The Twelve Tables | Page 4

part of it].
10. [The owner of a tree] may gather its fruit which falls upon another's farm.

TABLE VIII. TORTS OR DELICTS
1. If any person had sung or had composed a song,[35] which caused slander[36] or insult to another person ... he should be clubbed to death.[37]
2. A person who had sung an evil spell ...[38]
3. If a person has broken another's limb (membrum),[39] unless he make agreement [for compensation] with him, there shall be retaliation in kind (talio).[40]
4. If a person has broken or has bruised a bone with hand club, he [shall] undergo a penalty of 300 [asses, if] to [an injured] freeman, [or] of 150 [asses,] if to [an injured] slave.
5. If a person shall have done [simple] harm (iniuria) to another, penalties shall be 25 asses.
6. [If] a person shall have caused loss ... [41]
7. If a quadruped shall be said to have caused damage (pauperies), legal action (actio) [shall be sanctioned] either for the surrender of the thing which made the damage[42] or for the offer of assessment for the damage.
8. [If a person] pasture [his] cattle [on a neighbor's land, he shall be liable to a legal action].[43]
9. He who has enchanted crops[44] ... nor should he decoy another's corn ... [45]
10. For pasturing on or for cutting secretly by night [another's] crops acquired by tillage [shall be] in the case of an adult hanging and death [by sacrifice] to Ceres;[46] a person under the age of puberty (under 15 years of age) [shall] either be scourged at the discretion [of the magistrate] or make composition by [paying] double [damages] for the harm [done].
11. Who shall have destroyed by burning a building or a stack of corn set alongside a house is ordered to be bound, scourged, burned to death, provided that knowingly and consciously he shall have committed this; but if this be by accident [, that is] by negligence, either he is ordered to repair the damage or, if he be too poor to be competent for such punishment, he shall be chastised more lightly.
12. Any person who shall have felled wrongfully (iniuria) other persons' trees shall pay 25 asses for every [tree].
13. If theft has been done by night, if [owner] has killed him (the thief), he (the thief) shall be [held] killed lawfully (iure).
14. It is forbidden that a thief be killed by day ... Unless he (the thief) defend himself with a weapon, even though he (the thief) shall have come with a weapon, unless he (the thief) shall use that weapon and shall resist, you shall not kill him. And even if he (the thief) resist, [you] shall shout [, that some persons may hear and assemble].[47]
15. In the case of all other thieves caught in the act [it is ordained] that freemen be scourged and be adjudged [as bondsmen] to the person against whom the theft has been committed, provided that they had done this by day and had not defended themselves with a weapon; that slaves caught in the act of theft be whipped with scourges and be thrown from the rock;[48] that boys below the age of puberty (under 15 years old) be flogged at [the magistrate's] discretion and that damage done by them be repaired.
16. Thefts which have been discovered through [use of] platter and loincloth [shall be punished just as if the culprits had been caught in the act]. For cases of stolen goods discovered (furtum conceptum) [by other means than by platter and loincloth] or introduced (furtum oblatum) the penalty is triple [damages].[49]
17. If a person plead on case of theft, in which [the thief] shall not be caught in the act, [the thief] shall compound for the loss by [paying] double [damages].[50]
18. A stolen thing is debarred from prescription (usucapio).[51]
19. No person shall practise usury at a rate of more than one-twelfth[52] ... [if he do,] a usurer shall be condemned for quadruple [damages].
20. In a suit concerning an article deposited [with a person who has failed to return the article] legal action (actio) for double [damages is granted].
21. [If] guardians (tutor et curator) [be suspected of mal-administration, there is] the right to accuse [them] on suspicion ... the legal action (actio) against guardians (tutor) [shall be] for double [damages].
22. If a patron (patronus) shall have defrauded a client (cliens), he shall be forfeited solemnly (sacer).[53]
23. Whoever shall have allowed himself to be called as a witness or shall have been a scales-bearer (libripens),[54] if he [as a witness] pronounce not his testimony, he shall be dishonored and incapable of giving evidence (intestabilis).
24. The penalty for false testimonies [is] that any person who has been convicted of speaking false witness [shall be] precipitated from the Tarpeian Rock.
25. If a weapon has sped from one's hand rather than [if the wielder] has hurled