be a freeman, besides
the suit being incomplete, the other who has prevented him shall be
imprisoned for a year, and shall be prosecuted for kidnapping by any
one who pleases. And if any one hinders by force a rival competitor in
gymnastic or music, or any other sort of contest, from being present
at the contest, let him who has a mind inform the presiding judges, and
they shall liberate him who is desirous of competing; and if they are
not able, and he who hinders the other from competing wins the prize,
then they shall give the prize of victory to him who is prevented, and
inscribe him as the conqueror in any temples which he pleases; and he
who hinders the other shall not be permitted to make any offering or
inscription having reference to that contest, and in any case he shall
be liable for damages, whether he be defeated or whether he conquer.
If any one knowingly receives anything which has been stolen, he shall
undergo the same punishment as the thief, and if a man receives an exile
he shall be punished with death. Every man should regard the friend and
enemy of the state as his own friend and enemy; and if any one makes
peace or war with another on his own account, and without the authority
of the state, he, like the receiver of the exile, shall undergo the
penalty of death. And if any fraction of the city declare war or peace
against any, the generals shall indict the authors of this proceeding,
and if they are convicted death shall be the penalty. Those who serve
their country ought to serve without receiving gifts, and there ought to
be no excusing or approving the saying, 'Men should receive gifts as the
reward of good, but not of evil deeds'; for to know which we are doing,
and to stand fast by our knowledge, is no easy matter. The safest course
is to obey the law which says, 'Do no service for a bribe,' and let him
who disobeys, if he be convicted, simply die. With a view to taxation,
for various reasons, every man ought to have had his property valued:
and the tribesmen should likewise bring a register of the yearly
produce to the wardens of the country, that in this way there may be
two valuations; and the public officers may use annually whichever on
consideration they deem the best, whether they prefer to take a certain
portion of the whole value, or of the annual revenue, after subtracting
what is paid to the common tables.
Touching offerings to the Gods, a moderate man should observe moderation
in what he offers. Now the land and the hearth of the house of all men
is sacred to all Gods; wherefore let no man dedicate them a second time
to the Gods. Gold and silver, whether possessed by private persons or in
temples, are in other cities provocative of envy, and ivory, the product
of a dead body, is not a proper offering; brass and iron, again, are
instruments of war; but of wood let a man bring what offering he likes,
provided it be a single block, and in like manner of stone, to the
public temples; of woven work let him not offer more than one woman can
execute in a month. White is a colour suitable to the Gods, especially
in woven works, but dyes should only be used for the adornments of war.
The most divine of gifts are birds and images, and they should be such
as one painter can execute in a single day. And let all other offerings
follow a similar rule.
Now that the whole city has been divided into parts of which the nature
and number have been described, and laws have been given about all the
most important contracts as far as this was possible, the next thing
will be to have justice done. The first of the courts shall consist of
elected judges, who shall be chosen by the plaintiff and the defendant
in common: these shall be called arbiters rather than judges. And in
the second court there shall be judges of the villages and tribes
corresponding to the twelvefold division of the land, and before these
the litigants shall go to contend for greater damages, if the suit be
not decided before the first judges; the defendant, if he be defeated
the second time, shall pay a fifth more than the damages mentioned in
the indictment; and if he find fault with his judges and would try a
third time, let him carry the suit before the select judges, and if he
be again defeated, let him pay the whole of the damages and half as much
again. And the plaintiff, if when defeated before the first judges he
persist in going on to the second, shall if he wins receive in addition
to the damages a fifth part more, and if defeated he shall pay a like
sum; but if he is not satisfied with the previous decision, and will
insist on proceeding to a third court, then if he win he shall receive
from the defendant the amount of the damages and, as I said before,
half as much again, and the plaintiff, if he lose, shall pay half of the
damages claimed. Now the assignment by lot of judges to courts and the
completion of the number of them, and the appointment of servants to the
different magistrates, and the times at which the several causes
should be heard, and the votings and delays, and all the things that
necessarily concern suits, and the order of causes, and the time in
which answers have to be put in and parties are to appear--of these and
other things akin to these we have indeed already spoken, but there
is no harm in repeating what is right twice or thrice: All lesser and
easier matters which the elder legislator has omitted may be supplied by
the younger one. Private courts will be sufficiently regulated in this
way, and the public and state courts, and those which the magistrates
must use in the administration of their several offices, exist in many
other states. Many very respectable institutions of this sort have
been framed by good men, and from them the guardians of the law may
by reflection derive what is necessary for the order of our new state,
considering and correcting them, and bringing them to the test of
experience, until every detail appears to be satisfactorily determined;
and then putting the final seal upon them, and making them irreversible,
they shall use them for ever afterwards. As to what relates to the
silence of judges and the abstinence from words of evil omen and the
reverse, and the different notions of the just and good and honourable
which exist in our own as compared with other states, they have been
partly mentioned already, and another part of them will be mentioned
hereafter as we draw near the end. To all these matters he who would be
an equal judge shall justly look, and he shall possess writings about
them that he may learn them. For of all kinds of knowledge the knowledge
of good laws has the greatest power of improving the learner; otherwise
there would be no meaning in the divine and admirable law possessing
a name akin to mind (nous, nomos). And of all other words, such as the
praises and censures of individuals which occur in poetry and also in
prose, whether written down or uttered in daily conversation, whether
men dispute about them in the spirit of contention or weakly assent
to them, as is often the case--of all these the one sure test is the
writings of the legislator, which the righteous judge ought to have in
his mind as the antidote of all other words, and thus make himself
and the city stand upright, procuring for the good the continuance and
increase of justice, and for the bad, on the other hand, a
conversion from ignorance and intemperance, and in general from all
unrighteousness, as far as their evil minds can be healed, but to those
whose web of life is in reality finished, giving death, which is the
only remedy for souls in their condition, as I may say truly again and
again. And such judges and chiefs of judges will be worthy of receiving
praise from the whole city.
When the suits of the year are completed the following laws shall
regulate their execution: In the first place, the judge shall assign to
the party who wins the suit the whole property of him who loses, with
the exception of mere necessaries, and the assignment shall be made
through the herald immediately after each decision in the hearing of
the judges; and when the month arrives following the month in which the
courts are sitting, (unless the gainer of the suit has been previously
satisfied) the court shall follow up the case, and hand over to the
winner the goods of the loser; but if they find that he has not the
means of paying, and the sum deficient is not less than a drachma, the
insolvent person shall not have any right of going to law with any other
man until he have satisfied the debt of the winning party; but other
persons shall still have the right of bringing suits against him. And if
any one after he is condemned refuses to acknowledge the authority
which condemned him, let the magistrates who are thus deprived of their
authority bring him before the court of the guardians of the law, and if
he be cast, let him be punished with death, as a subverter of the whole
state and of the laws.
Thus a man is born and brought up, and after this manner he begets and
brings up his own children, and has his share of dealings with
other men, and suffers if he has done wrong to any one, and receives