28
It shall be lawful to killi.e. if they resist capture. murderers in our own territory, or to arrest them as directed on the first turning-table,Solon’s laws were inscribed on square tablets, attached (by hinges?) to an upright post. These posts stood in the Agora, accessible to all. but not to maltreat or amerce them, on penalty of a payment of twice the damage inflicted. The Archons, according to their several jurisdictions, shall bring cases into court; for any man who so desires and the court of Heliaea shall adjudicate.
29
You have heard the law, men of Athens; and I beg you to examine it and observe how admirably and most righteously it is framed by the legislator. He uses the term murderers; but in the first place you see that by murderer he means a man found guilty by verdict; for no man comes under that designation until he has been convicted and found guilty.
30
That is made clear both in the earlier statute and in this one; for in the former, after the words if any man kill, the legislator directs the Council to take cognizance, and here, after designating the man as the murderer, he has directed what is to be done to him. That is to say, when it is a question of accusation, he has ordered a trial, but when the culprit, being found guilty, is liable to this designation, he has specified the penalty. Therefore he should be speaking only of persons found guilty. Well, what does he direct? That it shall be lawful to kill them and to put them under arrest.