(4) Justifiable or excusable homicide.  Plato and Athenian law agree in making homicide justifiable or excusable in the following cases:—­(1) at the games (Telfy); (2) in war (Telfy); (3) if the person slain was found doing violence to a free woman (Telfy); (4) if a doctor’s patient dies; (5) in the case of a robber (Telfy); (6) in self-defence (Telfy).

(5) Impiety.  Death or expulsion was the Athenian penalty for impiety (Telfy).  In the Laws it is punished in various cases by imprisonment for five years, for life, and by death.

(6) Sacrilege.  Robbery of temples at Athens was punished by death, refusal of burial in the land, and confiscation of property (Telfy).  In the Laws the citizen who is guilty of such a crime is to ’perish ingloriously and be cast beyond the borders of the land,’ but his property is not confiscated.

(7) Sorcery.  The sorcerer at Athens was to be executed (Telfy):  compare Laws, where it is enacted that the physician who poisons and the professional sorcerer shall be punished with death.

(8) Treason.  Both at Athens and in the Laws the penalty for treason was death (Telfy), and refusal of burial in the country (Telfy).

(9) Sheltering exiles.  ’If a man receives an exile, he shall be punished with death.’  So, too, in Athenian law (Telfy.).

(10) Wounding.  Athenian law compelled a man who had wounded another to go into exile; if he returned, he was to be put to death (Telfy).  Plato only punishes the offence with death when children wound their parents or one another, or a slave wounds his master.

(11) Bribery.  Death was the punishment for taking a bribe, both at Athens (Telfy) and in the Laws; but Athenian law offered an alternative—­the payment of a fine of ten times the amount of the bribe.

(12) Theft.  Plato, like Athenian law (Telfy), punishes the theft of public property by death; the theft of private property in both involves a fine of double the value of the stolen goods (Telfy).

(13) Suicide.  He ’who slays him who of all men, as they say, is his own best friend,’ is regarded in the same spirit by Plato and by Athenian law.  Plato would have him ’buried ingloriously on the borders of the twelve portions of the land, in such places as are uncultivated and nameless,’ and ‘no column or inscription is to mark the place of his interment.’  Athenian law enacted that the hand which did the deed should be separated from the body and be buried apart (Telfy).

(14) Injury.  In cases of wilful injury, Athenian law compelled the guilty person to pay double the damage; in cases of involuntary injury, simple damages (Telfy).  Plato enacts that if a man wounds another in passion, and the wound is curable, he shall pay double the damage, if incurable or disfiguring, fourfold damages.  If, however, the wounding is accidental, he shall simply pay for the harm done.

(15) Treatment of parents.  Athenian law allowed any one to indict another for neglect or illtreatment of parents (Telfy).  So Plato bids bystanders assist a father who is assaulted by his son, and allows any one to give information against children who neglect their parents.