Boardman J., Hammond N.G. L. The Cambridge Ancient History Volume 3, Part 3: The Expansion of the Greek World, Eighth to Sixth Centuries BC
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CRETAN LAWS AND SOCIETY 235
unity, indeed
of
a
specific Cretan constitution which could properly
be
compared and contrasted with the Spartan.
It is
clear from the history
of the Cretan
Koinon
that this abiding concept
of
unity and solidarity
contrasted with
the
separatist conflicts even
of
Hellenistic times;
and
equally clear that this concept was based upon strong internal traditions
which could have originated
at
a time earlier than the establishment of
a common Dorian heritage.
3
In Aristotle's opinion, although the Cretan
form
of
constitution approximated
to the
Spartan
and
was,
in a few
particulars,
not
inferior,
it
was
for the
most part less polished.
The
Spartan constitution seemed, and was said, to have been copied in most
respects from
the
Cretan:
it
was generally true that
the old was
less
perfected than
the
new.
He
then goes
on to
report
the
tradition that
Spartan institutions were
not
Dorian
but
pre-Dorian, established
in
Crete originally
by
Minos, received from
the
previous inhabitants
by
the Spartan colony
of
Lyttus and thence passed
to
Lycurgus when
he
visited Crete. This also was the reason why the laws
of
Minos were still
in force among the subject-population of Crete (Arist.
Pol.
127^20-33;
cf. Hdt. 1. 65).
Oral tradition certainly played a part in the sphere of
law,
in the sense
that Spartan, Cretan, perhaps also Athenian youths learnt their laws
by
heart.
The
writing down
of
early Greek
law has
analogies with
the
writing down
of
epic poetry, because both respond
to the
same kind
of climate
of
cultural history.
4
Legal codification
has a
prehistory
antedating public records
on
stone.
It is
relevant
in
this context
to
remind ourselves that
it
was verse rather than prose that was still being
cultivated
in
the educational system
of
Crete when historians, orators
and pamphleteers had already fashioned
a
prose medium
in
Ionia and
Attica.
5
As J.
W. Headlam properly observed,
in
Greece alone
of
all
European races the highest political and literary achievements came
at
a time when the introduction of writing was so recent that law had not
had time completely to supersede primitive custom. Greek cities in their
highest prosperity still retained many of the usages peculiar to the tribal
communities from which they
had
sprung.
6
Certain factors operated
in'
favour of
a
peculiarly Cretan conservatism.
There was
a
general trend toward the codification
of
law
in
the Greek
world
in
the course
of
the seventh century B.C. This remarkable inno-
3
D 165, 143-8.
4
Cf.
A
s
1, Introduction and especially the caution expressed
at
lxi,
n. i,
containing the remark
relevant
to
the point made above that 'they [i.e. the Iliad and
Odyssey]
owe
to
their use
of
writing
both their large-scale coherence and their subtlety, qualities
in
which
no
known oral poem
has
begun to equal them'.
On
the novel phenomenon
of
Greeks using the recently acquired alphabet
for serious purposes related to intellectual influences from the eastlnto Crete in the seventh century
see D 111, 23.
5
D 161, )-6; Strabo 482;
cf.
Heraclid.
fr. 15.
'
D
125.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
236 39
f
- CRETAN LAWS AND SOCIETY
vation
7
began, not
on
the mainland, but
in
the Greek colonies,
in
the western colonies first of
all,
which were both more distant and less
accessible than the eastern. One cause of the development might have
been prompted by the need to provide a single code of law for colonists
who originated from different cities with different systems of customary
law. Hence
the
appearance
of a
whole series
of
famed lawgivers
including Zaleucus
in
Achaean Locris, Charondas
in
Ionian Catana,
Diodes in Dorian Syracuse. The laws of Zaleucus and Charondas were
commonly considered to
be
the oldest written Greek laws and they were
probably issued in the first half of the seventh century
B.C.
Some western
codes found their way into eastern Greece, such
for
instance as that of
Charondas in the island of
Cos.
