1 This article originated as a presentation to the Biblical Law Group during the 2007 annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature. I would like to thank its convener Bruce Wells and all the participants for valuable feedback and comments. Unless otherwise stated all English translations from Greek literary texts are taken from the Loeb Classical Library. The following abbreviations of Greek epigraphical material are used: ICr = M. Guarducci (ed.), Inscriptiones Creticae Vol. I–IV, Rome 1935–50; FGH = F. Jacoby, Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, Berlin 1923–58; LSCG = F. Sokolowski, Lois sacrées des cités greque, Paris 21969.; LSS = F. Sokolowski, Lois sacrées des cités greque. Supplement, Paris 1962; I.Lindos = C. Blinkenberg, Lindos. Fouilles et Recherches. Vol. II. Fouilles de l'Acropole, Berlin 1941; SEG = Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum.

3 An inscription from the polis of Dreros that can be dated to ca. 650 B.C.E. is generally regarded as the oldest Cretan, if not the oldest Greek inscription. See R. Meiggs and D. Lewis, A Selection of Greek Historical Inscriptions to the end of the Fifth Century B.C. (rev. ed. Oxford 1988), No. 2. The law forbids the repeated tenure of the office of kosmos (on the problem see S. Link, Kosmos, Startoi und Iterationsverbote. Zum Kampf um das Amt des Kosmos auf Kreta, Dike 6 (2003), 139–149). On the polis of Dreros see P. Perlman, Crete, in M.H. Hansen/T.H. Nielsen (eds.), An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis. An Investigation Conducted by The Copenhagen Polis Centre for the Danish National Research Foundation, Oxford 2004, 1157–58.

4 For the relationship between law and the development of Athenian democracy see the classic study by M. Ostwald, Nomos and the Beginnings of the Athenian Democracy, Oxford 1969 and J. Ober, The Athenian Revolution. Essays on Ancient Greek Democracy and Political Theory, Princeton 1996, 107–139. For democracies outside Athens see E.W. Robinson, The First Democracies. Early Popular Government Outside Athens (Hist.E 107), Stuttgart 1997 with the critical remarks of K.J. Hölkeskamp in ZSRG.R 117 (2000), 489–493. For alternatives to Athenian political thought and organization see the essays collected in R. Brock/S. Hodkinson (eds.), Alternatives to Athens. Varieties of Political Organization and Community in Ancient Greece, Oxford 2000. The only article dealing with Crete (N.V. Sekunda, Land-use, Ethnicity, and Federalism in West Crete, 327–347) investigates the alliances of small communities (πολίχυαι).

5 On Cretan Society see S. Link, Das griechische Kreta. Untersuchungen zu seiner staatlichen und gesellschaftlichen Entwicklung vom 6. bis zum 4. Jahrhundert v.Chr., Stuttgart 1994. On the importance of written law and of writing down legal stipulations see M. Gagarin, Writing Greek Law, Cambridge 2008, id., Inscribing Laws in Greece and the Near East, in H.-A. Rupprecht (ed.), Symposion 2003. Vorträge zur griechischen und hellenistischen Rechtsgeschichte (Akten der Gesellschaft für griechische und hellenistische Rechtsgeschichte 17), Vienna 2006, 9–20 and R. Thomas, Writing, Law, and Written Law, in M. Gagarin/D. Cohen (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek Law, Cambridge 2005, 41–60.

6 See Homer, Iliad 2.645–49. On the architectural context of Cretan monumental inscription see P.J. Perlman, Writing on the Walls. The Architectural Context of Archaic Cretan Laws, in L.P. Day/M.S. Mook/J.D. Muhly (eds.), Crete Beyond the Palaces: Proceedings of the Crete 2000 Conference (Prehistory Monographs 10), Philadelphia 2004, 181–197.

7 See A.C. Hagedorn, Gortyn — Utilising a Greek Law Code for Biblical Research, ZAR 7 (2001), 216–242 and id., Between Moses and Plato. Individual and Society in Deuteronomy and Ancient Greek Law (FRLANT 204), Göttingen 2004.

