Laws
let two years' exile be the penalty; for the second, that which is
accompanied with malice prepense, three. When the time of any one's
exile has expired, the guardians shall send twelve judges to the borders
of the land, who shall have authority to decide whether he may return
or not. He who after returning repeats the offence, shall be exiled
and return no more, and, if he return, shall be put to death, like
the stranger in a similar case. He who in a fit of anger kills his own
slave, shall purify himself; and he who kills another man's slave, shall
pay to his master double the value. Any one may proceed against the
offender if he appear in public places, not having been purified;
and may bring to trial both the next of kin to the dead man and the
homicide, and compel the one to exact, and the other to pay, a double
penalty. If a slave kill his master, or a freeman who is not his master,
in anger, the kinsmen of the murdered person may do with the murderer
whatever they please, but they must not spare his life. If a father or
mother kill their son or daughter in anger, let the slayer remain in
exile for three years; and on the return of the exile let the parents
separate, and no longer continue to cohabit, or have the same sacred
rites with those whom he or she has deprived of a brother or sister. The
same penalty is decreed against the husband who murders his wife, and
also against the wife who murders her husband. Let them be absent three
years, and on their return never again share in the same sacred rites
with their children, or sit at the same table with them. Nor is a
brother or sister who have lifted up their hands against a brother or
sister, ever to come under the same roof or share in the same rites
with those whom they have robbed of a child. If a son feels such hatred
against his father or mother as to take the life of either of them,
then, if the parent before death forgive him, he shall only suffer the
penalty due to involuntary homicide; but if he be unforgiven, there
are many laws against which he has offended; he is guilty of outrage,
impiety, sacrilege all in one, and deserves to be put to death many
times over. For if the law will not allow a man to kill the authors of
his being even in self-defence, what other penalty than death can be
inflicted upon him who in a fit of passion wilfully slays his father
or mother? If a brother kill a brother in self-defence during a civil
broil, or a citizen a citizen, or a slave a slave, or a stranger a
stranger, let them be free from blame, as he is who slays an enemy in
battle. But if a slave kill a freeman, let him be as a parricide. In all
cases, however, the forgiveness of the injured party shall acquit the
agents; and then they shall only be purified, and remain in exile for a
year.
Enough of actions that are involuntary, or done in anger; let us proceed
to voluntary and premeditated actions. The great source of voluntary
crime is the desire of money, which is begotten by evil education;
and this arises out of the false praise of riches, common both among
Hellenes and barbarians; they think that to be the first of goods which
is really the third. For the body is not for the sake of wealth, but
wealth for the body, as the body is for the soul. If this were better
understood, the crime of murder, of which avarice is the chief cause,
would soon cease among men. Next to avarice, ambition is a source of
crime, troublesome to the ambitious man himself, as well as to the chief
men of the state. And next to ambition, base fear is a motive, which
has led many an one to commit murder in order that he may get rid of the
witnesses of his crimes. Let this be said as a prelude to all enactments
about crimes of violence; and the tradition must not be forgotten, which
tells that the murderer is punished in the world below, and that when
he returns to this world he meets the fate which he has dealt out to
others. If a man is deterred by the prelude and the fear of future
punishment, he will have no need of the law; but in case he disobey, let
the law be declared against him as follows:--He who of malice prepense
kills one of his kindred, shall in the first place be outlawed; neither
temple, harbour, nor agora shall be polluted by his presence. And if a
kinsman of the deceased refuse to proceed against his slayer, he shall
take the curse of pollution upon himself, and also be liable to be
prosecuted by any one who will avenge the dead. The prosecutor, however,
must observe the customary ceremonial before he proceeds against the
offender. The details of these observances will be best determined by a
conclave of prophets and interpreters and guardians of the law, and the
judges of the cause itself shall be the same as in cases of sacrilege.
He who is convicted shall be punished with death, and not be buried
within the country of the murdered person. He who flies from the law
shall undergo perpetual banishment; if he return, he may be put to
death with impunity by any relative of the murdered man or by any other
citizen, or bound and delivered to the magistrates. He who accuses a man
of murder shall demand satisfactory bail of the accused, and if this is
not forthcoming, the magistrate shall keep him in prison against the
day of trial. If a man commit murder by the hand of another, he shall
be tried in the same way as in the cases previously supposed, but if the
offender be a citizen, his body after execution shall be buried within
the land.
