and in the second place he shall be liable to
be prosecuted by any one who is willing to inflict retribution on behalf
of the dead. And he who would avenge a murder shall observe all the
precautionary ceremonies of lavation, and any others which the God
commands in cases of this kind. Let him have proclamation made, and then
go forth and compel the perpetrator to suffer the execution of justice
according to the law. Now the legislator may easily show that these
things must be accomplished by prayers and sacrifices to certain Gods,
who are concerned with the prevention of murders in states. But who
these Gods are, and what should be the true manner of instituting such
trials with due regard to religion, the guardians of the law, aided by
the interpreters, and the prophets, and the God, shall determine, and
when they have determined let them carry on the prosecution at law. The
cause shall have the same judges who are appointed to decide in the case
of those who plunder temples. Let him who is convicted be punished with
death, and let him not be buried in the country of the murdered man, for
this would be shameless as well as impious. But if he fly and will not
stand his trial, let him fly for ever; or, if he set foot anywhere
on any part of the murdered man's country, let any relation of the
deceased, or any other citizen who may first happen to meet with him,
kill him with impunity, or bind and deliver him to those among the
judges of the case who are magistrates, that they may put him to death.
And let the prosecutor demand surety of him whom he prosecutes; three
sureties sufficient in the opinion of the magistrates who try the cause
shall be provided by him, and they shall undertake to produce him at the
trial. But if he be unwilling or unable to provide sureties, then the
magistrates shall take him and keep him in bonds, and produce him at the
day of trial.

If a man do not commit a murder with his own hand, but contrives the
death of another, and is the author of the deed in intention and design,
and he continues to dwell in the city, having his soul not pure of
the guilt of murder, let him be tried in the same way, except in what
relates to the sureties; and also, if he be found guilty, his body after
execution may have burial in his native land, but in all other respects
his case shall be as the former; and whether a stranger shall kill a
citizen, or a citizen a stranger, or a slave a slave, there shall be
no dif