Laws
the penalty. And if a brother or a sister intentionally wound a brother
or a sister, and is found guilty, death shall be the penalty. And if a
husband wound a wife, or a wife a husband, with intent to kill, let him
or her undergo perpetual exile; if they have sons or daughters who are
still young, the guardians shall take care of their property, and have
charge of the children as orphans. If their sons are grown up, they
shall be under no obligation to support the exiled parent, but they
shall possess the property themselves. And if he who meets with such a
misfortune has no children, the kindred of the exiled man to the
degree of sons of cousins, both on the male and female side, shall meet
together, and after taking counsel with the guardians of the law and
the priests, shall appoint a 5040th citizen to be the heir of the house,
considering and reasoning that no house of all the 5040 belongs to
the inhabitant or to the whole family, but is the public and private
property of the state. Now the state should seek to have its houses as
holy and happy as possible. And if any one of the houses be unfortunate,
and stained with impiety, and the owner leave no posterity, but dies
unmarried, or married and childless, having suffered death as the
penalty of murder or some other crime committed against the Gods or
against his fellow-citizens, of which death is the penalty distinctly
laid down in the law; or if any of the citizens be in perpetual exile,
and also childless, that house shall first of all be purified and
undergo expiation according to law; and then let the kinsmen of the
house, as we were just now saying, and the guardians of the law, meet
and consider what family there is in the state which is of the highest
repute for virtue and also for good fortune, in which there are a number
of sons; from that family let them take one and introduce him to the
father and forefathers of the dead man as their son, and, for the sake
of the omen, let him be called so, that he may be the continuer of their
family, the keeper of their hearth, and the minister of their sacred
rites with better fortune than his father had; and when they have made
this supplication, they shall make him heir according to law, and the
offending person they shall leave nameless and childless and portionless
when calamities such as these overtake him.
Now the boundaries of some things do not touch one another, but there is
a borderland which comes in between, preventing them from touching. And
we were saying that actions done from passion are of this nature, and
come in between the voluntary and involuntary. If a person be convicted
of having inflicted wounds in a passion, in the first place he shall
pay twice the amount of the injury, if the wound be curable, or, if
incurable, four times the amount of the injury; or if the wound be
curable, and at the same time cause great and notable disgrace to the
wounded person, he shall pay fourfold. And whenever any one in wounding
another injures not only the sufferer, but also the city, and makes him
incapable of defending his country against the enemy, he, besides the
other penalties, shall pay a penalty for the loss which the state has
incurred. And the penalty shall be, that in addition to his own times of
service, he shall serve on behalf of the disabled person, and shall take
his place in war; or, if he refuse, he shall be liable to be convicted
by law of refusal to serve. The compensation for the injury, whether to
be twofold or threefold or fourfold, shall be fixed by the judges who
convict him. And if, in like manner, a brother wounds a brother, the
parents and kindred of either sex, including the children of cousins,
whether on the male or female side, shall meet, and when they have
judged the cause, they shall entrust the assessment of damages to
the parents, as is natural; and if the estimate be disputed, then the
kinsmen on the male side shall make the estimate, or if they cannot,
they shall commit the matter to the guardians of the law. And when
similar charges of wounding are brought by children against their
parents, those who are more than sixty years of age, having children of
their own, not adopted, shall be required to decide; and if any one
is convicted, they shall determine whether he or she ought to die, or
suffer some other punishment either greater than death, or, at any rate,
not much less. A kinsman of the offender shall not be allowed to judge
the cause, not even if he be of the age which is prescribed by the law.
If a slave in a fit of anger wound a freeman, the owner of the slave
shall give him up to the wounded man, who may do as he pleases with him,
and if he do not give him up he shall himself make good the injury.
And if any one says that the slave and the wounded man are conspiring
together, let him argue the point, and if he is cast, he shall pay for
the wrong three times over, but if he gains his case, the freeman who
conspired with the slave shall be liable to an action for kidnapping.
And if any one unintentionally wounds another he shall simply pay for
the harm, for no legislator is able to control chance. In such a case
the judges shall be the same as those who are appointed in the case of
children suing their parents; and they shall estimate the amount of the
injury.