8 See Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica s.v. Λύκτοί’ polis Κρητη? από Λύκτόυ tou LuKaonos. enioi Λύττόν αυτην φασιν δια τό κεΐσθαι en μετεωρω τόπω. τό γαρ ανω καί υψηλόν λUττon φασι. to εθνικόν Λύκτιό? και θηλυκόν Λυκτηί?. Text according to A. Meineke, Stephani Byzantii Ethnicorum quae supersunt, Berlin 1849; On Stephanus see P.M. Fraser, Greek Ethnic Terminology, Oxford 2009, 241–293.

9 The English term ‘ethnicity’ is first used in 1953 in a discussion about the public and social status of the American intellectual (see D. Riesman, Some Observations on Intellectual Freedom, American Scholar 23 (1953/54), 9–25, esp. 15). Already here it is used to designate an origin that is not necessarily connected to biological traits.

10 M. Herzfeld, Anthropology. Theoretical Practice in Culture and Society, Oxford 2001, 11 but see already the remarks in C. Kramer, Pots and Peoples, in L.D. Levine/T.C.J. Young (eds.), Mountains and Lowlands. Essays in the Archaeology of Greater Mesopotamia (Bibliotheca Mesopotamia 7), Malibu 1977, 91–112: “‘Ethnicity’ can mean different things to different people, and is of questionable utility as a theoretical construct when viewed from the perspective of prehistory” (95). For a view from archaeology see G. Emberling, Ethnicity in Complex Societies: Archaeological Perspectives, Journal of Archaeological Research 5 (1997), 295–344.

11 Cf. F. Barth, Introduction, in id., Ethnic Groups and Boundaries. The Social Organization of Culture Difference, Prospect Heights 1969, 16; T.H. Eriksen, Ethnicity and Nationalism. Anthropological Perspectives (Anthropology, Culture and Society), London 1993, 11; S. Harrison, Cultural Difference as Denied Resemblance: Reconsidering Nationalism and Ethnicity, CSSH 45 (2003), 343; J.M. Hall, Ethnic identity in Greek antiquity, Cambridge 1997, 19–33.

12 M. Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Grundriß der verstehenden Soziologie, Tübingen 51980, 237.

13 Already in M. Weber's work the term race is mainly set in quotation marks; see e.g. Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, 234 and in 1942 A. Montagu, speaks of race as man's most dangerous myth (Man's Most Dangerous Myth. The Fallacy of Race, New York 1942). On the problem of race, racism and anthropology see H.G. Penny, Objects of Culture. Ethnology and Ethnographic Museums in Imperial Germany, Chapel Hill 2002, 38–48; on the current debate about ethnicity as a biological concept see M.S. Billinger, Another Look at Ethnicity as a Biological Concept, Critique of Anthropology 27 (2007), 5–35; P. Kitcher, In Mendel's Mirror: Philosophical Reflections on Biology, New York/Oxford 2003, 234–238who once again emphasizes the historical dimension of the term ‘race’: “If there is a workable biological conception of race, then it must … employ the historical construction in terms of founder populations and inbred lineages, and finally, demand that, when the races are brought together, the differences in intraracial mating probabilities be sufficiently large to sustain the distinctive traits that mark the races …” (238).

14 T. Todorov, On Human Diversity: Antinationalism, Racism and Exoticism in French Thought, Cambridge (MA) 1993, 156–7; U. Wikan, Culture: A New Concept of Race, Social Anthropology 7 (1999), 57–64 and U. Wikan, Generous Betrayal: Politics of Culture in the New Europe, Chicago 2002; see also the critical view of Wikan's approach in R.D. Grillo, Cultural essentialism and cultural anxiety, Anthropological Theory 3 (2003), 169–170.

