9. Branches of a tree may be lopped all around to a height of fifteen
feet.[34] If a tree on a neighbor's farm [be bent crooked] by the wind
[and] lean over one's farm, [one can take] legal action (_agere_) for
removal of that [tree or at least of the offending part of it].
10. [The owner of a tree] may gather its fruit which falls upon
another's farm.
TABLE VIII. TORTS OR DELICTS
1. If any person had sung or had composed a song,[35] which caused
slander[36] or insult to another person ... he should be clubbed to
death.[37]
2. A person who had sung an evil spell ...[38]
3. If a person has broken another's limb (_membrum_),[39] unless he
make agreement [for compensation] with him, there shall be retaliation
in kind (_talio_).[40]
4. If a person has broken or has bruised a bone with hand club, he
[shall] undergo a penalty of 300 [_asses_, if] to [an injured]
freeman, [or] of 150 [_asses_,] if to [an injured] slave.
5. If a person shall have done [simple] harm (_iniuria_) to another,
penalties shall be 25 _asses_.
6. [If] a person shall have caused loss ... [41]
7. If a quadruped shall be said to have caused damage (_pauperies_),
legal action (_actio_) [shall be sanctioned] either for the surrender
of the thing which made the damage[42] or for the offer of assessment
for the damage.
8. [If a person] pasture [his] cattle [on a neighbor's land, he shall
be liable to a legal action].[43]
9. He who has enchanted crops[44] ... nor should he decoy another's
corn ... [45]
10. For pasturing on or for cutting secretly by night [another's]
crops acquired by tillage [shall be] in the case of an adult hanging
and death [by sacrifice] to Ceres;[46] a person under the age of
puberty (under 15 years of age) [shall] either be scourged at the
discretion [of the magistrate] or make composition by [paying] double
[damages] for the harm [done].
11. Who shall have destroyed by burning a building or a stack of corn
set alongside a house is ordered to be bound, scourged, burned to
death, provided that knowingly and consciously he shall have committed
this; but if this be by accident [, that is] by negligence, either he
is ordered to repair the damage or, if he be too poor to be competent
for such punishment, he shall be chastised more lightly.
12. Any person who shall have felled wrongfully (_iniuria_) other
persons' trees shall pay 25 asses for every [tree].
13. If theft has been done by night, if [owner] has killed him (the
thief), he (the thief) shall be [held] killed lawfully (_iure_).
14. It is forbidden that a thief be killed by day ... Unless he (the
thief) defend himself with a weapon, even though he (the thief) shall
have come with a weapon, unless he (the thief) shall use that weapon
and shall resist, you shall not kill him. And even if he (the thief)
resist, [you] shall shout [, that some persons may hear and
assemble].[47]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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