If a man do not commit a murder with his own hand, but contrives thedeath of another, and is the author of the deed in intention anddesign, and he continues to dwell in the city, having his soul notpure of the guilt of murder, let him be tried in the same way,except in what relates to the sureties; and also, if he be foundguilty, his body after execution may have burial in his native land,but in all other respects his case shall be as the former; and whethera stranger shall kill a citizen, or a citizen a stranger, or a slave aslave, there shall be no difference as touching murder by one"s ownhand or by contrivance, except in the matter of sureties; and these,as has been said, shall be required of the actual murderer only, andhe who brings the accusation shall bind them over at the time. If aslave be convicted of slaying a freeman voluntarily, either by his ownhand or by contrivance, let the public executioner take him in thedirection of the sepulchre, to a place whence he can see the tomb ofthe dead man, and inflict upon him as many stripes as the person whocaught him orders, and if he survive, let him put him to death. And ifany one kills a slave who has done no wrong, because he is afraid thathe may inform of some base and evil deeds of his own, or for anysimilar reason, in such a case let him pay the penalty of murder, ashe would have done if he had slain a citizen. There are things aboutwhich it is terrible and unpleasant to legislate, but impossible notto legislate. If, for example, there should be murders of kinsmen,either perpetrated by the hands of kinsmen, or by their contrivance,voluntary and purely malicious, which most often happen inill-regulated and ill-educated states, and may perhaps occur even in acountry where a man would not expect to find them, we must repeat oncemore the tale which we narrated a little while ago, in the hope thathe who hears us will be the more disposed to abstain voluntarily onthese grounds from murders which are utterly abominable. For the myth,or saying, or whatever we ought to call it, has been plainly set forthby priests of old; they have pronounced that the justice whichguards and avenges the blood of kindred, follows the law ofretaliation, and ordains that he who has done any murderous act shouldof necessity suffer that which he has done. He who has slain afather shall himself be slain at some time or other by his children-ifa mother, he shall of necessity take a woman"s nature, and lose hislife at the hands of his offspring in after ages; for where theblood of a family has been polluted there is no other purification,nor can the pollution be washed out until the homicidal soul which thedeed has given life for life, and has propitiated and laid to sleepthe wrath of the whole family. These are the retributions of Heaven,and by such punishments men should be deterred. But if they are notdeterred, and any one should be incited by some fatality to deprivehis father or mother, or brethren, or children, of life voluntarilyand of purpose, for him the earthly lawgiver legislates asfollows:-There shall be the same proclamations about outlawry, andthere shall be the same sureties which have been enacted in the formercases. But in his case, if he be convicted, the servants of the judgesand the magistrates shall slay him at an appointed place without thecity where three ways meet, and there expose his body naked, andeach of the magistrates on behalf of the whole city shall take a stoneand cast it upon the head of the dead man, and so deliver the cityfrom pollution; after that, they shall bear him to the borders ofthe land, and cast him forth unburied, according to law. And whatshall he suffer who slays him who of all men, as they say, is hisown best friend? I mean the suicide, who deprives himself byviolence of his appointed share of life, not because the law of thestate requires him, nor yet under the compulsion of some painful andinevitable misfortune which has come upon him, nor because he hashad to suffer from irremediable and intolerable shame, but who fromsloth or want of manliness imposes upon himself an unjust penalty. Forhim, what ceremonies there are to be of purification and burial Godknows, and about these the next of kin should enquire of theinterpreters and of the laws thereto relating, and do according totheir injunctions. They who meet their death in this way shall beburied alone, and none shall be laid by their side; they shall beburied ingloriously in the borders of the twelve portions the land, insuch places as are uncultivated and nameless, and no column orinscription shall mark the place of their interment. And if a beast ofburden or other animal cause the death of any one, except in thecase of anything of that kind happening to a competitor in thepublic contests, the kinsmen of the deceased shall prosecute theslayer for murder, and the wardens of the country, such, and so manyas the kinsmen appoint, shall try the cause, and let the beast whencondemned be slain by them, and let them cast it beyond the borders.
And if any lifeless thing deprive a man of life, except in the case ofa thunderbolt or other fatal dart sent from the Gods-whether a manis killed by lifeless objects, falling upon him, or by his fallingupon them, the nearest of kin shall appoint the nearest neighbour tobe a judge, and thereby acquit himself and the whole family ofguilt. And he shall cast forth the guilty thing beyond the border,as has been said about the animals.
If a man is found dead, and his murderer be unknown, and after adiligent search cannot be detected, there shall be the sameproclamation as in the previous cases, and the same interdict on themurderer; and having proceeded against him, they shall proclaim in theagora by a herald, that he who has slain such and such a person, andhas been convicted of murder, shall not set his foot in the temples,nor at all in the country of the murdered man, and if he appears andis discovered, he shall die, and be cast forth unburied beyond theborder. Let this one law then be laid down by us about murder; and letcases of this sort be so regarded.