15 T.H. Eriksen, Ethnicity and Nationalism, 12.

16 J.M. Hall, Ethnic identity, 20–21.

17 B. Anderson, Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, London/New York 21991, 6.

18 J.M. Hall, Hellenicity. Between Ethnicity and Culture, Chicago 2002, 9 (following D. Horowitz, Ethnic Identity in N. Glazer and D.P. Moynihan (eds.), Ethnicity: Theory and Experience, Cambridge 1975), 119–121 has rightly stressed that “[b]iological features, language, religion or cultural traits may appear to be highly visible markers of identification but they do not ultimately define the ethnic group. They are, instead, secondary indicia … or ‘surface pointers’’.

19 S. Harrison, Cultural difference, 343.

20 “Ethnic groups are not merely or necessarily based on the occupation of exclusive territories.” (F. Barth, Introduction, 15).

21 F. Barth, Introduction, 18–20 followed by S. Harrison, Cultural difference, 343–361.

22 S. Harrison, Cultural difference, 345.

23 Ibid.

24 Lyttos was undoubtedly a polis in archaic and classical times, “but without an early attestation of the term in reference to the community, Lyktos is included in the Inventory as a probably polis” (P. Perlman, Crete. 1175). See also the treatment in H. van Effenterre/D. Gondicas, Lyttos, ville fantôme?, in M. Bellancourt-Valdher/J.-N. Corvisier (eds.), La demographie historique antique (Cahiers Scientifiques de l'Université d'Artois 11), Artois 1999, 127–139.

25 Hesiod, Theogony, 477–79.

26 Homer, Iliad 2.645–49; English translation acc. to R. Fagels, The Iliad, London 1990, 120.

27 Homer, Iliad 2.651.

28 Homer, Iliad 17.610–11. English translation acc. to R. Fagels, The Iliad, 462.

29 On this motif and the legendary character of such transfer of laws and constitutions see K.-J. Hölkeskamp, Schiedsrichter, Gesetzgeber und Gesetzgebung im archaischen Griechenland, (Hist.E 131), Stuttgart 1999, 44–59; on Greek lawgivers see V. Parker, Tyrants and Lawgivers, in H.A. Shapiro (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Archaic Greece, Cambridge 2007, 13–39; Z. Papakonstantinou, Lawmaking and Adjudication in Archaic Greece, London 2008, 63–67.

30 Aristotle, Politics, 1271b.25–33.

31 Ephoros, fr. 147–149 = Jacoby, FGH 70.

32 I. Malkin, Myth and Territory in the Spartan Mediterranean, Cambridge 1994, 78.

33 Pausanias IV.19.4

34 See Polybios, IV.53–55 and IX.54.

35 On the territorial expansion of Lyttos see D. Viviers, La cité de Datalla et l'expansion territoriale de Lyktos en Crète centrale, Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 118 (1994), 229–259. ICr I xix 3 attests that Lyttos formed a sympoliteia with Chersonasos which is in turn then described as ‘Lyttos by the sea’ (εν δε τα! θαλα[σσαι πόλι … [ICr I xviii 9 fr. a]) and has to be distinguished from ‘Lyttos above’ (ανω πολ? [ICr I xix 3a]). Maybe ICr I xviii 1 already refers to such a symbiotic relationship for the 6th century B.C.E., when the text refers to ‘those above’ (οζοι ανοθεν): -- .. εστα … οζοι ανοθεν | γα[- - --]ε [π]ροΩ ειπεμεν | η αυτον | η - - --]ν αμευσονται | αμποτερο - - Strabo 10.4.14 (Λυττου δε … επινειον εστιν η λεγουμενη Χρεσονησοί) mentions Chresonasos as being the harbour of Lyttos.

38 P. Perlman, Crete, 1176.

39 See ICr I xviii. Whether these fragments point to a ‘codification’ of Lyttian law (thus L.H. Jeffery, Local Scripts of Archaic Greece. A Study of the Origin of the Greek Alphabet and its Development from the Eighth to the Fifth Centuries B.C., Oxford 21990), 310) as early as the 5th century is difficult to assess but probably unlikely; see K.J. Hölkeskamp, Schiedsrichter, 198–199.

