oceed: If any one slays a freeman with his own hand,
and the deed be done in a moment of anger, and without premeditation,
let the offender suffer in other respects as the involuntary homicide
would have suffered, and also undergo an exile of two years, that he may
learn to school his passions. But he who slays another from passion, yet
with premeditation, shall in other respects suffer as the former; and
to this shall be added an exile of three instead of two years--his
punishment is to be longer because his passion is greater. The manner of
their return shall be on this wise: (and here the law has difficulty in
determining exactly; for in some cases the murderer who is judged by the
law to be the worse may really be the less cruel, and he who is judged
the less cruel may be really the worse, and may have executed the murder
in a more savage manner, whereas the other may have been gentler. But in
general the degrees of guilt will be such as we have described them. Of
all these things the guardians of the law must take cognizance): When a
homicide of either kind has completed his term of exile, the guardians
shall send twelve judges to the borders of the land; these during the
interval shall have informed themselves of the actions of the criminals,
and they shall judge respecting their pardon and reception; and the
homicides shall abide by their judgment. But if after they have returned
home, any one of them in a moment of anger repeats the deed, let him be
an exile, and return no more; or if he returns, let him suffer as the
stranger was to suffer in a similar case. He who kills his own slave
shall undergo a purification, but if he kills the slave of another in
anger, he shall pay twice the amount of the loss to his owner. And
if any homicide is disobedient to the law, and without purification
pollutes the agora, or the games, or the temples, he who pleases may
bring to trial the next of kin to the dead man for permitting him, and
the murderer with him, and may compel the one to exact and the other to
suffer a double amount of fines and purifications; and the accuser shall
himself receive the fine in accordance with the law. If a slave in a fit
of passion kills his master, the kindred of the deceased man may do with
the murderer (provided only they do not spare his life) whatever they
please, and they will be pure; or if he kills a freeman, who is not
his master, the owner shall give up the slave to the relatives of the