Page:Laws of Hammurabi, King of Babylonia.djvu/13

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LAWS OF HAMMURABI
71

14. Anyone adjudged to be guilty of kidnapping shall be put to death.

15. Anyone who shall abduct a slave of the court, or a female slave of the court, or the male or female slave of a freedman, shall be taken beyond the city gate and put to death.

16. Anyone harboring a runaway slave, either male or female, of the court, or of a freedman, and failing to produce him or her on the public demand of the major domo of the court, or the house of a freedman, upon conviction thereof shall be deemed guilty of felony and shall suffer death.

17. Anyone capturing a male or female slave, and returning said male or female slave to his or her master, shall be compensated by the master to the extent of 2 shekels of silver.

18. In event a runaway slave shall refuse or fail to name his master, the person capturing such slave shall produce him before the court where his identity shall be examined into and upon its being ascertained the slave shall be returned to his master.

19. Any person capturing a runaway slave and detaining him in his house and exercising ownership over him, upon conviction thereof shall be deemed guilty of felony and shall sufifer the death penalty.

20. In event a runaway slave escapes from his captor, the captor shall make oath to the owner of the slave as to the circumstances, and thereupon shall be released from any charge by reason of the escape.

21. Anyone seeking to burglarize a house, by breaking into it, shall be deemed guilty of felony and shall suffer the death penalty. The execution shall take place at the point of the breach in the house and he shall be there interred.

22. Any person convicted of a robbery shall be put to death.

23. In event anyone shall be robbed, and the person committing the robbery shall escape, the party so deprived of his property shall make claim under oath, enumerating the property of which he has been robbed, whereupon the municipality or (......) wherein said robbery was committed shall compensate him for his loss.

24. In the event of the abduction of any person, the municipality or (......) in which the abduction took place shall pay to the personal representatives of the abducted person, 1 silver "mine."

25. Any person who shall be present at a fire occurring in the house of another, and while present at such fire appropriates any article belonging to the proprietor of the house in which the fire occurs, shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and as a punishment therefor shall be thrown into the burning fire.

26. If an officer of the king or [drafted] man who has been ordered to march with the king's troops, fails so to do and procures a mercenary or substitute who performs the duty incumbent upon such officer, or [drafted] man and the officer or [drafted] man shall die while his mercenary or substitute is with the king's troops, thereupon the mercenary or substitute shall be entitled to take possession of the estate of his deceased principal.

27. If an officer or [drafted] man is captured during a reverse of the king, and during his imprisonment his property is delivered into the hands of some other person, he shall upon his release and return to his home be reinstated in the possession of his property.

28. In event of the capture of an officer of the king or [drafted] man upon a defeat suffered by his king, the officer's son shall take possession of