40 Greek text according to H. van Effenterre/F. Ruzé, Nomima. Receuil d'inscriptions politiques et juridiques de l'archaïsme grec Vol. I (Collection de L'École Française de Rome 188), Paris 1994, No. 12. Photographs and facsimile in H. and M. van Effenterre, Nouvelles lois archaïques de Lyttos, Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 109 (1985), 157–188. Several alternative readings are proposed by J. Chadwick, Some Observations on Two New Inscriptions from Lyktos, in L. Kastrinaki/G. Orphanou/N. Giannadakis (eds.), Είλαπίυη Τόμος Τίμητίκὸς γiὰ τὸυ Καθηγητὴ Νίκολαο Πλατωυα, Heraklion 1987, 329–334.

41 See e.g. ICr IV 72 I.1 (Gortyn Code); ICr IV 78; Nomima I.22. Two gods are mentioned by name in the inscriptions from Lyttos. ICr I xviii 8 mentions Apollo Pythios (ἀυαγράψαɩ δὲ τὸ ψήφɩσμα τοȗτο ἐμ μὲυ Λύττωɩ ἐυ [τῶ| ἱερωɩ | τ]οȗ Απόλλωυος τοȗ Ποɩτ́ου κτλ.) and ICr I xviii 12 speaks of the temple of Artemis (τὸυ υαὸυ τᾶς Αρτέ-| μιδος τᾶς Σωτείρας). On the form Ποιτιος see M. Bile, Le dialecte Crétois ancien. Étude de la langue des inscriptions receuil des inscriptions postérieures aux IC, (École Française d'Athènes. Études Crétoises 27), Paris 1988, 99–100.

42 See C.D. Buck, The Greek Dialects. Grammar, Selected Inscriptions, Glossary, Chicago 1955, 126. e)/ûade is an aorist, see M. Bile, Le dialecte Crétois ancien, 363.

43 See e.g. Herodotus, Hist. 6.106; 7.172; 9.5,19, see also Homer, Il. 17.645–47 (Ζεȗ πάτερ, ἀλλὰ σὺ ῥȗσαι ὑπ’ ἠέρος υἷας Ἀχαιῶυ, | ποίησου δ’ α’ίθρηυ δὸς δ’ ὀϕθαλμοῖσιυ ἰδέσθαι˙ | ἐυ δὲ ϕάει καὶ ὄλεσσυ, ἐπεί υύ τοι εὔ αδεφ οὕτως) and Od. 2.113–14 (μητέρα σὴυ ἀπόπεμψου, ἄυωχθι δέ μιυ γαμέεσθαι | τῷ ὅτεῴ τε πατὴρ κέλεται καὶ ἁυδάυει αὐτῇ).

44 See Nomima I.64 (πόλι ἔ╒ αδε διαλήσασι πυλᾶσι …); Nomima I.81 (ἆδ’ ἔ╒ αδε | πόλι …). Also the term can be used without a determination, see Nomima I.68 (ἐ(τ)αρηιᾶυ | ἔ╒ αδε˙ …).

45 See also the similar constructions in ICr IV 78 = Nomima I.16 (Θιοί. Τάδ’ ἔ╒ αδε τοῖς Γορτυνίοις πσaπίδ0υσ[ι —]) and Nomima I.22 ‘Spensithios Decree’ (Θιοί. ἔ╒ αδε Δαταλεȗσι καὶ ἐσπέυσαμεί πόλις …).

46 See R. Koerner, Inschriftliche Gesetzestexte der frühen griechischen Polis, Cologne 1993, 350.

47 Text according to ICr I xviii 4.

48 See H. and M. van Effenterre, Nouvelles lois archaïques, 182–185 and different R. Koerner, Inschriftliche Gesetzestexte, 328–332.

