Laws
three of the women who are concerned with marriages. Women up to forty
years of age, and men up to thirty, who thus offend, shall be beaten
and imprisoned. After that age they are to be brought before a court
composed of the eldest citizens, who may inflict any punishment upon
them which they please. If the injured party cannot inform, let any
freeman who hears of the case inform; a slave who does so shall be
set free,--if he be the slave of the one of the parties, by the
magistrate,--if owned by another, at the cost of the state; and let the
magistrates, take care that he is not wronged by any one out of revenge.
The injuries which one person does to another by the use of poisons
are of two kinds;--one affects the body by the employment of drugs and
potions; the other works on the mind by the practice of sorcery and
magic. Fatal cases of either sort have been already mentioned; and now
we must have a law respecting cases which are not fatal. There is no use
in arguing with a man whose mind is disturbed by waxen images placed at
his own door, or on the sepulchre of his father or mother, or at a spot
where three ways meet. But to the wizards themselves we must address
a solemn preamble, begging them not to treat the world as if they were
children, or compel the legislator to expose them, and to show men that
the poisoner who is not a physician and the wizard who is not a prophet
or diviner are equally ignorant of what they are doing. Let the law be
as follows:--He who by the use of poison does any injury not fatal to
a man or his servants, or any injury whether fatal or not to another's
cattle or bees, is to be punished with death if he be a physician, and
if he be not a physician he is to suffer the punishment awarded by the
court: and he who injures another by sorcery, if he be a diviner or
prophet, shall be put to death; and, if he be not a diviner, the court
shall determine what he ought to pay or suffer.
Any one who injures another by theft or violence shall pay damages at
least equal to the injury; and besides the compensation, a suitable
punishment shall be inflicted. The foolish youth who is the victim of
others is to have a lighter punishment; he whose folly is occasioned
by his own jealousy or desire or anger is to suffer more heavily.
Punishment is to be inflicted, not for the sake of vengeance, for
what is done cannot be undone, but for the sake of prevention and
reformation. And there should be a proportion between the punishment and
the crime, in which the judge, having a discretion left him, must,
by estimating the crime, second the legislator, who, like a painter,
furnishes outlines for him to fill up.
A madman is not to go about at large in the city, but is to be taken
care of by his relatives. Neglect on their part is to be punished in the
first class by a fine of a hundred drachmas, and proportionally in
the others. Now madness is of various kinds; in addition to that
which arises from disease there is the madness which originates in a
passionate temperament, and makes men when engaged in a quarrel use
foul and abusive language against each other. This is intolerable in a
well-ordered state; and therefore our law shall be as follows:--No one
is to speak evil of another, but when men differ in opinion they are to
instruct one another without speaking evil. Nor should any one seek
to rouse the passions which education has calmed; for he who feeds and
nurses his wrath is apt to make ribald jests at his opponent, with a
loss of character or dignity to himself. And for this reason no one may
use any abusive word in a temple, or at sacrifices, or games, or in
any public assembly, and he who offends shall be censured by the proper
magistrate; and the magistrate, if he fail to censure him, shall not
claim the prize of virtue. In any other place the angry man who indulges
in revilings, whether he be the beginner or not, may be chastised by an
elder. The reviler is always trying to make his opponent ridiculous; and
the use of ridicule in anger we cannot allow. We forbid the comic poet
to ridicule our citizens, under a penalty of expulsion from the country
or a fine of three minae. Jest in which there is no offence may be
allowed; but the question of offence shall be determined by the director
of education, who is to be the licenser of theatrical performances.
The righteous man who is in adversity will not be allowed to starve in a
well-ordered city; he will never be a beggar. Nor is a man to be pitied,
merely because he is hungry, unless he be temperate. Therefore let the
law be as follows:--Let there be no beggars in our state; and he who
begs shall be expelled by the magistrates both from town and country.
If a slave, male or female, does any harm to the property of another,
who is not himself a party to the harm, the master shall compensate the
injury or give up the offending slave. But if the master argue that the
charge has arisen by collusion, with the view of obtaining the slave,
he may put the plaintiff on his trial for malpractices, and recover from
him twice the value of the slave; or if he is cast he must make good
the damage and deliver up the slave. The injury done by a horse or other
animal shall be compensated in like manner.
A witness who will not come of himself may be summoned, and if he fail
in appearing, he shall be liable for any harm which may ensue: if he
swears that he does not know, he may leave the court. A judge who is
called upon as a witness must not vote. A free woman, if she is over
forty, may bear witness and plead, and, if she have no husband, she may
also bring an action. A slave, male or female, and a child may witness
and plead only in case of murder, but they must give sureties that they
will appear at the trial, if they should be charged with false witness.