In certain cities of Asia Minor and the
islands there were native lawgivers like Pittacus of Mytilene. Others,
such as Lycurgus of Sparta, Dracon of Athens and Philolaus of Corinth
produced codes (unwritten, of course, in Sparta) for mainland cities.
8
The lawgivers were traditionally reputed to have travelled in search
of information about customary and written law. Thus, Zaleucus and
Lycurgus were supposed to have visited Crete and other places. These
awesome early lawgivers were looked upon as inspired, their laws as
sacrosanct if not divine. In fact, a reluctance to alter or to criticize them
must have stemmed from a widespread belief in their divine origin.
9
Other Cretan innovations
in
this period influenced
the
Greek
mainland. Thus,
it
may be said that the work of the Cretan Thaletas
and his school contributed to the fusion of
the
dance with the song and
metre
of
aristocratic choral lyric. Thaletas, born either
at
Elyrus
or
Cnossus or Gortyn, flourished in the seventh century B.C. He was said
to have visited Sparta, on the advice of the Delphic oracle, to cure
a
plague with his music. There his musical reforms were so radical as to
promote an artistic revolution. They included the elaboration of the
Cretan
hyporchema,
a
mimetic dance formerly associated with the cult
of Cronus and the Titans, of Leto and Cretan Zeus, and, quite probably,
the Cretic and Paeonic metres. The Paean itself was similar
to
the
hyporchema,
traditionally Cretan
in
origin and also connected with
Thaletas. Semi-legendary
but
nevertheless historical, the poet and
prophet Epimenides played a comparable role as a pioneer in adapting
the ritual arts of an earlier Cretan religion to new forms and functions.
Epimenides apparently made
a
visit
to
Athens with the purpose
of
introducing purificatory rites developed from Cretan cathartic practices.
His legendary association with Solon effected religious reforms perhaps
designed
to
curtail
the
religious rites
of
women
in a
way that
is
7
Cf.
G 16,
26 on
the very exceptional circumstances that caused the European codes
to be
written down.
8
A 8,
67-71.
»
A
8, 75.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
CRETAN LAWS AND SOCIETY 237
illustrated
in
early Cretan legislation.
10
There
was
some decline
of
artistic activity in the sixth century
B.C.
in Crete
itself,
but Cretan artists
were working abroad
at
this time (see pp. 230-2).
What
is
most impressive, considering
the
accidents
of
time
and
chance,
is
that
the
early Cretan alphabetic script
is
impressively
exemplified by the fragmentary pieces
of
legal documents which have
survived from some
10
per cent of the cities of the island in this bustling
period of renaissance activity. Leaving aside the great
fifth-century
B.C.
Code of Gortyn and other contemporary legal documents from this city,
there
are
also fifth-century remains
of
legal codes from Eltyna
and
Lyttus. More considerable portions have survived, perhaps from the late
sixth century
B.C,
from Eleutherna and
Axus.
Some pieces of still earlier
legislation
are
available from Gortyn, Prinias, Lyttus, Cnossus
and
perhaps (earliest
of
all) from Drerus.
11
Recovery
of
similar precious
evidence continues and the monumental corpus of
Inscriptiones Creticae
I-IV
(1935-50)
by
Professor
M.
Guarducci
has
been most recently
supplemented
by
the publication
of
novel and important texts.
12
The Law Code
of
Gortyn
is
bound
to
be the principal focus
of
any
discussion
of
early Cretan laws and society.
It is
significant that this
singular document is not associated with a lawgiver, reminding us that
Crete was not a colony but a centre of pilgrimage for legal inspiration.
Despite the early legal fragments from various cities, ancient respect for
Crete as the home of good laws did not derive from these documentary
sources but from that older basis of tradition already mentioned. Plato
(Leg. 624) tells us that the Cretans called Zeus their lawgiver and that
Minos, like his brother, Rhadamanthys, was inspired by Zeus. Aristotle
confirmed
the
reality behind this philosophic mythology when
he
explained that the laws of Minos were still observed among the subject
population
of
Crete. Though exact explanation
of
this remark
is not
possible,
it
does indicate
the
possibility
of
some traditional strands
deriving from
a
framework of law in Bronze Age times deeply enough
entrenched in the later historical institutions to have influenced Dorian
legislation and actually to have played
a
part in the social life of
the
serfs
who were descended from the older populations
of
the island.