49 On the polis of Lindos see T.H. Nielsen/V. Gabrielsen, Rhodos, in M.H. Hansen/T.H. Nielsen (eds.), An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis. An Investigation Conducted by the Copenhagen Polis Centre for the Danish National Research Foundation, Oxford 2004, 1202–1204. For attestations in literature see Homer, Il. 2.653–656 (Τληπόλεμος δ’ Ἡρακλεΐδης ἠΰς τε μέγας τε | ἐκ Ῥόδου ἐυυέα υῆας ἄγευ Ῥόδίωυ ἀγερώχωυ | οἳ Ῥόδου ἀμφευέμουτ0 διὰ τρίχα κοσμηθέυτες | Λίυδ0υ’ Ιηλυσόυ τε καό ἀργιυόευτα Κάμειρυ) and Callimachus, Aetia fr. 7.19–21 (Κῶς δέ, θεαί, [Φοίβω] μὲυ ἀυὴρ Ἀυαφαῖος ἐπ’ αἰσ[χροῖς | ἡ δ’ ἐ̣ π̣ ὶ̣ δ̣ υ̣[σφήμος] Λίυδος ἄγει θυσίηυ, | η … τηυε[…… τ]ὸυ’ Ηρακλῆα σεβίζῃ;).

50 I.Lindos II.13

51 ICr II xii 3 = Nomima I.10 (Eleutherna); Other possible restorations for lines 4–5: παρίόυτο[υτ|ȏυ] πολίατᾶυ or κατα ╒ ελμέυου τȏμ πολίατᾶυ (this reading is based on ICr2 IV 72 X.35–36 and XI.13–14). On the polis of Eleutherna see see P. Perlman, Crete, 1158–1160.

52 H. and M. van Effenterre remark: “Il paraît se rapporter à des étrangers, mais nous ne croyons pas qu'il s'agisse d'étrangers domiciliés à Eleutherne.” (Nomima I, p. 56).

53 ICr IV 72 Col. VI.46–51. English translation according to R. Willetts, The Law Code of Gortyn (Kadmos Supplement 1), Berlin 1967, 44.

54 In Col. VI.55–VII.10 follows a stipulation concerning children of mixed marriages: [——ἀίκ’ δολοϛ | ἐπὶ τὰυ ἐλευθἐραυ ἐλθὸυ ὀπυίἐι, | ἐλεύθερ’ ἔμευ τὰ τἐκυα. The stipulation states that that the status of the children “depended whether the marriage was matrilocal or not” (R. Willetts, Law Code, 69); on the passage see M. Bile, Queleus aperçus de la société Gortynienne d'après les lois de Gortyne VI 56–VII 10, in: Mélanges en l'honneur Panayotis D. Dimakis. Droits antiques et société, Athen 2002, 115–131. Maybe the mentioning of “abroad” in the law regarding ransomed prisoners prompted the collators of the code to add the mixed marriages here — this would point to the slaves as being from abroad. Especially in the light that Col. VI.55–VII.10 interrupts the laws that are connected by the aspect of property this might be a viable interpretation.

55 See Demosthenes 53 Nikostr. 11: οί υόμοι κελεύσιυ τοȗ λυσαμέυου ἐκ τῶυ πολεμίωυ εἶυαι τὸυ λυωέυτα, ἐὰυ μὴ ἀποδιδῷ τὰ λύτρα.

56 The law uses both, λύεσθαι und ἀλλύεσθαι.

57 F. Büchler/E. Zitelman, Das Recht von Gortyn, Frankfurt a.M. 21885, 166 n 4 use ἐκς ἀλλοπολίας to argue against the possibility of war.

58 A decree from Phaistos (ICr I xxiii 1) regulates the return of citizens that were captured by pirates from Crete and Milesia; see e.g. lines 3–6: σῶμ[α] ἐλεύθερου μὴ ὠυείσθω ὁ Μιλήσιος Φαίστιου μηδ’ ὁ Φαίστιος Μιλη[ή]-σιου, ἂμ μὴ κελομέυου πρίαται• ἂυ δὲ κε<λ>ομέυοu πρίαται, τᾶς ἰσωυ[ί]-ας ἀπολυσάτω. In the decree from Phaistos the person in exile could refuse to be ransomed. In the Gortyn Code (Col. VI.52–53: ἒ μὲ [κ]ελομέ- | υ]ο αὐτõ [λ]ύσαθθαι) this can be reason for a legal dispute.

