Homicides may be divided into voluntary and involuntary: and first of
involuntary homicide. He who unintentionally kills another man at the
games or in military exercises duly authorized by the magistrates,
whether death follow immediately or after an interval, shall be
acquitted, subject only to the purification required by the Delphian
Oracle. Any physician whose patient dies against his will shall in like
manner be acquitted. Any one who unintentionally kills the slave of
another, believing that he is his own, with or without weapons, shall
bear the master of the slave harmless, or pay a penalty amounting to
twice the value of the slave, and to this let him add a purification
greater than in the case of homicide at the games. If a man kill his
own slave, a purification only is required of him. If he kill a freeman
unintentionally, let him also make purification; and let him remember
the ancient tradition which says that the murdered man is indignant when
he sees the murderer walk about in his own accustomed haunts, and that
he terrifies him with the remembrance of his crime. And therefore the
homicide should keep away from his native land for a year, or, if he
have slain a stranger, let him avoid the land of the stranger for a like
period. If he complies with this condition, the nearest kinsman of the
deceased shall take pity upon him and be reconciled to him; but if he
refuses to remain in exile, or visits the temples unpurified, then
let the kinsman proceed against him, and demand a double penalty. The
kinsman who neglects this duty shall himself incur the curse, and any
one who likes may proceed against him, and compel him to leave his
country for five years. If a stranger involuntarily kill a stranger, any
one may proceed against him in the same manner: and the homicide, if
he be a metic, shall be banished for a year; but if he be an entire
stranger, whether he have murdered metic, citizen, or stranger, he shall
be banished for ever; and if he return, he shall be punished with death,
and his property shall go to the next of kin of the murdered man. If
he come back by sea against his will, he shall remain on the seashore,
wetting his feet in the water while he waits for a vessel to sail; or
if he be brought back by land, the magistrates shall send him unharmed
beyond the border.