and they are to determine whether death, or some lesser punishment, is to be inflicted upon them—­no relatives are to take part in the trial.  If a slave in anger smite a freeman, he is to be delivered up by his master to the injured person.  If the master suspect collusion between the slave and the injured person, he may bring the matter to trial:  and if he fail he shall pay three times the injury; or if he obtain a conviction, the contriver of the conspiracy shall be liable to an action for kidnapping.  He who wounds another unintentionally shall only pay for the actual harm done.

In all outrages and acts of violence, the elder is to be more regarded than the younger.  An injury done by a younger man to an elder is abominable and hateful; but the younger man who is struck by an elder is to bear with him patiently, considering that he who is twenty years older is loco parentis, and remembering the reverence which is due to the Gods who preside over birth.  Let him keep his hands, too, from the stranger; instead of taking upon himself to chastise him when he is insolent, he shall bring him before the wardens of the city, who shall examine into the case, and if they find him guilty, shall scourge him with as many blows as he has given; or if he be innocent, they shall warn and threaten his accuser.  When an equal strikes an equal, whether an old man an old man, or a young man a young man, let them use only their fists and have no weapons.  He who being above forty years of age commences a fight, or retaliates, shall be counted mean and base.

To this preamble, let the law be added:  If a man smite another who is his elder by twenty years or more, let the bystander, in case he be older than the combatants, part them; or if he be younger than the person struck, or of the same age with him, let him defend him as he would a father or brother; and let the striker be brought to trial, and if convicted imprisoned for a year or more at the discretion of the judges.  If a stranger smite one who is his elder by twenty years or more, he shall be imprisoned for two years, and a metic, in like case, shall suffer three years’ imprisonment.  He who is standing by and gives no assistance, shall be punished according to his class in one of four penalties—­a mina, fifty, thirty, twenty drachmas.  The generals and other superior officers of the army shall form the court which tries this class of offences.

Laws are made to instruct the good, and in the hope that there may be no need of them; also to control the bad, whose hardness of heart will not be hindered from crime.  The uttermost penalty will fall upon those who lay violent hands upon a parent, having no fear of the Gods above, or of the punishments which will pursue them in the world below.  They are too wise in their own conceits to believe in such things:  wherefore the tortures which await them in another life must be anticipated in this.  Let the law be as follows:—­