61 ICr I xviii 2 = Nomima I.11 (Lyttos).

62 See H. and M. van Effenterre, Nomima I., 58. The editors remark on the inscription: “La traduction est impossible car tout dépend des restitutions adoptées dont aucune ne s'impose.”

63 Platon, Laws, 954e.

64 Platon, Protagoras 342d.

65 ICr II xii 11. Text according to Nomima I.14. The occurrence of θιαρός is the only epigraphical evidence from Eleutherna that attests foreign relations during the archaic period (P. Perlman, Crete, 1159).

66 ICr IV 72 Col. VIII.36–40.

67 Thus H. and M. van Effenterre, Nouvelles lois archaïques de Lyttos, 179: “Le texte A semble interdire l'acceuil des étrangers dans la cité. C'est donc apparemment une measure de xenèlasia, analogue à celle que l'on attribue aux Spartiates et qui rapelle aussi les précautions que Platon voulait prendre contre les étrangers dans sa cité idéale des Magnètes.”

68 Next to the Platonic references to the so called xenelasia (ξευηλασία) in Plato, Laws 950a–b and Protagoras 342c see e.g. Aristophanes, Birds 1013–16; Thuycidides I.144,2; II.39,1; Xenophon, Lac. Pol. 14.4.

69 On this see S. Rebenich, Fremdenfeindlichkeit in Sparta? Überlegungen zur Tradition der spartanischen Xenelasie, Klio 80 (1998), 336–359.

70 On the role of the xenos and his role in the early Greek polis see P.A. Butz, Prohibitionary Inscriptions, ?έυοι, and the Influence of the Early Greek Polis, in R. Hägg (ed.), The Role of Religion in the Early Greek Polis. Proceedings of the Third International Seminar on Ancient Greek Cult, organized by the Swedish Institute at Athens, 16–18 October 1992 (Skrifter Utgivna av Svenska Instutet i Athen 8/XIV), Stockholm 1996, 75–95and C. Koch, Fremde im Dienst der Wiedereinrichtung von Volksherrschaften in griechischen Staaten, J. Hengstl/U. Sick (eds.), Recht gestern und heute. Festschrift zum 85. Geburtstag von Richard Haase (Philippika 13), Wiesbaden 2006, 97–108. On the status of foreigners in Plato's Laws see K. Schöpsau, Die soziale und rechtliche Stellung der Fremden in Platos Nomoi, in U. Riemer/P. Riemer (eds.), Xenophobie — Philoxenie. Vom Umgang mit Fremden in der Antike (Potsdamer Altertumswissenschaftliche Beiträge 7), Stuttgart 2005, 115–129.

71 Greek text according to LSS 49; English translation according to E. Lupu, Greek Sacred Law. A Collection of New Documents (NGSL), (Religions in the Graeco-Roman World 152), Leiden 2005, 19.

72 R. Koerner, Gesetzestexte, 328.

73 Different P. Faure, Nouvelles identifications d'antiques localités Crétoises, Kadmos 32 (1993), 67–74 who argues that the Itanos mentioned in the inscription does not refer to the Eastern polis but to a settlement 15km west of Lyttos and known as u-ta-no in Linear B tablets from Knossos: “Ἰτάυιο… ne sont pas le citoyens d' Ἰταυος … à l'extrimité occidentale de la Crète … mai les habitants d'une bourgade relativement proche de Lyktos (15km vers l'ouest) et nommée u-ta-no sur dix-sept tablettes de Knosos en écriture linéaire B …” (69).

