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very likely commit some of these crimes, either in a state of madness or when
affected by disease, or under the influence of extreme old age, or in a fit of
childish wantonness, himself no better than a child. And if this be made
evident to the judges elected to try the cause, on the appeal of the criminal or
his advocate, and he be judged to have been in this state when he committed
the offence, he shall simply pay for the hurt which he may have done to
another; but he shall be exempt from other penalties, unless he have slain
some one, and have on his hands the stain of blood. And in that case he shall
go to another land and country, and there dwell for a year; and if he return
before the expiration of the time which the law appoints, or even set his foot
at all on his native land, he shall be bound by the guardians of the law in the
public prison for two years, and then go free.
Having begun to speak of homicide, let us endeavour to lay down laws
concerning every different kind of homicides, and, first of all, concerning
violent and involuntary homicides. If any one in an athletic contest, and at the
public games, involuntarily kills a friend, and he dies either at the time or
afterwards of the blows which he has received; or if the like misfortune
happens to any one in war, or military exercises, or mimic contests. of which
the magistrates enjoin the practice, whether with or without arms, when he
has been purified according to the law brought from Delphi relating to these
matters, he shall be innocent. And so in the case of physicians: if their patient
dies against their will, they shall be held guiltless by the law. And if one slay
another with his own hand, but unintentionally, whether he be unarmed or
have some instrument or dart in his hand; or if he kill him by administering
food or drink or by the application of fire or cold, or by suffocating him,
whether he do the deed by his own hand, or by the agency of others, he shall
be deemed the agent, and shall suffer one of the following penalties:—If he
kill the slave of another in the belief that he is his own, he shall bear the
master of the dead man harmless from loss, or shall pay a penalty of twice the
value of the dead man, which the judges shall assess; but purifications must
be used greater and more numerous than for those who committed homicide
at the games;—what they are to be, the interpreters whom the God appoints
shall be authorized to declare. And if a man kills his own slave, when he has
been purified according to laws he shall be quit of the homicide. And if a man
kills a freeman unintentionally, he shall undergo the same purification as he
did who killed the slave. But let him not forget also a tale of olden time,
which is to this effect:—He who has suffered a violent end, when newly dead,
if he has had the soul of a freeman in life, is angry with the author of his
death; and being himself full of fear and panic by reason of his violent end,
when he sees his murderer walking about in his own accustomed haunts, he is
stricken with terror and becomes disordered, and this disorder of his, aided by
1524
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The Complete Plato
- Title
- The Complete Plato
- Author
- Plato
- Date
- ~347 B.C.
- Language
- English
- License
- PD
- Size
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Pages
- 1612
- Keywords
- Philosophy, Antique, Philosophie, Antike, Dialogues, Metaphysik, Metaphysics, Ideologie, Ideology, Englisch
- Categories
- Geisteswissenschaften
- International