| Plato, Laws (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Pl. Leg.]. | ||
| <<Pl. Leg. 842d | Pl. Leg. 844e (Greek) | >>Pl. Leg. 847a |
844aThus, regarding water-supplies also, there are excellent old laws laid down for farmers, which we, in our exposition, need not draw upon. Let this suffice:—he that desires to bring water to his own land may do so, commencing at the public cisterns, but he must not undercut the exposed wells of any private person: he may lead it by whatever way he wishes, except through a house, temple or tomb, and he must do no damage beyond the actual work of channelling. If, in any spot, the rain-water filters through owing to the natural dryness of the soil,
844band there is a scarcity of necessary moisture, then the owner shall dig in his own ground down to the chalk subsoil, and if he fails to find water at this depth, he shall procure from his neighbors just so much as he requires for drinking purposes for all his household; and if his neighbors also are stinted in their supplies, he shall apply for a ration of water from the land-stewards, and fetch it day by day, and so share the water with his neighbors.
844cAnd if, when rain comes, any dweller on lower ground damages the farmer above him, or the adjoining dweller, by preventing its outflow,—or if, conversely, the man on higher ground damages the man below by letting out the floods carelessly,—and if, in consequence, they refuse to accommodate one another in this matter, any person who wishes shall call in a city-steward, if it is in the city, or a land-steward, if in the country, and get an order as to what each party is to do; and the man who does not abide by the order shall be liable to be charged with envy and frowardness,
844dand if convicted he shall pay to the injured party double the damage, for refusing to obey the magistrates. As concerns the fruit-harvest, the rule of sharing for all shall be this—this goddess has bestowed on us two gifts, one the plaything of Dionysus which goes unstored, the other produced by nature for putting in store. note So let this law be enacted concerning the fruit-harvest:—whosoever shall taste of the coarse crop of grapes or figs before the season of vintage,
844ewhich coincides with the rising of Arcturus, whether it be on his own land or on that of others, shall owe fifty sacred drachmae to Dionysus if he has cut them from his own trees, if from his neighbor's trees, a mina, and if from others, two-thirds of a mina. And if any man wishes to harvest “choice” grapes or “choice” figs (as they are now called), he shall gather them how and when he will if they are from his own trees, but if they are from another man's, and without his consent, he shall be fined every time, in pursuance of the law, note “thou shalt not shift what thou hast not set.”
845aAnd if a slave, without the consent of the master of the plots, touches any of such fruit, he shall be beaten with stripes as many as the grapes in the bunch or the figs on the fig-tree. If a resident alien buys a choice crop, he shall harvest it if he wishes. If a foreigner sojourning in the country desires to eat of the crop as he passes along the road, he, with one attendant,
845bshall, if he wishes, take some of the choice fruit with-out price, as a gift of hospitality; but the law shall forbid our foreigners to share in the so-called “coarse” fruit, and the like; and should either a master or a slave touch these, in ignorance, the slave shall be punished with stripes, and the free man shall be sent off with a reproof and be instructed to touch only the other crop, which is unfitted for storing to make raisins for wine or dried figs. As to pears, apples, pomegranates, and all such fruits,
845cit shall be no disgrace to take them privily; but the man that is caught at it, if he be under thirty years of age, shall be beaten and driven off without wounds; and for such blows a free man shall have no right to sue. A foreigner shall be allowed to share in these fruits in the same way as in the grape crop; and if a man above thirty touch them, eating on the spot and not taking any away, he shall have a share in all such fruits, like the foreigner; but if he disobeys the law, he shall be liable to be disqualified
845din seeking honors, in case anyone brings these facts to the notice of the judges at the time. Water above all else in a garden is nourishing; but it is easy to spoil. For while soil and sun and wind, which jointly with water nourish growing plants, are not easy to spoil by means of sorcery or diverting or theft, all these things may happen to water; hence it requires the assistance of law.
845eLet this, then, be the law concerning it:—if anyone wantonly spoil another man's water, whether in spring or in pond, by means of sorcery, digging, or theft, the injured party shall sue him before the city-stewards, recording the amount of the damage sustained; and whosoever is convicted of damaging by poisons shall, in addition to the fine, clean out the springs or the basin of the water, in whatever way the laws of the interpreters declare it right for the purification to be made on each occasion and for each plaintiff. Touching the bringing home of all crops,
846awhoso wills shall be permitted to fetch his own stuff through any place, provided that either he does no damage or else gains himself three times as much profit as the damage he costs his neighbor; the authority in this matter shall rest with the magistrates, as in all other cases where a man willingly injures an unwilling party either by force or secretly—whether it be the party himself he injures or some of his chattels, by means of his own chattels; in all such cases the plaintiff must report to the magistrates to get redress, where the damage is under three minas; but if a man makes a larger claim than this
| Plato, Laws (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Pl. Leg.]. | ||
| <<Pl. Leg. 842d | Pl. Leg. 844e (Greek) | >>Pl. Leg. 847a |
