Encyclopedia of Society and Culture in the Ancient World

(Sean Pound) #1

FURTHER READING
Shafik Allam, “Egyptian Law Courts in Pharaonic and Helle-
nistic Times,” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 77 (1991):
109–127.
Th e Avalon Project, “Th e Twelve Tables,” Th e Avalon Project at Yale
Law School. Trans. E. H. Warmington. Available online. URL:
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/medieval/twelve_tables.
htm. Downloaded on February 10, 2007.
Mary Dowling Daly, Traditional Irish Laws (San Francisco: Chron-
icle Books, 1998).
Jack H. Driberg, “Th e African Conception of Law,” Journal of
Comparative Legislation and International Law 16 (1934):
230–246.
Ta sl i m O. E l ia s , Th e Nature of African Customary Law (Manchester,
U.K.: Manchester University Press, 1956).
Christopher J. Eyre, “Crime and Adultery in Ancient Egypt,” Jour-
nal of Egyptian Archaeology 70 (1984): 92–105.


Michael Gagarin and David Cohen, eds., Th e Cambridge Compan-
ion to Ancient Greek Law (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 2005).
Jean-Marie Kruchten, “Law,” in Th e Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient
Egypt, vol. 2, ed. D. Redford (New York: Oxford University
Press, 2001): pp. 277–282.
Douglas M. MacDowell, Th e Law in Classical Athens (Ithaca, N.Y.:
Cornell University Press, 1978).
Martha T. Roth, Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Mi-
nor, 2nd ed. (Atlanta, Ga.: Scholars Press, 1997).
Aristide Th éodoridès, “Th e Concept of Law in Ancient Egypt,” in
Th e Legacy of Egypt, ed. J. R. Harris (Oxford, U.K: Clarendon
Press, 1971): pp. 291–322.
J. A. C. Th omas, Te x t b o o k o f R o m a n L aw (Amsterdam, Netherlands:
Elsevier, 1976).
R. F. Willetts, Th e Law Code of Gortyn (Berlin, Germany: de Gruyter,
1967).


  1. If one shall permit himself to be summoned as a
    witness, or has been a weigher, if he does not give his
    testimony, let him be noted as dishonest and incapable
    of acting again as witness.

  2. Any person who destroys by burning any building
    or heap of corn deposited alongside a house shall
    be bound, scourged, and put to death by burning at
    the stake, provided that he has committed the said
    misdeed with malice aforethought; but if he shall have
    committed it by accident, that is, by negligence, it is
    ordained that he repair the damage or, if he be too poor
    to be competent for such punishment, he shall receive a
    lighter punishment.

  3. If the theft has been done by night, if the owner kills
    the thief, the thief shall be held to be lawfully killed.

  4. It is unlawful for a thief to be killed by day... unless
    he defends himself with a weapon; even though he has
    come with a weapon, unless he shall use the weapon and
    fi ght back, you shall not kill him. And even if he resists,
    fi rst call out so that someone may hear and come up.

  5. A person who had been found guilty of giving false
    witness shall be hurled down from the Tarpeian Rock.

  6. No person shall hold meetings by night in the city.


TABLE IX.



  1. Th e penalty shall be capital for a judge or arbiter
    legally appointed who has been found guilty of receiving
    a bribe for giving a decision.
    5. Treason: He who shall have roused up a public enemy
    or handed over a citizen to a public enemy must suff er
    capital punishment.
    6. Putting to death of any man, whosoever he might be
    unconvicted is forbidden.


TABLE X.



  1. None is to bury or burn a corpse in the city.

  2. Th e women shall not tear their faces nor wail on
    account of the funeral.

  3. If one obtains a crown himself, or if his chattel does
    so because of his honor and valor, if it is placed on his
    head, or the head of his parents, it shall be no crime.


TABLE XI.



  1. Marriages should not take place between plebeians
    and patricians.


TABLE XII.



  1. If a slave shall have committed theft or done damage
    with his master’s knowledge, the action for damages is
    in the slave’s name.

  2. Whatever the people had last ordained should be held
    as binding by law.


From: Oliver J. Th atcher, ed., Th e Library
of Original Sources, Vol. 3, Th e Roman
World (Milwaukee, Wisc.: University
Research Extension Co., 1901): pp. 9–11.

(cont inues)

638 laws and legal codes: further reading
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