When a man becomes surety, let him give the security in a distinctform, acknowledging the whole transaction in a written document, andin the presence of not less than three witnesses if the sum be under athousand drachmae, and of not less than five witnesses if the sum beabove a thousand drachmae. The agent of a dishonest or untrustworthyseller shall himself be responsible; both the agent and theprincipal shall be equally liable. If a person wishes to find anythingin the house of another, he shall enter naked, or wearing only a shorttunic and without a girdle, having first taken an oath by thecustomary Gods that he expects to find it there; he shall then makehis search, and the other shall throw open his house and allow himto search things both sealed and unsealed. And if a person will notallow the searcher to make his search, he who is prevented shall go tolaw with him, estimating the value of the goods after which he issearching, and if the other be convicted he shall pay twice thevalue of the article. If the master be absent from home, thedwellers in the house shall let him search the unsealed property,and on the sealed property the searcher shall set another seal, andshall appoint any one whom he likes to guard them during five days;and if the master of the house be absent during a longer time, heshall take with him the wardens of the city, and so make his search,opening the sealed property as well as the unsealed, and then,together with the members of the family and the wardens of the city,he shall seal them up again as they were before. There shall be alimit of time in the case of disputed things, and he who has hadpossession of them during a certain time shall no longer be liableto be disturbed. As to houses and lands there can be no dispute inthis state of ours; but if a man has any other possessions which hehas used and openly shown in the city and in the agora and in thetemples, and no one has put in a claim to them, and some one says thathe was looking for them during this time, and the possessor isproved to have made no concealment, if they have continued for a year,the one having the goods and the other looking for them, the claimof the seeker shall not be allowed after the expiration of the year;or if he does not use or show the lost property in the market or inthe city, but only in the country, and no one offers himself as theowner during five years, at the expiration of the five years the claimshall be barred for ever after; or if he uses them in the city butwithin the house, then the appointed time of claiming the goodsshall be three years, or ten years if he has them in the country inprivate. And if he has them in another land, there shall be no limitof time or prescription, but whenever the owner finds them he mayclaim them.
If any one prevents another by force from being present at atrial, whether a principal party or his witnesses; if the personprevented be a slave, whether his own or belonging to another, thesuit shall be incomplete and invalid; but if he who is prevented bea freeman, besides the suit being incomplete, the other who hasprevented him shall be imprisoned for a year, and shall beprosecuted for kidnapping by any one who pleases. And if any onehinders by force a rival competitor in gymnastic or music, or anyother sort of contest, from being present at the contest, let himwho has a mind inform the presiding judges, and they shall liberatehim who is desirous of competing; and if they are not able, and he whohinders the other from competing wins the prize, then they shallgive the prize of victory to him who is prevented, and inscribe him asthe conqueror in any temples which he pleases; and he who hindersthe other shall not be permitted to make any offering or inscriptionhaving reference to that contest, and in any case he shall be liablefor damages, whether he be defeated or whether he conquer.
If any one knowingly receives anything which has been stolen, heshall undergo the same punishment as the thief, and if a manreceives an exile he shall be punished with death. Every man shouldregard the friend and enemy of the state as his own friend andenemy; and if any one makes peace or war with another on his ownaccount, and without the authority of the state, he, like the receiverof the exile, shall undergo the penalty of death. And if anyfraction of the City declare war or peace against any, the generalsshall indict the authors of this proceeding, and if they are convicteddeath shall be the penalty. Those who serve their country ought toserve without receiving gifts, and there ought to be no excusing orapproving the saying, "Men should receive gifts as the reward of good,but not of evil deeds"; for to know which we are doing, and to standfast by our knowledge, is no easy matter. The safest course is to obeythe law which says, "Do no service for a bribe," and let him whodisobeys, if he be convicted, simply die. With a view to taxation, forvarious reasons, every man ought to have had his property valued:
and the tribesmen should likewise bring a register of the yearlyproduce to the wardens of the country, that in this way there may betwo valuations; and the public officers may use annuary whichever onconsideration they deem the best, whether they prefer to take acertain portion of the whole value, or of the annual revenue, aftersubtracting what is paid to the common tables.