The Law Code
of
Gortyn
is
inscribed
in
twelve columns upon
a
circular wall which supported the structure
of
a theatre perhaps built
in
the
first century
B.C,
although
the
stones
of
the inscription
had
10
D
162, JII-I2.
11
A
36, 510 and the comment:
'In
nearly all cases the codes were inscribed
on
walls, either
of temples or of other public buildings, and their survival is mainly due to this, since old wall-blocks
were always useful
for
later rebuilding.'
12
In
particular see the various papers concerned with the Spensithios Decree: D 128; D 152;
D 126, 47 9. Also
Kadmos
11 (1972) 96-8; 13 (1974)48-57; 14 (1975) 8-47; ZPE 9 (1972)
102-3;
•3 ("974) 265-75; Studii
Clasice
14 (1972) 7-15.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
238 39
f
- CRETAN LAWS AND SOCIETY
belonged to an older building which might have been a law-court. Each
of the columns is about
1 • 5
m high and is cut upon four layers of stone;
the length of the inscription is about 9 m; and each column, except the
last, has from 53
to
56 lines
of
writing, the whole comprising
a
text
of some 600 lines. This 'Queen of Inscriptions', though not a code
in
the strict sense
of
the word,
is
often described
as the
first European
law-code; and it is the only one of its kind to have survived from ancient
Greece. The document is inscribed
in
an archaic alphabet
of
eighteen
letters including
F
{digamma).
The non-Phoenician signs
0, X
and
¥
had not been introduced and
S
was not used. The sounds of
<f>,
x
were
not distinguished from
IT
and
K;
tfi
and
£
were represented by
ITS
and
KS-
The letters
Z, H
and Q were also not
in
use and were represented
by A
A,
i?and
0.
Individual letters are precisely inscribed and represent
highly developed forms
of
the old Gortyn alphabet. See
fig.
41.
The writing
is
boustrophedon,
the
first line
of
each column going
from right
to
left. There are occasional gaps
in
the inscription where
the engraver avoided
an
uneven surface
of
the stone, and occasional
corrections
of
mistakes
in
cutting letters. Most
of
the inscription was
apparently done by the same engraver except for the concluding portion
(xi.
248), where there
is
evidence
of
the work
of
a different hand and
where various supplementary provisions begin
to be
added.
The
Archaic system
of
paragraphing
13
which
was
apparently current
in
Crete
—
at Drerus, for instance
—
by the seventh century
B.C.
had ceased
to
be in use by the
end
of
the following century. New sections
are
normally specified
by
means
of
asyndeton; emphatically new sections
are also indicated by
a
vacat
at so many points as
to
suggest
a
regular
practice; and, although
a
vacat
does occur
for
non-linguistic reasons,
asyndeton can produce
a
vacat.
1
*
The Code
is
admirably inscribed and
preserved.
Its
style
is
simple
and
direct, each regulation stated
as a
conditional sentence
in
the third person,
the
protasis containing
the
assumed facts, the apodosis the legal consequences
or
provisions.
The general state
of the
alphabet, forms
of the
letters
and the
boustrophedon
style would not be inconsistent with
a
sixth-century
B.C.
dating. However, the precision and regularity
of
the writing seem
to
indicate
a
later date.
It
is also true that all our related evidence is such
as
to
make highly speculative
any
effort
at
exact dating
of
Cretan
inscriptions before the fifth century
B.C.
Only the letter forms may serve
as a basis of judgement, qualified by the knowledge gained from ample
fifth-century documentation that the Cretan alphabet was, like so much
13
Inscriptions were written
boustropbedon,
beginning from right to left, but
it
was the practice
to begin each new clause from right to left.
