Laws
laid down; for I shall not gain so much in money as I shall lose in
virtue. The saying, 'Move not the immovable,' may be repeated in a
new sense; and there is a common belief which asserts that such deeds
prevent a man from having a family. To him who is careless of such
consequences, and, despising the word of the wise, takes up a treasure
which is not his--what will be done by the hand of the Gods, God only
knows,--but I would have the first person who sees the offender, inform
the wardens of the city or the country; and they shall send to Delphi
for a decision, and whatever the oracle orders, they shall carry out.
If the informer be a freeman, he shall be honoured, and if a slave,
set free; but he who does not inform, if he be a freeman, shall be
dishonoured, and if a slave, shall be put to death. If a man leave
anywhere anything great or small, intentionally or unintentionally, let
him who may find the property deem the deposit sacred to the Goddess
of ways. And he who appropriates the same, if he be a slave, shall be
beaten with many stripes; if a freeman, he shall pay tenfold, and be
held to have done a dishonourable action. If a person says that another
has something of his, and the other allows that he has the property in
dispute, but maintains it to be his own, let the ownership be proved out
of the registers of property. If the property is registered as belonging
to some one who is absent, possession shall be given to him who offers
sufficient security on behalf of the absentee; or if the property is not
registered, let it remain with the three eldest magistrates, and if it
should be an animal, the defeated party must pay the cost of its keep. A
man may arrest his own slave, and he may also imprison for safe-keeping
the runaway slave of a friend. Any one interfering with him must produce
three sureties; otherwise, he will be liable to an action for violence,
and if he be cast, must pay a double amount of damages to him from whom
he has taken the slave. A freedman who does not pay due respect to his
patron, may also be seized. Due respect consists in going three times
a month to the house of his patron, and offering to perform any lawful
service for him; he must also marry as his master pleases; and if his
property be greater than his master's, he must hand over to him the
excess. A freedman may not remain in the state, except with the consent
of the magistrates and of his master, for more than twenty years; and
whenever his census exceeds that of the third class, he must in any case
leave the country within thirty days, taking his property with him. If
he break this regulation, the penalty shall be death, and his property
shall be confiscated. Suits about these matters are to be decided in the
courts of the tribes, unless the parties have settled the matter before
a court of neighbours or before arbiters. If anybody claim a beast, or
anything else, let the possessor refer to the seller or giver of the
property within thirty days, if the latter reside in the city, or, if
the goods have been received from a stranger, within five months, of
which the middle month shall include the summer solstice. All purchases
and exchanges are to be made in the agora, and paid for on the spot; the
law will not allow credit to be given. No law shall protect the money
subscribed for clubs. He who sells anything of greater value than fifty
drachmas shall abide in the city for ten days, and let his whereabouts
be known to the buyer, in case of any reclamation. When a slave is sold
who is subject to epilepsy, stone, or any other invisible disorder, the
buyer, if he be a physician or trainer, or if he be warned, shall have
no redress; but in other cases within six months, or within twelve
months in epileptic disorders, he may bring the matter before a jury of
physicians to be agreed upon by both parties; and the seller who loses
the suit, if he be an expert, shall pay twice the price; or if he be
a private person, the bargain shall be rescinded, and he shall simply
refund. If a person knowingly sells a homicide to another, who is
informed of his character, there is no redress. But if the judges--who
are to be the five youngest guardians of the law--decide that the
purchaser was not aware, then the seller is to pay threefold, and to
purify the house of the buyer.
He who exchanges money for money, or beast for beast, must warrant
either of them to be sound and good. As in the case of other laws, let
us have a preamble, relating to all this class of crime. Adulteration
is a kind of falsehood about which the many commonly say that at proper
times the practice may often be right, but they do not define at what
times. But the legislator will tell them, that no man should invoke the
Gods when he is practising deceit or fraud, in word or deed. For he is
the enemy of heaven, first, who swears falsely, not thinking of the Gods
by whom he swears, and secondly, he who lies to his superiors. (Now
the superiors are the betters of inferiors,--the elder of the younger,
parents of children, men of women, and rulers of subjects.) The trader
who cheats in the agora is a liar and is perjured--he respects neither
the name of God nor the regulations of the magistrates. If after hearing
this he will still be dishonest, let him listen to the law:--The seller
shall not have two prices on the same day, neither must he puff his
goods, nor offer to swear about them. If he break the law, any citizen
not less than thirty years of age may smite him. If he sell adulterated
goods, the slave or metic who informs against him shall have the goods;
the citizen who brings such a charge, if he prove it, shall offer up the
goods in question to the Gods of the agora; or if he fail to prove it,
shall be dishonoured. He who is detected in selling adulterated goods
shall be deprived of them, and shall receive a stripe for every drachma
of their value. The wardens of the agora and the guardians of the law
shall take experienced persons into counsel, and draw up regulations for
the agora. These shall be inscribed on a column in front of the court
of the wardens of the agora.--As to the wardens of the city, enough
has been said already. But if any omissions in the law are afterwards
discovered, the wardens and the guardians shall supply them, and have
them inscribed after the original regulations on a column before the
court of the wardens of the city.