74 Perlman, Crete, 1167.

75 ICr III vii 3.

76 ICr III iii 31.

77 Herodotus, Hist. IV.151.

78 On Phoenician contact with Crete in general see G.L. Hoffman, Imports and Immigrants. Near Eastern Contacts with Iron Age Crete, Ann Arbor 1997, 153–189 and ead., Defining Identities: Greek artistic interaction with the Near East, in C.E. Suter and C. Uehlinger (eds.), Crafts and Images in Contact. Studies on Eastern Mediterranean art of the first millennium BCE (OBO 210), Fribourg 2005, 351–389; O. Negbi, Early Phoenician Presence in the Mediterranean Islands: A Reappraisal, AJA 96 (1992), 599–615; J.W. Shaw, Phoenicians in Southern Crete, AJA 93 (1989), 165–183 and for a more general view of Phoenician colonization in the Mediterranean see H.G. Niemeyer, The Phoenicians in the Mediterranean. Between Expansion and Colonisation: A Non-Greek Model of Overseas Settlement and Presence, in G.R. Tsetskhladze (ed.), Greek Colonisation. An Account of Greek Colonies and Other Settlements Overseas Vol. I (MnS 193) Leiden 2006, 143–168.

79 Thus H. and M. van Effenterre, Nouvelle lois archaïques, 180 with reference to similar occurrences in Herodotus, Hist. IV.145–46.

80 From the 5th century onwards, the city of Lyttos struck coins on the Aiginetan standard (see J.M. Price, The Beginnings of Coinage on Crete, in Πεπαργμυα του Δ’ Διεθνοȗς Κρητολογικοȗ Συυδρίου (Heraklion, 1976), 461–466) in the standard value of staters, drachms and hemidrachms; the use of the term lebetes might indicate that the fine is not a monetary one (R. Koerner, Inschriftliche Gesetzestexte, 329).

81 The exact meaning of the term ἀπόκοσμος is unclear; the word occurs again in an inscription from Axos (Text in SEG XXIII No. 566 and SEG XXV No 1024; see also LSCG 145): … αἴ τις τᾶ(υ) υȗυ κοσμιό- | [υτ]ωυ ἣ ἀπόκοσμος τὰ [πάμα]τ̣α̣ ἢ άλλᾶι θείη … and can either refer to a previous kosmos or to a kosmos-elect (see the discussion in M. Bile, Le dialecte Crétois ancien, 274; the latter notion has been proposed by G. Manganaro, Iscrizione opistographa di Axos con prescrizioni sacrali e con trattato di Symmachia, Historia 15 (1966), 11–22).

82 On the office of kosmos see S. Link, Das griechische Kreta, 97–112. Aristotle, Politics 1272a compares the Cretan institution to the one in Sparta (ἔχει δ’ ἀυὰλογου ἡ Κρητικὴ τάξις πρὸς τὴυ Λακωυικὴυ) and links it to the Spartan ephorate (οἱ μὲυ γὰρ ἔφοποι τὴυ αὐτὴυ ἔχουσι δὐυαμιυ τοῖς ἐυ τῇ Κρήτῃ καλουμέυοις κοσμοις κτλ.). He further relates that Crete abolished the monarchy in favour of the kosmoi. Aristotle's conviction, however, that the kosmoi live on an island remote from the other members of society (οὐδὲυ γὰρ λήμματὀ ἐστὶ τοῖς κόσμοις ὥσπερ τοῖς ἐφόροις, πόρρω γ’ ἀποικοὐσιυ ἐυ υήσῳ τῶυ διαφθεροὐυτωυ) is nothing more than a fantasy as the many references to the acts of kosmoi in the Gortyn code indicate.

