A Treatise on Those Special Laws Which Are Referrible to Two Commandments in the Decalogue, the Sixth and Seventh, Against Adulterers and All Lewd Per

 I. (1) There was once a time when, devoting my leisure to philosophy and to the contemplation of the world and the things in it, I reaped the fruit of

 II. (7) And since of the ten commandments which God himself gave to his people without employing the agency of any prophet or interpreter, five which

 III. (12) Moreover the law has laid down other admirable regulations with regard to carnal conversation for it commands men not only to abstain from

 IV. (22) There follows after this a command not to espouse one's sister: which is an injunction of great excellence, and one which contributes very gr

 V. (26) On which account our lawgiver has also forbidden other matrimonial connections, commanding that no man shall marry his granddaughter, whether

 VI. (32) And there are particular periods affecting the health of the woman when a man may not touch her, but during that time he must abstain from al

 VII. (37) Moreover, another evil, much greater than that which we have already mentioned, has made its way among and been let loose upon cities, namel

 VIII. (43) But some persons, imitating the sensual indulgences of the Sybarites and of other nations more licentious still, have in the first place de

 IX. (51) Again, according to the injunctions of the sacred scriptures the constitution of the law does not recognise a harlot as being a person alien

 X. (52) The law has pronounced all acts of adultery, if detected in the fact, or if proved by undeniable evidence, liable to the punishment of death

 XI. (64) But if any one should offer violence to a widow after her husband is dead, or after she has been otherwise divorced from him, and defile her,

 XII. (72) Some people think that a licensed concubinage is an offence something between seduction and adultery, when the two parties come together, an

 XIII. (76) Therefore justice in every case pursues the man who has committed violence, nor is his iniquity excused by the difference of the place, so

 XIV. (79) There are also some persons easily sated with their connection with the same woman, being at once both mad for women and women haters, full

 XV. (83) The name of homicide is that affixed to him who has slain a man but in real truth it is a sacrilege, and the very greatest of all sacrileges

 XVI. (90) Therefore, since they have heaped iniquity upon iniquity, adding lawlessness and impiety to murder, they must be dragged out of the temple t

 XVII. (92) But some persons who have slain others with swords, or spears, or darts, or clubs, or stones, or something of that kind, may possibly have

 XVIII. (100) Now the true magical art, being a science of discernment, which contemplates and beholds the books of nature with a more acute and distin

 XIX. (104) This may be sufficient to say on the present occasion concerning poisoners and magicians. Moreover, we ought also not to be ignorant of thi

 XX. (110) On account of this commandment he also adds another proposition of greater importance, in which the exposure of infants is forbidden, which

 XXI. (120) The sacred law says that the man, who has been killed without any intention that he should be so on the part of him who killed him, has bee

 XXII. (124) And the cause of the first of these injunctions was this. The tribe which has been mentioned received these cities as a reward for a justi

 XXIII. (128) Therefore the lawgiver enjoins that the man who has committed an unintentional murder should flee to some one of the cities which this tr

 XXIV. (134) Such, then, is the reason which it is fitting should be communicated to the ears of the younger men. But there is another which may be wel

 XXV. This is enough to say concerning free men and citizens. The lawgiver proceeds in due order to establish laws concerning slaves who are killed by

 XXVI. (144) If a bull gore a man and kill him, let him be Stoned.[Ex 21:28.] For his flesh may not be either offered in sacrifice by the priests, nor

 XXVII. (147) Some persons are accustomed to dig very deep pits, either in order to open springs which may bubble up, or else to receive rain water, an

 XXVIII. (150) The law expressly enjoins that it shall not be lawful to take any ransom from murderers who ought to be put to death, for the purpose of

 XXIX. (153) Moreover, there is this further commandment given with great propriety, that the fathers are not to die in behalf of their sons, nor the s

 XXX. (157) But these men have this to say in excuse of themselves, that they are not pursuing any private advantage for themselves, and also that they

 XXXI. (169) Market places, and council chambers, and courts of justice, and large companies and assemblies of numerous crowds, and a life in the open

 XXXII. (178) And this is the cause which is often mentioned by many people. But I have heard another also, alleged by persons of high character, who l

 XXXIII. (181) And any one may here fitly blame those who appoint that punishments, in nowise corresponding to the offences, are to be inflicted on the

 XXXIV. (185) Now it would take a long time to enumerate all the necessities which the eyes supply to, and all the services which they perform for, the

 XXXV. (195) If therefore any one has ever plotted against this most excellent and most dominant of all the outward senses, namely sight, so as ever to

 XXXVI. (198) The law also commands that if any one strike out the tooth of a slave he shall bestow his freedom on the slave why is this? because life

XXVII. (147) Some persons are accustomed to dig very deep pits, either in order to open springs which may bubble up, or else to receive rain water, and then they widen drains under ground; in which case they ought either to build round the mouths of them, or else to put a cover on them; but still they often, out of shameful carelessness or folly, have left such places open, by which means some persons have met with destruction. (148) If, therefore, any traveller passing along the road, not knowing beforehand that there is any such pit, shall step on the hole, and fall in, and be killed, any one of the relations of the dead man who chooses may bring an accusation against those who made the pit, and the tribunal shall decide what punishment they ought to suffer, or what penalty they ought to Pay.[Ex 21:33.] But if a beast fall in and perish, then they who dug the pit shall pay its value to its owner as if it were still alive, and they shall have the dead body for themselves. (149) Again, those men also are committing an injury akin to and resembling that which has just been mentioned, who when building houses leave the roof level with the ground though they ought to protect them with a parapet, in order that no one may fall down into the hole made without perceiving it. For such men, if one is to tell the plain truth, are committing murder, as far as they themselves are concerned, even though no one fall in and perish; accordingly let them be punished equally with those who have the mouths of pits open.