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