Laws
are here in Crete, or such as they are in Lacedaemon--or is there a
third kind which may be better than either of them? The answer to this
question might be easily discovered, but the discovery would do no great
good, for at present they are very well ordered.
Leaving the common tables, we may therefore proceed to the means of
providing food. Now, in cities the means of life are gained in many ways
and from divers sources, and in general from two sources, whereas our
city has only one. For most of the Hellenes obtain their food from sea
and land, but our citizens from land only. And this makes the task of
the legislator less difficult--half as many laws will be enough, and
much less than half; and they will be of a kind better suited to free
men. For he has nothing to do with laws about shipowners and merchants
and retailers and inn-keepers and tax collectors and mines and
moneylending and compound interest and innumerable other things--bidding
good-bye to these, he gives laws to husbandmen and shepherds and
bee-keepers, and to the guardians and superintendents of their
implements; and he has already legislated for greater matters, as
for example, respecting marriage and the procreation and nurture of
children, and for education, and the establishment of offices--and
now he must direct his laws to those who provide food and labour in
preparing it.
Let us first of all, then, have a class of laws which shall be called
the laws of husbandmen. And let the first of them be the law of Zeus,
the God of boundaries. Let no one shift the boundary line either of a
fellow-citizen who is a neighbour, or, if he dwells at the extremity of
the land, of any stranger who is conterminous with him, considering
that this is truly 'to move the immovable,' and every one should be more
willing to move the largest rock which is not a landmark, than the
least stone which is the sworn mark of friendship and hatred between
neighbours; for Zeus, the god of kindred, is the witness of the citizen,
and Zeus, the god of strangers, of the stranger, and when aroused,
terrible are the wars which they stir up. He who obeys the law will
never know the fatal consequences of disobedience, but he who despises
the law shall be liable to a double penalty, the first coming from the
Gods, and the second from the law. For let no one wilfully remove the
boundaries of his neighbour's land, and if any one does, let him who
will inform the landowners, and let them bring him into court, and if
he be convicted of re-dividing the land by stealth or by force, let the
court determine what he ought to suffer or pay. In the next place,
many small injuries done by neighbours to one another, through their
multiplication, may cause a weight of enmity, and make neighbourhood
a very disagreeable and bitter thing. Wherefore a man ought to be very
careful of committing any offence against his neighbour, and especially
of encroaching on his neighbour's land; for any man may easily do harm,
but not every man can do good to another. He who encroaches on his
neighbour's land, and transgresses his boundaries, shall make good the
damage, and, to cure him of his impudence and also of his meanness, he
shall pay a double penalty to the injured party. Of these and the like
matters the wardens of the country shall take cognizance, and be the
judges of them and assessors of the damage; in the more important cases,
as has been already said, the whole number of them belonging to any
one of the twelve divisions shall decide, and in the lesser cases the
commanders: or, again, if any one pastures his cattle on his neighbour's
land, they shall see the injury, and adjudge the penalty. And if any
one, by decoying the bees, gets possession of another's swarms, and
draws them to himself by making noises, he shall pay the damage; or if
any one sets fire to his own wood and takes no care of his neighbour's
property, he shall be fined at the discretion of the magistrates. And
if in planting he does not leave a fair distance between his own and
his neighbour's land, he shall be punished, in accordance with the
enactments of many lawgivers, which we may use, not deeming it necessary
that the great legislator of our state should determine all the trifles
which might be decided by any body; for example, husbandmen have had of
old excellent laws about waters, and there is no reason why we should
propose to divert their course: He who likes may draw water from the
fountain-head of the common stream on to his own land, if he do not cut
off the spring which clearly belongs to some other owner; and he may
take the water in any direction which he pleases, except through a house
or temple or sepulchre, but he must be careful to do no harm beyond the
channel. And if there be in any place a natural dryness of the earth,
which keeps in the rain from heaven, and causes a deficiency in the
supply of water, let him dig down on his own land as far as the clay,
and if at this depth he finds no water, let him obtain water from his
neighbours, as much as is required for his servants' drinking, and if
his neighbours, too, are limited in their supply, let him have a fixed
measure, which shall be determined by the wardens of the country.
This he shall receive each day, and on these terms have a share of his
neighbours' water. If there be heavy rain, and one of those on the lower
ground injures some tiller of the upper ground, or some one who has a
common wall, by refusing to give them an outlet for water; or, again,
if some one living on the higher ground recklessly lets off the water on
his lower neighbour, and they cannot come to terms with one another, let
him who will call in a warden of the city, if he be in the city, or
if he be in the country, a warden of the country, and let him obtain
a decision determining what each of them is to do. And he who will not
abide by the decision shall suffer for his malignant and morose temper,
and pay a fine to the injured party, equivalent to double the value of
the injury, because he was unwilling to submit to the magistrates.