Next in order follows the subject of retail trades, which in their
natural use are the reverse of mischievous; for every man is a
benefactor who reduces what is unequal to symmetry and proportion. Money
is the instrument by which this is accomplished, and the shop-keeper,
the merchant, and hotel-keeper do but supply the wants and equalize
the possessions of mankind. Why, then, does any dishonour attach to
a beneficent occupation? Let us consider the nature of the accusation
first, and then see whether it can be removed. 'What is your drift?'
Dear Cleinias, there are few men who are so gifted by nature, and
improved by education, as to be able to control the desire of making
money; or who are sober in their wishes and prefer moderation to
accumulation. The great majority think that they can never have enough,
and the consequence is that retail trade has become a reproach. Whereas,
however ludicrous the idea may seem, if noble men and noble women could
be induced to open a shop, and to trade upon incorruptible principles,
then the aspect of things would change, and retail traders would be
regarded as nursing fathers and mothers. In our own day the trader
goes and settles in distant places, and receives the weary traveller
hospitably at first, but in the end treats him as an enemy and a
captive, whom he only liberates for an enormous ransom. This is what
has brought retail trade into disrepute, and against this the legislator
ought to provide. Men have said of old, that to fight against two
opponents is hard; and the two opponents of whom I am thinking are
wealth and poverty--the one corrupting men by luxury; the other, through
misery, depriving them of the sense of shame. What remedies can a city
find for this disease? First, to have as few retail traders as possible;
secondly, to give retail trade over to a class whose corruption will not
injure the state; and thirdly, to restrain the insolence and meanness of
the retailers.
Let us make the following laws:--(1) In the city of the Magnetes none of
the 5040 citizens shall be a retailer or merchant, or do any service to
any private persons who do not equally serve him, except to his father
and mother and their fathers and mothers, and generally to his elders
who are freemen, and whom he serves as a freeman. He who follows an
illiberal pursuit may be cited for dishonouring his family, and kept
in bonds for a year; and if he offend again, he shall be bound for two
years; and for every offence his punishment shall be doubled: (2) Every
retailer shall be a metic or a foreigner: (3) The guardians of the law
shall have a special care of this part of the community, whose calling
exposes them to peculiar temptations. They shall consult with persons of
experience, and find out what prices will yield the traders a moderate
profit, and fix them.
When a man does not fulfil his contract, he being under no legal or
other impediment, the case shall be brought before the court of the
tribes, if not previously settled by arbitration. The class of artisans
is consecrated to Hephaestus and Athene; the makers of weapons to Ares
and Athene: all of whom, remembering that the Gods are their ancestors,
should be ashamed to deceive in the practice of their craft. If any man
is lazy in the fulfilment of his work, and fancies, foolish fellow, that
his patron God will not deal hardly with him, he will be punished by the
God; and let the law follow:--He who fails in his undertaking shall pay
the value, and do the work gratis in a specified time. The contractor,
like the seller, is enjoined by law to charge the simple value of his
work; in a free city, art should be a true thing, and the artist must
not practise on the ignorance of others. On the other hand, he who has
ordered any work and does not pay the workman according to agreement,
dishonours Zeus and Athene, and breaks the bonds of society. And if
he does not pay at the time agreed, let him pay double; and although
interest is forbidden in other cases, let the workman receive after the
expiration of a year interest at the rate of an obol a month for every
drachma (equal to 200 per cent. per ann.). And we may observe by the
way, in speaking of craftsmen, that if our military craft do their work
well, the state will praise those who honour them, and blame those who
do not honour them. Not that the first place of honour is to be assigned
to the warrior; a higher still is reserved for those who obey the laws.
Most of the dealings between man and man are now settled, with the
exception of such as relate to orphans and guardianships. These lead
us to speak of the intentions of the dying, about which we must make
regulations. I say 'must'; for mankind cannot be allowed to dispose of
their property as they please, in ways at variance with one another and
with law and custom. But a dying person is a strange being, and is not
easily managed; he wants to be master of all he has, and is apt to use
angry words. He will say,--'May I not do what I will with my own, and
give much to my friends, and little to my enemies?' 'There is reason
in that.' O Cleinias, in my judgment the older lawgivers were too
soft-hearted, and wanting in insight into human affairs. They were
too ready to listen to the outcry of a dying man, and hence they were
induced to give him an absolute power of bequest. But I would say to