And if,in like manner,a brother wounds a brother,the parents and kindred of either sex,including the children of cousins,whether on the male or female side,shall meet,and when they have judged the cause,they shall entrust the assessment of damages to the parents,as is natural;and if the estimate be disputed,then the kinsmen on the male side shall make the estimate,or if they cannot,they shall commit the matter to the guardians of the law.And when similar charges of wounding are brought by children against their parents,those who are more than sixty years of age,having children 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 be 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 reliable 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 his 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 possibility of lifting up his hand against a citizen,and let the wardens of the city take the offender and examine him,not forgetting their duty to the God of Strangers,and in case the stranger appears to have struck the citizen unjustly,let them inflict upon him as many blows with the scourge as he has himself inflicted,and quell his presumption.But if he be innocent,they shall threaten and rebuke the man who arrested him,and let them both go.If a person strikes another of the same age or somewhat older than himself,who has no children,whether he be an old man who strikes an old man or a young man who strikes a young man,let the person struck defend himself in the natural way without a weapon and with his hands only.He who,being more than forty years of age,dares to fight with another,whether he be the aggressor or in self defence,shall be regarded as rude and ill-mannered and slavish;-this will be a disgraceful punishment,and therefore suitable to him.The obedient nature will readily yield to such exhortations,but the disobedient,who heeds not the prelude,shall have the law ready for him:-If any man smite another who is older than himself,either by twenty or by more years,in the first place,he who is at hand,not being younger than the combatants,nor their equal in age,shall separate them,or be disgraced according to law;but if he be the equal in age of the person who is struck or younger,he shall defend the person injured as he would a brother or father or still older relative.Further,let him who dares to smite an elder be tried for assault,as I have said,and if he be found guilty,let him be imprisoned for a period of not less than a year,or if the judges approve of a longer period,their decision shall be final.