Such charges must be made pending the trial, and the accusations shall
be sealed by both parties and kept by the magistrates until the trial
for perjury comes off. If a man is twice convicted of perjury, he is not
to be required, if three times, he is not to be allowed to bear witness,
or, if he persists in bearing witness, is to be punished with death.
When more than half the evidence is proved to be false there must be a
new trial.
The best and noblest things in human life are liable to be defiled and
perverted. Is not justice the civilizer of mankind? And yet upon the
noble profession of the advocate has come an evil name. For he is said
to make the worse appear the better cause, and only requires money
in return for his services. Such an art will be forbidden by the
legislator, and if existing among us will be requested to depart to
another city. To the disobedient let the voice of the law be heard
saying:--He who tries to pervert justice in the minds of the judges, or
to increase litigation, shall be brought before the supreme court. If he
does so from contentiousness, let him be silenced for a time, and, if
he offend again, put to death. If he have acted from a love of gain,
let him be sent out of the country if he be a foreigner, or if he be a
citizen let him be put to death.
BOOK XII. If a false message be taken to or brought from other states,
whether friendly or hostile, by ambassadors or heralds, they shall be
indicted for having dishonoured their sacred office, and, if convicted,
shall suffer a penalty.--Stealing is mean; robbery is shameless. Let no
man deceive himself by the supposed example of the Gods, for no God or
son of a God ever really practised either force or fraud. On this point
the legislator is better informed than all the poets put together. He
who listens to him shall be for ever happy, but he who will not listen
shall have the following law directed against him:--He who steals much,
or he who steals little of the public property is deserving of the same
penalty; for they are both impelled by the same evil motive. When the
law punishes one man more lightly than another, this is done under the
idea, not that he is less guilty, but that he is more curable. Now a
thief who is a foreigner or slave may be curable; but the thief who is
a citizen, and has had the advantages of education, should be put to
death, for he is incurable.
Much consideration and many regulations are necessary about military
expeditions; the great principal of all is that no one, male or
female, in war or peace, in great matters or small, shall be without a
commander. Whether men stand or walk, or drill, or pursue, or retreat,
or wash, or eat, they should all act together and in obedience to
orders. We should practise from our youth upwards the habits of command
and obedience. All dances, relaxations, endurances of meats and drinks,
of cold and heat, and of hard couches, should have a view to war, and
care should be taken not to destroy the natural covering and use of the
head and feet by wearing shoes and caps; for the head is the lord of
the body, and the feet are the best of servants. The soldier should have
thoughts like these; and let him hear the law:--He who is enrolled shall
serve, and if he absent himself without leave he shall be indicted for
failure of service before his own branch of the army when the expedition
returns, and if he be found guilty he shall suffer the penalty which the
courts award, and never be allowed to contend for any prize of valour,
or to accuse another of misbehaviour in military matters. Desertion
shall also be tried and punished in the same manner. After the courts
for trying failure of service and desertion have been held, the generals
shall hold another court, in which the several arms of the service will
award prizes for the expedition which has just concluded. The prize is
to be a crown of olive, which the victor shall offer up at the temple
of his favourite war God...In any suit which a man brings, let the
indictment be scrupulously true, for justice is an honourable maiden,
to whom falsehood is naturally hateful. For example, when men are
prosecuted for having lost their arms, great care should be taken by the
witnesses to distinguish between cases in which they have been lost from
necessity and from cowardice. If the hero Patroclus had not been killed
but had been brought back alive from the field, he might have been
reproached with having lost the divine armour. And a man may lose
his arms in a storm at sea, or from a fall, and under many other
circumstances. There is a distinction of language to be observed in the
use of the two terms, 'thrower away of a shield' (ripsaspis), and 'loser
of arms' (apoboleus oplon), one being the voluntary, the other the
involuntary relinquishment of them. Let the law then be as follows:--If
any one is overtaken by the enemy, having arms in his hands, and he
leaves them behind him voluntarily, choosing base life instead of
honourable death, let justice be done. The old legend of Caeneus, who
was changed by Poseidon from a woman into a man, may teach by contraries
the appropriate punishment. Let the thrower away of his shield be
changed from a man into a woman--that is to say, let him be all his life
out of danger, and never again be admitted by any commander into the
ranks of his army; and let him pay a heavy fine according to his class.
And any commander who permits him to serve shall also be punished by a
fine.
All magistrates, whatever be their tenure of office, must give an
account of their magistracy. But where shall we find the magistrate who
is worthy to supervise them or look into their short-comings and crooked
ways? The examiner must be more than man who is sufficient for these
things. For the truth is that there are many causes of the dissolution
of states; which, like ships or animals, have their cords, and girders,
and sinews easily relaxed, and nothing tends more to their welfare and