Laws
expect or imagine that any well-brought-up citizen will ever take the
infection, but their servants, and strangers, and strangers' servants
may be guilty of many impieties. And with a view to them especially,
and yet not without a provident eye to the weakness of human nature
generally, I will proclaim the law about robbers of temples and similar
incurable, or almost incurable, criminals. Having already agreed that
such enactments ought always to have a short prelude, we may speak to
the criminal, whom some tormenting desire by night and by day tempts
to go and rob a temple, the fewest possible words of admonition and
exhortation: O sir, we will say to him, the impulse which moves you to
rob temples is not an ordinary human malady, nor yet a visitation
of heaven, but a madness which is begotten in a man from ancient and
unexpiated crimes of his race, an ever-recurring curse--against this you
must guard with all your might, and how you are to guard we will explain
to you. When any such thought comes into your mind, go and perform
expiations, go as a suppliant to the temples of the Gods who avert
evils, go to the society of those who are called good men among you;
hear them tell and yourself try to repeat after them, that every man
should honour the noble and the just. Fly from the company of the
wicked--fly and turn not back; and if your disorder is lightened by
these remedies, well and good, but if not, then acknowledge death to be
nobler than life, and depart hence.
Such are the preludes which we sing to all who have thoughts of unholy
and treasonable actions, and to him who hearkens to them the law has
nothing to say. But to him who is disobedient when the prelude is over,
cry with a loud voice--He who is taken in the act of robbing temples, if
he be a slave or stranger, shall have his evil deed engraven on his face
and hands, and shall be beaten with as many stripes as may seem good to
the judges, and be cast naked beyond the borders of the land. And if he
suffers this punishment he will probably return to his right mind and
be improved; for no penalty which the law inflicts is designed for evil,
but always makes him who suffers either better or not so much worse as
he would have been. But if any citizen be found guilty of any great or
unmentionable wrong, either in relation to the Gods, or his parents,
or the state, let the judge deem him to be incurable, remembering that
after receiving such an excellent education and training from youth
upward, he has not abstained from the greatest of crimes. His punishment
shall be death, which to him will be the least of evils; and his example
will benefit others, if he perish ingloriously, and be cast beyond the
borders of the land. But let his children and family, if they avoid the
ways of their father, have glory, and let honourable mention be made of
them, as having nobly and manfully escaped out of evil into good. None
of them should have their goods confiscated to the state, for the lots
of the citizens ought always to continue the same and equal.
Touching the exaction of penalties, when a man appears to have done
anything which deserves a fine, he shall pay the fine, if he have
anything in excess of the lot which is assigned to him; but more than
that he shall not pay. And to secure exactness, let the guardians of the
law refer to the registers, and inform the judges of the precise truth,
in order that none of the lots may go uncultivated for want of money.
But if any one seems to deserve a greater penalty, let him undergo a
long and public imprisonment and be dishonoured, unless some of his
friends are willing to be surety for him, and liberate him by assisting
him to pay the fine. No criminal shall go unpunished, not even for a
single offence, nor if he have fled the country; but let the penalty be
according to his deserts--death, or bonds, or blows, or degrading places
of sitting or standing, or removal to some temple on the borders of the
land; or let him pay fines, as we said before. In cases of death, let
the judges be the guardians of the law, and a court selected by merit
from the last year's magistrates. But how the causes are to be brought
into court, how the summonses are to be served, and the like, these
things may be left to the younger generation of legislators to
determine; the manner of voting we must determine ourselves.
Let the vote be given openly; but before they come to the vote let the
judges sit in order of seniority over against plaintiff and defendant,
and let all the citizens who can spare time hear and take a serious
interest in listening to such causes. First of all the plaintiff shall
make one speech, and then the defendant shall make another; and after
the speeches have been made the eldest judge shall begin to examine
the parties, and proceed to make an adequate enquiry into what has been
said; and after the oldest has spoken, the rest shall proceed in order
to examine either party as to what he finds defective in the evidence,
whether of statement or omission; and he who has nothing to ask shall
hand over the examination to another. And on so much of what has been
said as is to the purpose all the judges shall set their seals, and
place the writings on the altar of Hestia. On the next day they shall
meet again, and in like manner put their questions and go through the
cause, and again set their seals upon the evidence; and when they have
three times done this, and have had witnesses and evidence enough, they
shall each of them give a holy vote, after promising by Hestia that they
will decide justly and truly to the utmost of their power; and so they
shall put an end to the suit.