If
the final line
of
one clause ran from right
to
left,
the first line
of
a new clause would also run from right
to
left and there would
be
two lines
of
continuous retrograde script
14
Further details
in
D 164,
4.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
CRETAN LAWS
AND
SOCIETY
239
Alpha
Beta
Gamma
Delta
Epsilon
Digamma
Theta
Iota
Kappa
A
a
A
A
A
3
®
©
2
Lambda
Mu
Nu
Omikron
Pi
Rho
Sigma
Tau
Upsilon
"M
\AA
\A
0
D
q
M
T
V
82^
342
M TTA
A\
F
05 ^
5'A /V\
C
S
T
S
/V £
/v\
K
3M\AOTVOTMO<1A1 ^O2TV\0
Kf/VTAKPEAVATA
ASAEKO
2
31A3A29T
Oa
^AAaq
>AT
3^3
2A©®3T
A/V
TACPSA/JCAAATTOA/TAS
1.
palmula
at
S«
/AI
eiey
kmfiaAXovTe-
And
if
there should be
no
kinsmen, those
of
s, rds Foixias
OITIKK
K'
the
household composing
the
klaros
are
to
XovTi
o
xAapof,
TOUTOV?
t-
have
the
property. And
if
some
of
the next-
KCV
TO
KpepaTa.
vac.
at
8c
*c*
oi of-kin wish
to
divide
the
property while
emjSoAAoxTfs
oi
fiiv Aei- others
do
not,
the
judge shall decree that
all
OKTI
hariBBai
TO
Kpiftar-
the
property shall
be
in
the
power
of
those
a,
oi
Sc
\i.k,
StKCLKoai
TOV
81-
who wish
to
divide until they divide
it.
KaoTav kirl rolX Xeiovai
S~
ariddat
t^ilv
ra
KptpaTa
TT-
avra
npiv *ca
haTrovrai.
vac.
41.
The Gortyn alphabet, a passage from the Code (Column V, lines
25—34),
its transcription and
translation.
(After D 164,
5,
45, pi.
;.)
else
in
Cretan manners, conservative
in
its
retention
of
old forms
and
methods, paralleled
by
retention
of
the
boustrophedon
style through
the
fifth century
B.C.
Hence
the
general current agreement that
the
Code
was
a
fifth-century document, with
a
preference
by
some scholars
for
a date
not
earlier than about 450
B.C,
by
others (perhaps rightly)
for
a date about 480-460 B.C.
Nevertheless,
if
it were possible
to
be more certain about the date,
it
would
not
follow that this would coincide with the first publication
of
a code. Though the legislation is complete in
itself,
the document is not
a code
in
the
common sense
of
that term
as
a
systematic collection
of
statutes
or
laws so arranged as
to
obviate overlap
or
inconsistency.
The
Gortyn Code represents
a
codification,
not of
law,
but of
laws, with
a
significant formal arrangement common
to a
number
of
ancient codes,
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
240 39
f
- CRETAN LAWS AND SOCIETY
prompted by a need to group together statutory legislation relevant to
similar or identical circumstances, amending prior written law on
various topics. Such prior written material may be assumed to have
incorporated those habits and sanctions which the various traditional
cultural factors discussed above had cemented deeply into much earlier
phases of the social life of
the
community. A quite vigorous renaissance
of the island's traditions in the Archaic period is marked not only by
the early introduction of alphabetic writing which enabled legislation
to be published but also by significant developments in the Cretan art
of the period about 750—650
B.C.
Crete plays an important role once
more in the history of new city-state institutions and of Greek art.
It is therefore not surprising, because of the political environment
of the times, that the Gortyn Code reveals certain customs and habits
of life earlier than its date of publication; and also incorporates
amendments of these older practices with a degree of novelty which
suggest that traditional social customs were being modified by state
legislation. The early lawgivers emerged from differing social groups,
the majority however from the middle classes. There is an obvious
connexion between legal codification and trade. The commercial
expansion of the period had a stimulating effect upon the aristocratic
governments of Cretan cities. Although no lawgiver is associated with
the Gortyn Code or other legal fragments and no merchant class
developed to disturb radically the long sustained rule of land-owning
aristocracies, indicating that trade was kept within limits, there is still
a connexion between coinage and trade; and it may be more than a
coincidence that Gortyn was among the first Cretan cities to have a
coinage. For the Code enables us to gain some insight into the
consequences of the introduction of
a
money economy, no matter how
modest the scale, upon the pattern of social life in a period of change.
