[13] The kidnapper too is a kind of thief who steals the best of all the things that exist on the earth. In the case of lifeless articles and such animals as do not render high benefits to life, the value by order of the law has to be repaid twofold to the owner by the purloiners, as I have said above, and again fourfold and fivefold in the case of the most domesticated kinds of livestock, sheep and oxen.
[14] But it is the lot of man, as we see, to occupy the place of highest excellence among living creatures because his stock is near akin to God, sprung from the same source in virtue of his participation in reason which gives him immortality, mortal though he seems to be. And therefore everyone who is inspired with a zeal for virtue is severe of temper and absolutely implacable against men-stealers, who for the sake of a most unrighteous profit do not shrink from reducing to slavery those who not only are freemen by birth but are of the same nature as themselves.
[15] If it is a praiseworthy action when masters in the humaneness of their hearts release from the yoke of servitude their home-bred or purchased slaves, though often they have brought them no great profit, how great a condemnation do they deserve who rob those who enjoy liberty of that most precious of all possessions for which men of noble birth and breeding feel that it is an honour to die.
[16] Indeed we have known of some who improve on their inborn depravity and developing the malice of their disposition to complete heartlessness have directed their man-stealing operations, not only against men of other countries and other races but also against those of their own nation, sometimes their fellow wardsmen or tribesmen. They disregard their partnership in the laws and customs in which they have been bred from their earliest years, customs which stamp the sense of benevolence so firmly on the souls of all who are not exceedingly barbarous nor make a practice of cruelty.
[17] For the sake of an utterly unlawful profit they sell their captives to slave dealers or any chance comers to live in slavery in a foreign land never to return, never even to dream of again saluting the soil of their native country or to know the taste of comforting hope. Their iniquity would be less if they themselves retained the services of their captives. As it is, their guilt is doubled when they barter them away and raise up to menace them two masters instead of one and two successive servitudes.
[18] For they themselves, as they know the former prosperity of those who are now in their power, might perhaps come to a better mind and feel a belated pity for their fallen state, remembering with awe how uncertain and incalculable fortune is, while the purchasers knowing nothing of their origin and supposing them to have generations of servitude behind them will despise them, and have nothing in their souls to incline them to that natural gentleness and humanity which they may be expected to maintain in dealing with the free born.
[19] The punishment for kidnapping, if the captives belong to foreign nations, should be such as is adjudged by the court; if they are fellow nationals whom they have not only kidnapped but sold, it is death without hope of reprieve. Yes indeed, for such persons are kinsfolk, bound by a tie closely bordering on blood relationship though with a wider compass.