Diodorus Siculus on the Egyptian Judicial System

Diodorus Siculus on the Egyptian Judicial System

Chapter 60
Amasis. Aktisanes of Ethiopia. The city Rhinocolura

........ Aktisanes treated robbers in a special way, not wanting to kill them nor letting them go unpunished. He had the accused led before him from everywhere in the country and investigated their affairs most conscientiously. Those found to be guilty had their noses cut off and were exiled to the most distant place in the desert. The city he had founded for them was called Rhinocolura in memory of the punishment of their inhabitants.......

Chapter 65
Bocchoris, Sabaco of Ethiopia

........ Sabaco, a born Ethiopian, who was much more pious and just than former kings, became King of Egypt. As proof of his mercy may count the fact that he abolished the harshest of punishments ordained by law, the death sentence. Instead of taking the lives of the condemned, he put them in irons and ordered them to do forced labour for the cities. With the help of such people he had many dams raised and many canals excavated in the right places.......

Chapter 75
The Administration of the Law

The Egyptians applied special diligence to the administration of justice. They were convinced that the decisions of the courts had a most important influence on the public well-being. They seemingly thought that errors were best corrected, when one punished the trespasser and gave succour to the injured, and that where the trespasser's fear of the courts was allayed by money or artifice the state would decay. Therefore they appointed the noblest men from the capitals as judges for the whole country; and in such a way they achieved their purpose. Judges were selected from Heliopolis, Thebes and Memphis, ten from each city. This Court of Justice could be compared to the Areopage in Athens or the senate of Lakedaimon. When the thirty convened, they elected the noblest one from their midst as Chief Justice, and his city sent another judge in his place.
What the judges needed for their living, was supplied plentifully by the king. The Chief Justice received a greatly increased pay. He carried a golden chain around his neck, from which hung a picture made of precious stones, which was called Truth.
The court was in session, as soon as the Chief Justice put on the depiction of Truth. The laws were all written down in eight books, which lay beside the judges. It was usual for the plaintiff to put his complaint in writing point by point, also, how the deed had happened, and how great an injustice or damage had been caused. Then the respondent received the document written by his opponents, and answered each point in writing, either that he had not done it, or that it was not wrong, or it deserved a smaller punishment. Now the custom demanded for the plaintiff to note counter remarks, to which the accused replied. When both parties had submitted their declarations to the judges for the second time, the thirty had to come to a decision among themselves, and the Chief Justice put the depiction of Truth on one of the two declarations.

Chapter 76
The Administration of the Law

Such was the course of judicial proceedings everywhere in Egypt. They believed that the legal positions became obscured by speeches of attorneys. The tricks of the speakers, the magic of body-language, and the tears of the threatened made some judges lose sight of the severity of the law and the true relations of the facts; when in a quandary they therefore were often swayed by the power of a deceptive or attractive presentation or by appeals to their compassion. If, on the other hand, the parties made their pleas for justice in writing, a safe judgement might be given, because the facts were presented openly; and the fear would be least that the talented would gain advantage over the slower thinker, or the more over the less experienced man, or the impudent liar over the modest friend of the truth. The same justice would be applied to all, because the law allowed sufficient periods of time, both to the parties for the examination of each others declarations, and to the judges, in order to compare the statements of both parts.

Chapter 77
The Administration of the Law

Having considered the administration of the laws, we believe it would not be inappropriate to the purposes of our historical work to describe those among the laws of the Egyptians, which are either particularly old or unique, or the knowledge of which would be of use to the attentive reader.

Firstly the death penalty is set for perjury in Egypt, because it entails the two greatest sins: the destruction of the reverence for the Gods and of the best surety among humans.
If someone saw a human being on the highway being murdered or done violence to, and if he were in a condition to save him and did not do so, then he had to die. If it had however been impossible for him to render help, then he was at least bound to denounce the crime and to sue the robbers in court. If he omitted to do so, then he received a certain number of lashes according to the law and was not given anything to eat for three days.
He who accused someone falsely had to suffer the punishment which would have met the slandered one, if he had been found guilty.
It was ordered that every Egyptian had to declare before the authorities in writing how he earned his living. He who permitted himself to make a false declaration or who engaged in illegitimate business, was given the death penalty. This law, which was introduced in Athens as well, was thought to have been brought by Solon from Egypt.
Whoever committed an intentional murder, be it of a free citizen or a of slave, had to die. This regulation was made law firstly because humans should not be prevented to commit wicked deeds by external conditions, but by their own internal free will, and secondly because by caring for the slaves all crimes against the free citizens would be prevented with greater certainty.
If parents killed their children, then they were not punished with death, but they had to hold the dead body in their arms continuously for three days and three nights, and a guard was set over them by the authorities. It was not considered right to take their life since they had given life to their children; the intention was rather to deter from such acts by a punishment causing suffering and repentance.
For children who murdered their parents however a special punishment was laid down. Whoever was found guilty of this crime was laid on thorns and burned alive after finger-wide pieces of flesh had been torn off his body with sharp fishing hooks. To take by force the life of him to whom one owes one's own life, was thought to be the most terrible sin, which a human could commit.