Next, after what relates to the Gods, follows what relates to the
dissolution of the state: Whoever by permitting a man to power enslaves
the laws, and subjects the city to factions, using violence and stirring
up sedition contrary to law, him we will deem the greatest enemy of the
whole state. But he who takes no part in such proceedings, and, being
one of the chief magistrates of the state, has no knowledge of treason,
or, having knowledge of it, by reason of cowardice does not interfere on
behalf of his country, such an one we must consider nearly as bad. Every
man who is worth anything will inform the magistrates, and bring the
conspirator to trial for making a violent and illegal attempt to change
the government. The judges of such cases shall be the same as of the
robbers of temples; and let the whole proceeding be carried on in the
same way, and the vote of the majority condemn to death. But let there
be a general rule, that the disgrace and punishment of the father is
not to be visited on the children, except in the case of some one whose
father, grandfather, and great-grandfather have successively undergone
the penalty of death. Such persons the city shall send away with all
their possessions to the city and country of their ancestors, retaining
only and wholly their appointed lot. And out of the citizens who have
more than one son of not less than ten years of age, they shall select
ten whom their father or grandfather by the mother's or father's side
shall appoint, and let them send to Delphi the names of those who are
selected, and him whom the God chooses they shall establish as heir
of the house which has failed; and may he have better fortune than his
predecessors!
CLEINIAS: Very good.
ATHENIAN: Once more let there be a third general law respecting the
judges who are to give judgment, and the manner of conducting suits
against those who are tried on an accusation of treason; and as
concerning the remaining or departure of their descendants--there shall
be one law for all three, for the traitor, and the robber of temples,
and the subverter by violence of the laws of the state. For a thief,
whether he steal much or little, let there be one law, and one
punishment for all alike: in the first place, let him pay double the
amount of the theft if he be convicted, and if he have so much over and
above the allotment--if he have not, he shall be bound until he pay the
penalty, or persuade him who has obtained the sentence against him to
forgive him. But if a person be convicted of a theft against the state,
then if he can persuade the city, or if he will pay back twice the
amount of the theft, he shall be set free from his bonds.
CLEINIAS: What makes you say, Stranger, that a theft is all one, whether
the thief may have taken much or little, and either from sacred
or secular places--and these are not the only differences in
thefts--seeing, then, that they are of many kinds, ought not the
legislator to adapt himself to them, and impose upon them entirely
different penalties?
ATHENIAN: Excellent. I was running on too fast, Cleinias, and you
impinged upon me, and brought me to my senses, reminding me of what,
indeed, had occurred to my mind already, that legislation was never yet
rightly worked out, as I may say in passing. Do you remember the image
in which I likened the men for whom laws are now made to slaves who are
doctored by slaves? For of this you may be very sure, that if one of
those empirical physicians, who practise medicine without science, were
to come upon the gentleman physician talking to his gentleman patient,
and using the language almost of philosophy, beginning at the beginning
of the disease and discoursing about the whole nature of the body, he
would burst into a hearty laugh--he would say what most of those who
are called doctors always have at their tongue's end: Foolish fellow, he
would say, you are not healing the sick man, but you are educating him;
and he does not want to be made a doctor, but to get well.
CLEINIAS: And would he not be right?
ATHENIAN: Perhaps he would; and he might remark upon us, that he who
discourses about laws, as we are now doing, is giving the citizens
education and not laws; that would be rather a telling observation.
CLEINIAS: Very true.
ATHENIAN: But we are fortunate.
CLEINIAS: In what way?
ATHENIAN: Inasmuch as we are not compelled to give laws, but we may take
into consideration every form of government, and ascertain what is
best and what is most needful, and how they may both be carried into
execution; and we may also, if we please, at this very moment choose
what is best, or, if we prefer, what is most necessary--which shall we
do?
CLEINIAS: There is something ridiculous, Stranger, in our proposing such
an alternative, as if we were legislators, simply bound under some great
necessity which cannot be deferred to the morrow. But we, as I may by
the grace of Heaven affirm, like gatherers of stones or beginners of
some composite work, may gather a heap of materials, and out of this, at
our leisure, select what is suitable for our projected construction. Let
us then suppose ourselves to be at leisure, not of necessity building,
but rather like men who are partly providing materials, and partly
putting them together. And we may truly say that some of our laws, like
stones, are already fixed in their places, and others lie at hand.
ATHENIAN: Certainly, in that case, Cleinias, our view of law will be
more in accordance with nature. For there is another matter affecting
legislators, which I must earnestly entreat you to consider.
CLEINIAS: What is it?
ATHENIAN: There are many writings to be found in cities, and among
them there are discourses composed by legislators as well as by other
persons.
CLEINIAS: To be sure.
ATHENIAN: Shall we give heed rather to the writings of those
others--poets and the like, who either in metre or out of metre have
recorded their advice about the conduct of life, and not to the writings
of legislators? or shall we give heed to them above all?
CLEINIAS: Yes; to them far above all others.