of the registers of property. If the property is registered as belonging
to some one who is absent, possession shall be given to him who offers
sufficient security on behalf of the absentee; or if the property is not
registered, let it remain with the three eldest magistrates, and if it
should be an animal, the defeated party must pay the cost of its keep. A
man may arrest his own slave, and he may also imprison for safe-keeping
the runaway slave of a friend. Any one interfering with him must produce
three sureties; otherwise, he will be liable to an action for violence,
and if he be cast, must pay a double amount of damages to him from whom
he has taken the slave. A freedman who does not pay due respect to his
patron, may also be seized. Due respect consists in going three times
a month to the house of his patron, and offering to perform any lawful
service for him; he must also marry as his master pleases; and if his
property be greater than his master's, he must hand over to him the
excess. A freedman may not remain in the state, except with the consent
of the magistrates and of his master, for more than twenty years; and
whenever his census exceeds that of the third class, he must in any case
leave the country within thirty days, taking his property with him. If
he break this regulation, the penalty shall be death, and his property
shall be confiscated. Suits about these matters are to be decided in the
courts of the tribes, unless the parties have settled the matter before
a court of neighbours or before arbiters. If anybody claim a beast, or
anything else, let the possessor refer to the seller or giver of the
property within thirty days, if the latter reside in the city, or, if
the goods have been received from a stranger, within five months, of
which the middle month shall include the summer solstice. All purchases
and exchanges are to be made in the agora, and paid for on the spot; the
law will not allow credit to be given. No law shall protect the money
subscribed for clubs. He who sells anything of greater value than fifty
drachmas shall abide in the city for ten days, and let his whereabouts
be known to the buyer, in case of any reclamation. When a slave is sold
who is subject to epilepsy, stone, or any other invisible disorder, the
buyer, if he be a physician or trainer, or if he be warned, shall have
no redress; but in other cases within six months, or within twelve
months in epileptic disorders, he may bring the matter before a jury of
physicians to be agreed upon by both parties; and the seller who loses
the suit, if he be an expert, shall pay twice the price; or if he be
a private person, the bargain shall be rescinded, and he shall simply
refund. If a person knowingly sells a homicide to another, who is
informed of his character, there is no redress. But if the judges--who
are to be the five youngest guardians of the law--decide that the
purchaser was not aware, then the seller is to pay threefold, and to