When a pregnant woman was condemned to death, then she was not allowed to die, until after she had given birth. This custom is also prevalent in many Greek states. One thought it most unjust to let the innocent child have part of the punishment of the guilty mother, and to avenge one crime by punishing two human beings. Furthermore a being without consciousness should not pay for a deed, which was caused by deliberate wickedness. Mainly one might not kill a child whose mother was to blame, because it belonged jointly to the father and the mother. One ought to consider a judge undutiful in the same measure if he killed a completely innocent one, as if he freed someone who had earned death.
Among the penal laws of the Egyptians these may be the most practical.

Chapter 78
Laws

Concerning the other laws, the martial law intended for desertion and disobedience towards ones superiors not the punishment of death, but deepest disgrace. If they later expunged the dishonor by courageous acts, then they were reinstated to their lost rights of honour. The legislator placed intentionally infamy above the death penalty, so that one got accustomed to regard dishonor as the greatest evil. It was also thought that those who had been executed could not be useful to the state anymore. The dishonoured would cause much good, because they strove to save their honour.
Whoever disclosed secrets to the enemies should have the tongue are cut off according to the law.
Counterfeiters and falsifiers of measures and weights, or forgers of seals, scribes who made false entries in the public books or deleted something from the register, as well as those who substituted documents, had both hands cut off.
Everyone should be punished through the part of the body with which he had sinned, and while he kept an incurable physical defect his life long , his misfortune would serve as a warning to others not to try something similar.
The laws concerning the female sex were also strict. Whoever raped a freeborn woman was castrated. Thus the threefold crime was punished, which the criminal had committed by a single deed: the act of violence, the dishonour, and the confusion of child descent. However, if the woman let herself be enticed into committing adultery, then the man received a thousand strokes of the stick, and the woman's nose was cut off. They thought one had to remove the greatest ornament of a beautiful face from a woman, who decorated herself, in order to arouse forbidden desire.

Chapter 79
Laws

The laws concerning monetary transactions are said to have been enacted by Bocchoris. They decree that a debtor who borrowed without signature, can deny on oath a debt he does not want to acknowledge. The first purpose of the law was to bolster the conscientious sanctification of the oath. As one would obviously lose all credit by repeatedly denying on oath, it was to be expected it would be in the debtor's interest to prevent having to swear the oath, so that borrowing would not be made more difficult for him. The legislator believed that by making credit dependent on proper behaviour alone, all would endeavor to act honestly in order not to fall into ill repute as people undeserving of trust. Moreover he held it inequitable that a debtor, to whom one had entrusted money without oath should not be considered trustworthy when swearing an oath precisely because of this debt.
Creditors, who had in their possession IOU's were forbidden to increase the principal debt by interest in excess of double the original amount. When recovering the debts, the property only of the debtor was forfeit, he himself was not subject to bondage under any circumstances. Chattels were regarded as property of the citizens, acquired or received from other owners, they themselves however were bondsmen of the state, because they had to fulfill required duties in war and in peacetime. One thought it unreasonable that a soldier fighting for his native country should not be certain that he would not be arrested by a creditor because of debts, and that because of a few citizens' usury the welfare of the whole people should be in jeopardy.
This law too Solon seems to have adapted for Athens: the regulation which he called Seisachtheia (shaking off) decreed that any pledge including the bondage of the debtor was invalid. Rightly it is criticised that while in most Greek states the law forbids the creditor to take as pledge the weapons, the plow, and other strict necessities, it permits him to seize the debtor who requires these things.

Chapter 80
Laws

Concerning theft the Egyptians had a completely unique law. It was decreed that those, who wanted to pursue this trade should have their name listed with the captain of thieves, and should present their loot immediately after stealing it, admitting to their deed. He who had lost something had to put in writing a list of all missing articles, indicating the place, day and hour of their disappearing. In this way everything was easily found; and now the robbed person had to pay the fourth part of the value for his own property to be returned. As it was impossible to prevent theft completely the legislator invented this means to restitute all stolen property for a small ransom.
In Egypt priests take only one wife, everyone else however, as many as he wants. Parents are obligated to raise all their children according to the principle that a numerous population contributes more than anything else to the prosperity of the country and the cities. No child is considered to be illegitimate, not even if it is born of an acquired slave. The Egyptians are of the opinion that the father alone gives life to the child, the mother however only food and lodging.
Thus they say that male trees bear fruit, contrary to the linguistic usage of the Greeks, female trees however are thought not to bear any fruit. It is completely unbelievable, how little trouble and costs are caused by the education of their children. They cook the next best simple meal for them; they give them to eat the lower part of the papyrus plant, as far as it can be roasted in the fire, and the roots and stems of the marsh plants, at times uncooked, at times simmered, at times roasted. Most of the children go without shoes and clothes, since air is so mild. Therefore the raising of a child to adulthood does not cost his parents, on the whole more than twenty drachmas. This is the main explanation for the population of Egypt to be so numerous, and why so many great works could be executed.

Diodorus Siculus Historic Library Vol 1, Chap. 75ff, after a translation by Julius Friedrich Wurm [1]

Chapter 3.12
Forced labour in the mines

The Egyptian kings send those condemned for a crime and the prisoners of war, among them many who succumbed to a false accusation, and not only these themselves but sometimes all their relatives as well, to labour in the gold mines; and by punishing the condemned in this way they have great income from their labour. The number of those condemned to this work is very great; and their feet are all fettered and they all have to work incessantly, not only by day but also through the night, for no rest is permitted them and they are deprived of all possibility of escape, as guards soldiers of a barbaric tribe are stationed there who speak a completely different language, and nobody can bribe a guard by heart-rending supplication or pursuasion.

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