The Dorian communities of Crete maintained, as elsewhere, their
familiar tribal organization which helped to reinforce those bonds of
kinship which were of such importance generally in the social life of
ancient Greece. In Crete, as in Sparta and other areas, the original
populations had become tribute-paying serfs, divided out, like the land
which they cultivated, and belonging inalienably to the klaroi or
ancestral estates. Whereas in Sparta a dual monarchy persisted, in Crete
there developed separate city-states with authority over modest
territories; and the early monarchies had been abolished as leader-
ship in war was transferred to aristocratic magistrates (Arist. Pol.
1272314—25). The principal officials were known
as kosmoior
collectively
as the
kosmos,
drawn from certain clans
{ibid.,
confirmed by the Code
v. 4-6), forming privileged hereditary groups. There was a Council of
elders consisting of former magistrates and a general Assembly of
citizens, which seems to have had no great authority, meeting occa-
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
CRETAN LAWS AND SOCIETY 24I
sionally
to
ratify decisions
of
magistrates and Council. The earliest
inscriptions from Gortyn demonstrate that the personal responsibility
of state officials
for
their state duties, which
is
characteristic
of
government in Greek antiquity, was established in Cretan cities before
the sixth century B.C.
15
Early
in
the following century divisions
of
administrative responsibility are clarified by Gortynian evidence. The
ksenios kosmos (aliens' magistrate) was concerned with foreigners,
resident aliens and others, such as freedmen, not included in the tribal
organizations of the free citizen class. A secretary, or recorder, to the
ksenios
kosmos,
is mentioned in the Gortyn Code (xi.
14—17).
In addition
to specialist
kosmoi
and judges, other officials had specified duties. The
titai (public indemnifies) existed from the period of earliest written
evidence. They could exercise supervisory duties over the
kosmoi
and
could exact fines from them.
16
The magistrates were elected according to qualifications of birth and
wealth. The possibility that they may initially have governed for life
cannot be readily dismissed.
17
Just as Athenian magistrates eventually
governed for ten years (after an initial life-tenure), so the law on the
constitution of Drerus (650—600 B.C.), perhaps the earliest surviving
Greek law
on
stone and certainly the earliest which has survived
complete, forbids
a
repeated tenure of the office of
kosmos
before ten
years have elapsed, with severe penalties for infringement.
18
There
is
perhaps an implication that another clan was to have unrestricted right
of tenure
for a
ten-year period.
If
that were the case,
a
three-year
prohibition at Gortyn in the sixth century
B.C.
may have represented
a similar kind of encroachment upon hereditary tenure, the final stage
being reached with a system of annual magistracies.
19
In some Cretan
cities the Council had the function of guardian of the laws.
20
Increasing political duties of the
kosmoi
coincided with
a
growing
complexity
of
legal procedure which promoted the appointment
of
important special officials called
dikastai.
When the
kosmoi
had assumed
leadership from the tribal monarchies they may be supposed to have
performed judicial duties just as they exercised the former military duties
of the kings. The
kosmoi
of Gortyn (perhaps as early as seventh—sixth
centuries
B.C.),
undertook special judicial duties. In course of
time,
these
duties became increasingly administrative.
In
the Gortyn Code,
for
example, the
kosmoi
act directly as a judicial authority only once
—
when
the marriage of an heiress conflicts with authorized procedure (vm.
5
3—
ix—1).
The
ksenios kosmos
still appears in the Code as a specialist official
concerned with people outside the tribal grouping of the citizen body
in a way that may be compared with the Athenian polemarch's duties.
16
D
161, 105 and n.
i. "
D
161, 105.
