e 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 t