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Diodorus Siculus · Bibliotheca Historica §12.21.1-12.21.3

Zaleucus' Ingenious Penalties Against Luxury and Excess

Passage 115 of 723 · Greek

Summary

Zaleucus cleverly deterred the citizens from luxury and excess through unique penalty regulations with shameful exception clauses, after which the author decides to omit further details on his contract laws to proceed with the history.

§12.21.1τῶν γὰρ ἄλλων ἁπάντων ἁμαρτανουσῶν γυναικῶν ἀργυρικὰς ζημίας τεταχότων οὗτος φιλοτέχνῳ προστίμῳ τὰς ἀκολασίας αὐτῶν διωρθώσατο.
For while all other lawgivers had appointed monetary fines for women who erred, he corrected their excesses by an ingenious penalty.
ἔγραψε γὰρ οὕτω· γυναικὶ ἐλευθέρᾳ μὴ πλείω ἀκολουθεῖν μιᾶς θεραπαινίδος, ἐὰν μὴ μεθύῃ, μηδὲ ἐξιέναι νυκτὸς ἐκ τῆς πόλεως εἰ μὴ μοιχευομένην, μηδὲ περιτίθεσθαι χρυσία μηδὲ ἐσθῆτα παρυφασμένην, ἐὰν μὴ ἑταίρα ᾖ, μηδὲ τὸν ἄνδρα φορεῖν δακτύλιον ὑπόχρυσον μηδὲ ἱμάτιον ἰσομιλήσιον, ἐὰν μὴ ἑταιρεύηται ἢ μοιχεύηται.
For he wrote thus: That a freeborn woman should not be accompanied by more than one maidservant, unless she be drunk; nor should she go out of the city at night, unless she be going to commit adultery; nor should she wear gold ornaments or a garment with embroidered borders, unless she be a courtesan; nor should a man wear a gold-plated ring or a Miletus-style cloak, unless he be a male prostitute or an adulterer.
§12.21.2διὸ καὶ ῥᾳδίως ταῖς τῶν προστίμων αἰσχραῖς ὑπεξαιρέσεσιν ἀπέτρεψε τῆς βλαβερᾶς τρυφῆς καὶ ἀκολασίας τῶν ἐπιτηδευμάτων· οὐδεὶς γὰρ ἐβούλετο τὴν αἰσχρὰν ἀκολασίαν ὁμολογήσας καταγέλαστος ἐν τοῖς πολίταις εἶναι.
Therefore, by means of these shameful exceptions in the penalties, he easily deterred the citizens from harmful luxury and wanton practices; for no one wished to become a laughing-stock among the citizens by acknowledging their own shameful excess.
§12.21.3πολλὰ δὲ καὶ ἄλλα τῶν συμβολαίων καὶ τῶν ἄλλων τῶν κατὰ τὸν βίον ἀμφισβητουμένων καλῶς ἐνομοθέτησε, περὶ ὧν ἡμῖν μακρὸν ἂν εἴη γράφειν καὶ τῆς ὑποκειμένης ἱστορίας ἀνοίκειον· διόπερ ἐπὶ τὰ συνεχῆ τοῖς προειρημένοις ἀναβιβάσομεν τὸν λόγον.
He also legislated well on many other matters concerning contracts and other disputes in daily life, but to write about them would be tedious for us and unsuited to the history we have in hand; therefore, we shall direct our discourse to the events immediately following what has been said.

Notes

  1. 12.21.1τῶν γὰρ ἄλλων ἁπάντων ἁμαρτανουσῶν γυναικῶν ἀργυρικὰς ζημίας τεταχότων — A genitive absolute construction. The perfect active participle τεταχότων has as its subject τῶν ἄλλων ἁπάντων, with the noun 'lawgivers' (νομοθετῶν) understood. The genitive phrase ἁμαρτανουσῶν γυναικῶν ('erring women') functions as the indirect object of the participle τεταχότων ('having appointed/prescribed').
  2. 12.21.1γυναικὶ ἐλευθέρᾳ μὴ πλείω ἀκολουθεῖν μιᾶς θεραπαινίδος — The infinitive ἀκολουθεῖν functions as an imperative (or as part of the indirect discourse introduced by ἔγραψε). The dative γυναικὶ ἐλευθέρᾳ is governed by ἀκολουθεῖν. πλείω (either an accusative plural contracted from πλείονας, or used adverbially) is compared with the genitive of comparison μιᾶς θεραπαινίδος ('than one maidservant').
  3. 12.21.2ἀπέτρεψε — The direct object of the verb (such as 'the citizens' or 'people') is omitted but clearly understood from the context. It takes the genitive of separation τῆς βλαβερᾶς τρυφῆς... ('deterred [them] from harmful luxury...').

Cite this passage

Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica §12.21.1-12.21.3. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0060.tlg001.humanitext-grc4:12.21.1-12.21.3

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