If a slave kill a freeman, either with his own hand or by contrivance,
let him be led either to the grave or to a place whence he can see the
grave of the murdered man, and there receive as many stripes at the hand
of the public executioner as the person who took him pleases; and if he
survive he shall be put to death. If a slave be put out of the way to
prevent his informing of some crime, his death shall be punished like
that of a citizen. If there are any of those horrible murders of kindred
which sometimes occur even in well-regulated societies, and of which the
legislator, however unwilling, cannot avoid taking cognizance, he will
repeat the old myth of the divine vengeance against the perpetrators of
such atrocities. The myth will say that the murderer must suffer what he
has done: if he have slain his father, he must be slain by his children;
if his mother, he must become a woman and perish at the hands of his
offspring in another age of the world. Such a preamble may terrify him;
but if, notwithstanding, in some evil hour he murders father or
mother or brethren or children, the mode of proceeding shall be as
follows:--Him who is convicted, the officers of the judges shall lead
to a spot without the city where three ways meet, and there slay him and
expose his body naked; and each of the magistrates shall cast a stone
upon his head and justify the city, and he shall be thrown unburied
beyond the border. But what shall we say of him who takes the life
which is dearest to him, that is to say, his own; and this not from any
disgrace or calamity, but from cowardice and indolence? The manner of
his burial and the purification of his crime is a matter for God and the
interpreters to decide and for his kinsmen to execute. Let him, at any
rate, be buried alone in some uncultivated and nameless spot, and
be without name or monument. If a beast kill a man, not in a public
contest, let it be prosecuted for murder, and after condemnation slain
and cast without the border. Also inanimate things which have caused
death, except in the case of lightning and other visitations from
heaven, shall be carried without the border. If the body of a dead man
be found, and the murderer remain unknown, the trial shall take place
all the same, and the unknown murderer shall be warned not to set foot
in the temples or come within the borders of the land; if discovered, he
shall die, and his body shall be cast out. A man is justified in taking
the life of a burglar, of a footpad, of a violator of women or youth;
and he may take the life of another with impunity in defence of father,
mother, brother, wife, or other relations.
The nurture and education which are necessary to the existence of men
have been considered, and the punishment of acts of violence which
destroy life. There remain maiming, wounding, and the like, which admit
of a similar division into voluntary and involuntary. About this class
of actions the preamble shall be: Whereas men would be like wild beasts
unless they obeyed the laws, the first duty of citizens is the care
of the public interests, which unite and preserve states, as private
interests distract them. A man may know what is for the public good, but
if he have absolute power, human nature will impel him to seek pleasure
instead of virtue, and so darkness will come over his soul and over the
state. If he had mind, he would have no need of law; for mind is the
perfection of law. But such a freeman, 'whom the truth makes free,' is
hardly to be found; and therefore law and order are necessary, which are
the second-best, and they regulate things as they exist in part
only, but cannot take in the whole. For actions have innumerable
characteristics, which must be partly determined by the law and partly
left to the judge. The judge must determine the fact; and to him also
the punishment must sometimes be left. What shall the law prescribe,
and what shall be left to the judge? A city is unfortunate in which the
tribunals are either secret and speechless, or, what is worse, noisy and
public, when the people, as if they were in a theatre, clap and hoot the
various speakers. Such courts a legislator would rather not have; but
if he is compelled to have them, he will speak distinctly, and leave as
little as possible to their discretion. But where the courts are good,
and presided over by well-trained judges, the penalties to be inflicted
may be in a great measure left to them; and as there are to be good
courts among our colonists, we need not determine beforehand the
exact proportion of the penalty and the crime. Returning, then, to
our legislator, let us indite a law about wounding, which shall run as
follows:--He who wounds with intent to kill, and fails in his object,
shall be tried as if he had succeeded. But since God has favoured both
him and his victim, instead of being put to death, he shall be allowed
to go into exile and take his property with him, the damage due to the
sufferer having been previously estimated by the court, which shall be
the same as would have tried the case if death had ensued. If a child
should intentionally wound a parent, or a servant his master, or brother
or sister wound brother or sister with malice prepense, the penalty
shall be death. If a husband or wife wound one another with intent to
kill, the penalty which is inflicted upon them shall be perpetual exile;
and if they have young children, the guardians shall take care of them
and administer their property as if they were orphans. If they have
no children, their kinsmen male and female shall meet, and after a
consultation with the priests and guardians of the law, shall appoint an
heir of the house; for the house and family belong to the state, being
a 5040th portion of the whole. And the state is bound to preserve
her families happy and holy; therefore, when the heir of a house has
committed a capital offence, or is in exile for life, the house is to be
purified, and then the kinsmen of the house and the guardians of the law
are to find out a family which has a good name and in which there are
many sons, and introduce one of them to be the heir and priest of the
house. He shall assume the fathers and ancestors of the family, while
the first son dies in dishonour and his name is blotted out.