All the preceding injuries and every kind of assault are deeds of
violence; and every man, woman, or child ought to consider that the
elder has the precedence of the younger in honour, both among the Gods
and also among men who would live in security and happiness. Wherefore
it is a foul thing and hateful to the Gods to see an elder man assaulted
by a younger in the city, and it is reasonable that a young man when
struck by an elder should lightly endure his anger, laying up in store
for himself a like honour when he is old. Let this be the law: Every one
shall reverence his elder in word and deed; he shall respect any one who
is twenty years older than himself, whether male or female, regarding
him or her as his father or mother; and he shall abstain from laying
hands on any one who is of an age to have been his father or mother, out
of reverence to the Gods who preside over birth; similarly he shall
keep his hands from a stranger, whether he be an old inhabitant or newly
arrived; he shall not venture to correct such an one by blows, either
as the aggressor or in self-defence. If he thinks that some stranger has
struck him out of wantonness or insolence, and ought to be punished, he
shall take him to the wardens of the city, but let him not strike him,
that the stranger may be kept far away from the possibility of lifting
up his hand against a citizen, and let the wardens of the city take
the offender and examine him, not forgetting their duty to the God of
Strangers, and in case the stranger appears to have struck the citizen
unjustly, let them inflict upon him as many blows with the scourge as he
was himself inflicted, and quell his presumption. But if he be innocent,
they shall threaten and rebuke the man who arrested him, and let them
both go. If a person strikes another of the same age or somewhat older
than himself, who has no children, whether he be an old man who strikes
an old man or a young man who strikes a young man, let the person struck
defend himself in the natural way without a weapon and with his hands
only. He who, being more than forty years of age, dares to fight with
another, whether he be the aggressor or in self-defence, shall
be regarded as rude and ill-mannered and slavish--this will be a
disgraceful punishment, and therefore suitable to him. The obedient
nature will readily yield to such exhortations, but the disobedient,
who heeds not the prelude, shall have the law ready for him: If any man
smite another who is older than himself, either by twenty or by more
years, in the first place, he who is at hand, not being younger than the
combatants, nor their equal in age, shall separate them, or be disgraced
according to law; but if he be the equal in age of the person who is
struck or younger, he shall defend the person injured as he would a
brother or father or still older relative. Further, let him who dares to
smite an elder be tried for assault, as I have said, and if he be found
guilty, let him be imprisoned for a period of not less than a year, or
if the judges approve of a longer period, their decision shall be final.
But if a stranger or metic smite one who is older by twenty years or
more, the same law shall hold about the bystanders assisting, and he who
is found guilty in such a suit, if he be a stranger but not resident,
shall be imprisoned during a period of two years; and a metic who
disobeys the laws shall be imprisoned for three years, unless the court
assign him a longer term. And let him who was present in any of these
cases and did not assist according to law be punished, if he be of the
highest class, by paying a fine of a mina; or if he be of the second
class, of fifty drachmas; or if of the third class, by a fine of thirty
drachmas; or if he be of the fourth class, by a fine of twenty drachmas;
and the generals and taxiarchs and phylarchs and hipparchs shall form
the court in such cases.
Laws are partly framed for the sake of good men, in order to instruct
them how they may live on friendly terms with one another, and partly
for the sake of those who refuse to be instructed, whose spirit cannot
be subdued, or softened, or hindered from plunging into evil. These are
the persons who cause the word to be spoken which I am about to utter;
for them the legislator legislates of necessity, and in the hope that
there may be no need of his laws. He who shall dare to lay violent hands
upon his father or mother, or any still older relative, having no fear
either of the wrath of the Gods above, or of the punishments that are
spoken of in the world below, but transgresses in contempt of ancient
and universal traditions as though he were too wise to believe in them,
requires some extreme measure of prevention. Now death is not the worst
that can happen to men; far worse are the punishments which are said to
pursue them in the world below. But although they are most true tales,
they work on such souls no prevention; for if they had any effect there
would be no slayers of mothers, or impious hands lifted up against
parents; and therefore the punishments of this world which are inflicted
during life ought not in such cases to fall short, if possible, of the
terrors of the world below. Let our enactment then be as follows: If
a man dare to strike his father or his mother, or their fathers or
mothers, he being at the time of sound mind, then let any one who is
at hand come to the rescue as has been already said, and the metic or
stranger who comes to the rescue shall be called to the first place
in the games; but if he do not come he shall suffer the punishment of
perpetual exile. He who is not a metic, if he comes to the rescue, shall
have praise, and if he do not come, blame. And if a slave come to the
rescue, let him be made free, but if he do not come to the rescue, let
him receive 100 strokes of the whip, by order of the wardens of the
agora, if the occurrence take place in the agora; or if somewhere in the
city beyond the limits of the agora, any warden of the city who is in
residence shall punish him; or if in the country, then the commanders
of the wardens of the country. If those who are near at the time be
inhabitants of the same place, whether they be youths, or men, or women,
let them come to the rescue and denounce him as the impious one; and he
who does not come to the rescue shall fall under the curse of Zeus, the
God of kindred and of ancestors, according to law. And if any one is
found guilty of assaulting a parent, let him in the first place be