" D 164, 32.
ls
D
116;
D
117; M-L no. 2.
19
Ins. Crtt.
iv
i
4
g-p 2
"
D 161 passim.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
242 39
r
- CRETAN LAWS AND SOCIETY
The special judges called dikastai had appeared
in
Gortyn by the
beginning of the fifth century
B.C.
These again have been compared with
the
thesmothetai,
generally and insofar as they were specially appointed
for judicial purposes, the outcome
of a
development inevitable with
an expanding state apparatus and corresponding growth of litigation.
Different duties were assigned
to
different dikastai according
to
the
nature of the litigation. Thus, special dikastai had to do with inheritances;
with
betaireiai
(analogous
to
Athenian phratries), perhaps concerned
with tribal law and custom, adapting these to the requirements of the
state;
and with pledges. In the final section of the Code
orpanodikastai
appear, especially associated with an extension
of
state power in the
interests of property rights of
males.
A judge had his
mnamon
(recorder),
an official attached to the court to assist the judge in procedure. We
do not know how judges were appointed or paid but the Code informs
us about their methods of work. In fact the Code is our only document
which gives an authentic record of the processes of early Greek law.
All cases are tried before a single judge and there is no sign
of
trial
before
a
jury for civil cases. There
is
an important definition
of
the
duties of the judge. Sometimes he has to give
judgement,
sometimes he
has to
decide on
oath.
As the Code states the matter: ' Whatever is written
for the judge to decide according to witnesses or by oath of denial, he
shall decide as is written, but in other matters he shall decide on oath
according to the pleas' (xi. 26). The witnesses were not witnesses
to
facts,
but to the proper performance of processual acts; and it was not
their function to adduce evidence in the settlement of disputed facts.
21
Within this framework of government and justice, the aristocracies
adapted their ancient tribal institutions to operate within
a
new kind
of system with marked economic, social and political inequalities. There
were: (1)
a
minority group
of
free citizens; (2) the
apetairoi
(or free
persons excluded from political rights); (3) the serfs; and (4) the chattel
slaves. We can approximately measure the relative positions of these
four classes in the Gortynian social hierarchy from the following table
showing the scale
of
fines
for offences specified in the Code
(11.
2—16,
21-7).
A. For rape
(i) Against a free person 1,200 obols
(ii) Against an
apetairos
120 obols
(iii) By
a
slave against
a
free person 2,400 obols
(iv) Against a serf by
a
free person 30 obols
(v) Against a serf by
a
serf 60 obols
(vi) Against
a
household slave 1, 2 or 24 obols
depending on circumstances
21
Detailed evidence
in D
164, 33.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
CRETAN LAWS
AND
SOCIETY
243
B.
For
adultery
(i) With
a
free woman 600-1,200 obols
(ii) With
the
wife
of
an
apetairos
120
obols
(iii)
A
slave with
a
free woman slave pays double
(1,200—2,400 obols)
(iv) Slave with slave
60
obols
Amount
of
evidence needed
for
conviction
was
similarly dispropor-
tionate between these classes. Only free
men
were competent witnesses
in some cases
(i, n, cf. in, iv; i, in, v). In
explanation
of
the above list
it should
be
explained that rape, seduction
and
adultery were treated
as offences
of
like category,
not as
criminal, public wrongs
but as
affairs
to
be
settled
by
private monetary compensation.
It may be
observed
that fines
for
rape
and
adultery were
the
same with
two
exceptions.
Adultery with
a
free woman incurred
a
full fine
of 1,200
obols only
if
the offence occurred
in her
father's, brother's
or
husband's house;
if
elsewhere,
it was
thought
to be
less blameworthy
and the
fine
was
reduced
by half.
There
is no
mention
of
adultery between
a
free
man
and a serfs wife;
and
we are entitled
to
assume there was
no
legal redress
in such cases. Adultery
had now
become
a
civil wrong
to be
punished
by fines
and
was a concern
of
individuals
and
their families.
An
offender
was taken prisoner
by the
injured family.
