Leaving the common tables, we may therefore proceed to the meansof providing food. Now, in cities the means of life are gained in manyways and from divers sources, and in general from two sources, whereasour city has only one. For most of the Hellenes obtain their food fromsea and land, but our citizens from land only. And this makes the taskof the legislator less difficult-half as many laws will be enough, andmuch less than half; and they will be of a kind better suited tofree men. For he has nothing to do with laws about shipowners andmerchants and retailers and innkeepers and tax collectors and minesand moneylending and compound interest and innumerable otherthings-bidding good-bye to these, he gives laws to husbandmen andshepherds and bee-keepers, and to the guardians and superintendents oftheir implements; and he has already legislated for greater matters,as for example, respecting marriage and the procreation and nurture ofchildren, and for education, and the establishment of offices-andnow he must direct his laws to those who provide food and labour inpreparing it.
Let us first of all, then, have a class of laws which shall becalled the laws of husbandmen. And let the first of them be the law ofZeus, the god of boundaries. Let no one shift the boundary line eitherof a fellow-citizen who is a neighbour, or, if he dwells at theextremity of the land, of any stranger who is conterminous with him,considering that this is truly "to move the immovable," and everyone should be more willing to move the largest rock which is not alandmark, than the least stone which is the sworn mark of friendshipand hatred between neighbours; for Zeus, the god of kindred, is thewitness of the citizen, and Zeus, the god of strangers, of thestranger, and when aroused, terrible are the wars which they stirup. He who obeys the law will never know the fatal consequences ofdisobedience, but he who despises the law shall be liable to adouble penalty, the first coming from the Gods, and the second fromthe law. For let no one wilfully remove the boundaries of hisneighbour"s land, and if any one does, let him who will inform thelandowners, and let them bring him into court, and if he beconvicted of re-dividing the land by stealth or by force, let thecourt determine what he ought to suffer or pay. In the next place,many small injuries done by neighbours to one another, through theirmultiplication, may cause a weight of enmity, and make neighbourhood avery disagreeable and bitter thing. Wherefore a man ought to be verycareful of committing any offence against his neighbour, andespecially of encroaching on his neighbour"s land; for any man mayeasily do harm, but not every man can do good to another. He whoencroaches on his neighbour"s land, and transgresses his boundaries,shall make good the damage, and, to cure him of his impudence and alsoof his meanness, he shall pay a double penalty to the injured party.
Of these and the like matters the wardens of the country shall takecognizance, and be the judges of them and assessors of the damage;in the more important cases, as has been already said, the wholenumber of them belonging to any one of the twelve divisions shalldecide, and in the lesser cases the commanders: or, again, if anyone pastures his cattle on his neighbour"s land, they shall see theinjury, and adjudge the penalty. And if any one, by decoying the bees,gets possession of another"s swarms, and draws them to himself bymaking noises, he shall pay the damage; or if anyone sets fire tohis own wood and takes no care of his neighbour"s property, he shallbe fined at the discretion of the magistrates. And if in planting hedoes not leave a fair distance between his own and his neighbour"sland, he shall be punished, in accordance with the enactments ofmany law givers, which we may use, not deeming it necessary that thegreat legislator of our state should determine all the trifles whichmight be decided by any body; for example, husbandmen have had ofold excellent laws about waters, and there is no reason why weshould propose to divert their course: who likes may draw water fromthe fountain-head of the common stream on to his own land, if he donot cut off the spring which clearly belongs to some other owner;and he may take the water in any direction which he pleases, exceptthrough a house or temple or sepulchre, but he must be careful to dono harm beyond the channel. And if there be in any place a naturaldryness of the earth, which keeps in the rain from heaven, andcauses a deficiency in the supply of water, let him dig down on hisown land as far as the clay, and if at this depth he finds no water,let him obtain water from his neighbours, as much, as is requiredfor his servants" drinking, and if his neighbours, too, are limited intheir supply, let him have a fixed measure, which shall bedetermined by the wardens of the country. This he shall receive eachday, and on these terms have a share of his neighbours" water. Ifthere be heavy rain, and one of those on the lower ground injures sometiller of the upper ground, or some one who has a common wall, byrefusing to give the man outlet for water; or, again, if some oneliving on the higher ground recklessly lets off the water on his lowerneighbour, and they cannot come to terms with one another, let him whowill call in a warden of the city, if he be in the city, or if he bein the country, warden of the country, and let him obtain a decisiondetermining what each of them is to do. And he who will not abide bythe decision shall suffer for his malignant and morose temper, and paya fine to the injured party, equivalent to double the value of theinjury, because he was unwilling to submit to the magistrates.