83 At Gortyn, the kosmoi could only be liable and subjected to private claims after they ceased to be kosmos; see ICr IV 41 Col. IV.6–14 = Nomima II.65:        τὸν δὲ ╒οικέα τὸν ἐπ-        ιδίομ∊νον μὴ ἀποδό- 8     θθαι μήτ∊ να∊úοντα        μήτ' ἦ κ' ἀπέλθηι το̑ ἐν-        ιαντο̑. αἰδέ κοσμί-        οντοಽ ἦι ὀ ἐπιδιόμ∊ 12    νοಽ, μὴ ἀποδόθαι ἆಽ κ-        α κοσμῆι μηδ' ἦ κ' ἀπέ-        λθηι το̑ ἐνιαυτο̑ The same is stated in Col. I of the great code of Gortyn (ICr IV 72 I.51–55), where claims after a seizure of a slave of a kosmos or by a kosmos the claim has to wait until the kosmos ceased to hold office:        vac. αἰ δ-        έ κα κοσ̣[μ]ίον ἂγ∊ι ἒ κοσμίοντο-        ಽ ἄλλοಽ, ἐ̑ κ'ἀποστᾶι, μολέν, κα'ί κ-        α νικαθ∊̑ι, κατιστάμ∊ν ἀπ[ὸ ἆ] ಽ 55   ἀμέρα]ಽ ἄγαγ∊ τὰἐγραμένα. vac. As our law from Lyttos indicates that “such temporary immunity from legal action was counter-balanced by deterrents against possible abuses of privilege by an official” (R.F. Willets, The Law Code of Gortyn, 57).

88 K.J. Hölkeskamp, Schiedsrichter, 200; relates this executive office to the Attic judicial institution of the δίκη ἐξουλης (on this see R.J. Bonner and G. Smith, The Administration of Justice from Homer to Aristotle Vol. II, Chicago 1938 and S.C. Todd, The Shape of Athenian Law, Oxford 1993, 282–283).

89 See H. and M. van Effenterre, Nouvelles lois archaïques de Lyttos, 180: “On retrouvait la situation de tension politique dont le formulaire měme du texte nous avait paru constituer un indice” and R. Koerner, Gesetzestexte, 329; for the opposing view.

90 On the killing of foreigners see lines 33–41 of the Athenian arrangements for Iulis from the year 363/2 B.C.E.:        καὶ τὸಽ φίλοಽ τὸಽ 'A        θηναίων ὃಽ κατήγαγ∊ν ὁ δῆμοಽ τὸಽ μὲν ἀπέκτ∊ιναν, τῶν 35    δὲ θάνατον κατέγνωσαν καὶ τα τὰಽ ὀ[σ]ίαಽ ἐδήμ∊Åσαν παρὲ        τὸಽ ὄρκοಽ καὶ τὰಽ συνθήκας …        … ὅτι κατηγόρον' ΑντιΠά[τ]ρο ὄτε ἡ βουλὴ ἡ'Αθην-        αíων κατέγνω αὐτȏ θάνατον ἀΠοκτ[εí]ναντος τὸν Πρόζε-        νον τὸν 'Αθηναíων {α.} Α'ισíωνα Παρὰ [τ]ὰ ψηϕíματα τοῦ δη- 40   μου τõ ’Αθηυαίωυ κ[α]ì παρα[βά]υτα τὸς ὃρκος καì τὰς συυθήκɑς· (Greek text according to P.J. Rhodes/R. Osborne, Greek Historical Inscriptions 404–323 BC, Oxford 2003, No. 39).

93 See Homer, Od. 19.172–177: Κρήτη Tiς γαῖ ἔστι, μέσῳ ἐυὶ οἴυοπι πόυτῳ, καλὴ καὶ πίειρα, περίρρντος ἐυ δ’ ἄυθρωποι πολλοί, ἀπειρέσιοι, καὶ ἐυυήκουτα πόληες. ἄλλη δ’ ἄλλωυ γλῶσσα μεμίγμέυη˙ εὐ μὲυ Ἀχαιοί, ἐυ δ’ Ἐτεόκρητες μεγαλήτορες, ἐυ δὲ Κύδεωυες, Δωριέες τετριχάΙκες δῖοί τε Πελασγοί On the significance of language in the emergence of ethnic identity see J.M. Hall, Ethnic identity, 177–180 and id., Hellenicity, 111–117.