His own
family,
if he was a
free
man, his
master
if
he
was not a
free
man,
were told
to
ransom
the
prisoner within five days
or
otherwise
the
captors would deal with
him
as they thought
fit. If the
accused person, however, complained that
he
was the
victim
of a
ruse,
the
affair
was no
longer
a
concern
of the
family
and the
accuser then
had to
swear
to his
testimony
on
oath.
22
The tribe (pyla)
was
still politically important
at the
time
of
publication
of the
Gortyn Code
and
women were enumerated within
it;
and it
is mentioned
in
other
cities.
So
is the
clan
{startos)
and, as earlier
mentioned,
the
kosmoi
continued
to be
recruited from ruling clans.
The
hetaireiai
had
become exclusively male corporations.
It may be
inferred
from
the
Code that
hetaireiai
also were politically important
in the
growth
of an
aristocratic system,
as it
developed from
a
tribal
association based firmly
on
kinship
to an
equally close-knit
but
privileged grouping based
on
narrow rights
of
citizenship
and
land
tenure.
It is
clear from
the
evidence, however, that
the
hetaireiai
lost this
importance
in
later times when
the
state authority
was
established quite
firmly. Gradually their function became more
and
more restricted
to
the
syssitia
(communal meals), another feature
of
social life with tribal
roots.
23
They were institutions indigenous
not
only
in
Crete
but in
other
parts
of
Greece including Sparta. Aristotle preferred
the
Cretan
to the
22
See
further D
164, 28-9.
23
D
164,
10-11.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
244
39
A
CRETAN LAWS AND SOCIETY
Spartan
syssitia,
explaining that, whereas in Sparta each citizen paid a
fixed contribution, failing which he was legally deprived of a share in
government, the Cretan system was more communal. For, out of
all
the
crops and the cattle produced from the public lands and the tributes
paid by the serfs, one part was devoted to the worship of the gods and
the upkeep of public services, and the other part to the
syssitia,
with
the result that all citizens were maintained from public funds, men,
women and children (Arist. Pol. 1272a).
A stable agrarian system explains the slowly evolved persistence of
Cretan aristocracy; and the
syssitia
were basic components of the whole.
When Aristotle praised the more communal Cretan organizations,
directed to the maintenance of all citizens from public resources, he
emphasized the contribution to these resources by the regular tributes
from the serf population. Aristotle's testimony
(ap.
Ath. iv.
143A—B)
can
be supplemented by Dosiadas who stated that in Lyttus every man
contributed a tithe of his crops to his
hetaireia,
as well as the income
from the state which the magistrates divided among the households of
all citizens; and each serf paid one Aiginetan stater per head.
The distribution of land and servile cultivators among a sort of tribal
aristocracy must have been accompanied by modifications in the modes
of inheritance among ruling groups. There was a tendency for smaller
units of relationship to be fostered within the wider clan system,
particularly marked by the role of the ' household' (Greek
oikos,
cf.
Roman
familia),
an institution closely involved with rights of tenure of
the klaros (lot), the family estate. The Code (iv.
za,S)
provided that the
father should have power over the children and the property to divide
it among them; that, as long as parents lived, there was no need for
division; and that, if a man or woman died, their children, or grand-
children, or great-grandchildren, should have the property. Head-
ship of the
oikos
and tenure of property were thus vested in the parent
as long as he lived and wished to retain his proprietary rights. Nor
indeed when he was dead were sons necessarily required to divide the
estate among themselves; they could operate joint ownership of the
single
oikos
of the dead parent. In such cases the eldest would probably
take the house, fulfilling his duties to the family altars, now devolving
upon him as head of the family.
When a man or woman died without children, the deceased's
brothers, and brothers' children, or grandchildren, should have the
property. Failing any of
these,
the
epiballontes
(as those heirs having the
next claim were called) inherited the property. The
epiballontes
were
kinsmen of any degree who, not belonging to the
oikos,
yet belonged
to the same clan as members of the oikos.
With the increasing importance of the oikos, the old custom of
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008