15
Anyone who the year before missed his share through absence shall be given it now as an extra gift.
15
The rich shall pay debts for their impecunious friends (including their rent if they owe this too and cannot pay). In general they shall make it their business to know long beforehand what is their greatest need.
16
Those who receive shall not complain, but think the gift, whatever it is, generous. A jar of wine, a hare, or a plump bird shall not be reckoned a gift for Cronus’s festival, nor shall Cronian gifts be laughed at.
16
In return the poor scholar shall send the rich man any pleasant, convivial, old book he may have, or a work of his own, the best he can. The rich man shall receive this gift with a glad countenance and then read it at once. If he rejects it or throws it away, he shall know that he is liable to what the sickle threatens, even if what he sends is adequate. The other poor recipients shall send garlands of flowers or grains of frankincense.
16
If a poor man sends clothing or silver or gold beyond his means to a rich man, his gift shall be declared public property and sold, the money going into the treasury of Cronus; and the poor man on the next day shall receive from the rich man strokes on his hands with a cane to the number of not less than two hundred and fifty.
17
3. Laws for Banquets
17
The time for bathing shall be when the shadow of the sundial is six feet long; before the bath there shall be nuts and gaming.
17
Each man shall take the couch where he happens to be. Rank, family, or wealth shall have little influence on privilege.
17
All shall drink the same wine, and neither stomach trouble nor headache shall give the rich man an excuse for being the only one to drink the better quality.
