[39] Exodus, xxi. 20 sq.
[40] Lane, Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, p. 115. Idem, Arabian Society in the Middle Ages, p. 251.
[41] Idem, Modern Egyptians, p. 119. Idem, Arabian Society, p. 18 sq.
Among the ancient Teutons the master was irresponsible in the eye of the law as to all dealings between himself and his slave; legally the slave was on a par with the horse and the ox, and to kill him was only to inflict a certain loss upon the owner.[42] In ancient Wales the position of a slave seems to have been very similar; there was no galanas for a bondman, “only payment of his worth to his master, like the worth of a beast.”[43] Among the Greeks, in the Homeric age, the master evidently could punish his slaves with death;[44] but in later times, at least at Athens, he was obliged to hand over to the magistrate any slave of his who deserved capital punishment.[45] What happened to a master who killed his own slave we do not know exactly, but at any rate he had to undergo a ceremony of purification.[46] Plato says in his ‘Laws,’ that if a person kills the slave of another in anger, he shall pay twice the amount of the loss to his owner.[47] But he adds, “If any one kills a slave who has done no wrong, because he is afraid that he may inform of some base and evil deeds of his own, or for any similar reason, in such a case let him pay the penalty of murder, as he would have done if he had slain a citizen.”[48]
[42] Grimm, Deutsche Rechtsalterthümer, p. 342 sqq. Brunner, Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte, i. 96. Kemble, Saxons in England, i. 208 sqq. Stemann, op. cit. p. 281 sqq. Keyser, op. cit. ii. pt. i. 289.
[43] Dimetian Code, iii. 3. 8.
[44] Odyssey, iv. 743; xix. 489 sq.
[45] Schmidt, Ethik der alten Griechen, ii. 217. Hermann-Blümner, Lehrbuch der griechischen Privatalterthümer, p. 88, n. 3.
[46] Plato, Leges, ix. 865, 868. Schmidt, op. cit. ii. 217 sq.
[47] Plato, Leges, ix. 868.