Now the participation of fruits shall be ordered on this wise. The
goddess of Autumn has two gracious gifts: one the joy of Dionysus which
is not treasured up; the other, which nature intends to be stored. Let
this be the law, then, concerning the fruits of autumn: He who tastes
the common or storing fruits of autumn, whether grapes or figs, before
the season of vintage which coincides with Arcturus, either on his own
land or on that of others--let him pay fifty drachmae, which shall be
sacred to Dionysus, if he pluck them from his own land; and if from his
neighbour's land, a mina, and if from any others', two-thirds of a mina.
And he who would gather the 'choice' grapes or the 'choice' figs, as
they are now termed, if he take them off his own land, let him pluck
them how and when he likes; but if he take them from the ground of
others without their leave, let him in that case be always punished in
accordance with the law which ordains that he should not move what
he has not laid down. And if a slave touches any fruit of this sort,
without the consent of the owner of the land, he shall be beaten with
as many blows as there are grapes on the bunch, or figs on the fig-tree.
Let a metic purchase the 'choice' autumnal fruit, and then, if he
pleases, he may gather it; but if a stranger is passing along the road,
and desires to eat, let him take of the 'choice' grape for himself and
a single follower without payment, as a tribute of hospitality. The law
however forbids strangers from sharing in the sort which is not used for
eating; and if any one, whether he be master or slave, takes of them
in ignorance, let the slave be beaten, and the freeman dismissed with
admonitions, and instructed to take of the other autumnal fruits which
are unfit for making raisins and wine, or for laying by as dried figs.
As to pears, and apples, and pomegranates, and similar fruits, there
shall be no disgrace in taking them secretly; but he who is caught, if
he be of less than thirty years of age, shall be struck and beaten off,
but not wounded; and no freeman shall have any right of satisfaction for
such blows. Of these fruits the stranger may partake, just as he may of
the fruits of autumn. And if an elder, who is more than thirty years of
age, eat of them on the spot, let him, like the stranger, be allowed to
partake of all such fruits, but he must carry away nothing. If, however,
he will not obey the law, let him run the risk of failing in the
competition of virtue, in case any one takes notice of his actions
before the judges at the time.
Water is the greatest element of nutrition in gardens, but is easily
polluted. You cannot poison the soil, or the sun, or the air, which
are the other elements of nutrition in plants, or divert them, or steal
them; but all these things may very likely happen in regard to water,
which must therefore be protected by law. And let this be the law: If
any one intentionally pollutes the water of another, whether the water
of a spring, or collected in reservoirs, either by poisonous substances,
or by digging, or by theft, let the injured party bring the cause before
the wardens of the city, and claim in writing the value of the loss;
if the accused be found guilty of injuring the water by deleterious
substances, let him not only pay damages, but purify the stream or the
cistern which contains the water, in such manner as the laws of the
interpreters order the purification to be made by the offender in each
case.
With respect to the gathering in of the fruits of the soil, let a man,
if he pleases, carry his own fruits through any place in which he either
does no harm to any one, or himself gains three times as much as
his neighbour loses. Now of these things the magistrates should be
cognizant, as of all other things in which a man intentionally does
injury to another or to the property of another, by fraud or force,
in the use which he makes of his own property. All these matters a man
should lay before the magistrates, and receive damages, supposing the
injury to be not more than three minae; or if he have a charge against
another which involves a larger amount, let him bring his suit into
the public courts and have the evil-doer punished. But if any of the
magistrates appear to adjudge the penalties which he imposes in an
unjust spirit, let him be liable to pay double to the injured party.
Any one may bring the offences of magistrates, in any particular case,
before the public courts. There are innumerable little matters relating
to the modes of punishment, and applications for suits, and summonses
and the witnesses to summonses--for example, whether two witnesses
should be required for a summons, or how many--and all such details,
which cannot be omitted in legislation, but are beneath the wisdom of an
aged legislator. These lesser matters, as they indeed are in comparison
with the greater ones, let a younger generation regulate by law, after
the patterns which have preceded, and according to their own experience
of the usefulness and necessity of such laws; and when they are duly
regulated let there be no alteration, but let the citizens live in the
observance of them.
Now of artisans, let the regulations be as follows: In the first place,
let no citizen or servant of a citizen be occupied in handicraft arts;
for he who is to secure and preserve the public order of the state, has
an art which requires much study and many kinds of knowledge, and does
not admit of being made a secondary occupation; and hardly any human
being is capable of pursuing two professions or two arts rightly, or
of practising one art himself, and superintending some one else who is
practising another. Let this, then, be our first principle in the