Selections
In Greek tradition, Crete was an early home of law. In the 19th Century, a
law code from Gortyn on Crete was discovered, dealing fully with family relations and
inheritance; less fully with tools, slightly with property outside of the household
relations; slightly too, with contracts; but it contains no criminal law or procedure.
This (still visible) inscription is the largest document of Greek law in existence (see
above for its chance survival), but from other fragments we may infer that this
inscription formed but a small fraction of a great code.
I. Whoever intends to bring suit in relation to a free man or slave, shall
not take action by seizure before trial; but if he do seize him, let the judge fine him
ten staters for the free man, five for the slave, and let him release him within
three days. But if he do not release him, let the judge sentence him to a stater for a free man, a drachma for a slave, each day until he has released him. But if
he deny that he made the seizure, the judge shall decide with oath, unless a witness
testify. If one party contend that he is a free man, the other that he is a slave, those
who testify that he is free shall be preferred. But if they testify either for both
parties or for neither of the two, the judge shall render his decision by oath. But if the
slave on account of whom the defendant was defeated take refuge in a temple, the
defendant, summoning the plaintiff in the presence of two witnesses of age and free, shall
point out the slave at the temple; but if he do not issue the summons or do not point him
out, he shall pay what is written. And if he do not return him, even within the year, he
shall pay in addition to the sums stated one-fold. But if he die while the suit is
progressing, he shall pay his value one-fold.
II. If one commit rape on a free man or woman, he shall pay 100 staters,
and if on the son or daughter of an apetairos ten, and if a slave on a free man or
woman, he shall pay double, and if a free man on a male or female serf five drachmas,
and if a serf on a male or female serf, five staters. If one debauch a female
house-slave by force he shall pay two staters, but if one already debauched, in the
daytime, an obol, but if at night, two obols. If one tries to seduce a free
woman, he shall pay ten staters, if a witness testify. . .
III. If one be taken in adultery with a free woman in her father=s, brother=s,
or husband=s house, he shall pay 100 staters,
but if in another=s house, fifty; and with the
wife of an apetairos, ten. But if a slave with a free woman, he shall pay double,
but if a slave with a slave=s wife, five. . .
IV. If a husband and wife be divorced, she shall have her own property that she
came with to her husband, and the half of the income if it be from her own property, and
whatever she has woven, the half, whatever it may be, and five staters, if her
husband be the cause of her dismissal; but if the husband deny that he was the cause, the
judge shall decide. . .
V. If a man die, leaving children, if his wife wish, she may marry, taking her
own property and whatever her husband may have given her, according to what is written, in
the presence of three witnesses of age and free. But if she carry away anything belonging
to her children she shall be answerable. And if he leaves her childless, she shall have
her own property and whatever she has woven, the half, and of the produce on hand in
possession of the heirs, a portion, and whatever her husband has given her as is written.
If a wife shall die childless, the husband shall return to her heirs her property, and
whatever she has woven the half, and of the produce, if it be from her own property, the
half. If a female serf be separated from a male serf while alive or in case of his death,
she shall have her own property, but if she carry away anything else she shall be
answerable.
VI. If a woman bear a child while living apart from her husband after divorce,
she shall have it conveyed to the husband at his house, in the presence of three
witnesses; if he do not receive the child, it shall be in the power of the mother to bring
up or expose. . .
VII. The father shall have power over his children and the division of the
property, and the mother over her property. As long as they live, it shall not be
necessary to make a division. But if a father die, the houses in the city and whatever
there is in the houses in which a serf residing in the country does not live, and the
sheep and the larger animals which do not belong to the serf, shall belong to the sons;
but all the rest of the property shall be divided fairly, and the sons, howsoever many
there be, shall receive two parts each, and the daughters one part each. The mother's
property also shall be divided, in case she dies, as is written for the father's. And if
there should be no property but a house, the daughters shall receive their share as is
written. And if a father while living may wish to give to his married daughter, let him
give according to what is written, but not more. . .
X. As long as a father lives, no one shall purchase any of his property from a
son, or take it on mortgage; but whatever the son himself may have acquired or inherited,
he may sell if he will; nor shall the father sell or pledge the property of his children,
whatever they have themselves acquired or succeeded to, nor the husband that of his wife,
nor the son that of the mother. . . If a mother die leaving children, the father shall be
trustee of the mother's property, but he shall not sell or mortgage unless the children
assent, being of age; and if anyone shall otherwise purchase or take on pledge the
property, it shall still belong to the children; and to the purchaser or pledgor the
seller or pledgee shall pay two-fold the value in damages. But if he wed another, the
children shall have control of the mother's property.
XI. If a slave going to a free woman shall wed her, the children shall be free;
but if the free woman to a slave, the children shall be slaves; and if from the same
mother free and slave children be born, if the mother die and there be property, the free
children shall have it; otherwise her free relatives shall succeed to it.
XIV. The heiress shall marry the brother of the father, the eldest of those
living; and if there be more heiresses and brothers of the father, they shall marry the
eldest in succession. . . But if he do not wish to marry the heiress, the relatives of the
heiress shall charge him and the judge shall order him to marry her within two months; and
if he do not marry, she shall marry the next eldest. If she do not wish to marry, the
heiress shall have the house and whatever is in the house, but sharing the half of the
remainder, she may marry another of her tribe, and the other half shall go to the eldest.
. .
XVI. A son may give to a mother or a husband to a wife 100 staters or
less, but not more; if he should give more, the relatives shall have the property. If
anyone owing money, or under obligation for damages, or during the progress of a suit,
should give away anything, unless the rest of his property be equal to the obligation, the
gift shall be null and void. One shall not buy a man while mortgaged until the mortgagor
release him. .
XVII. Adoption may take place whence one will; and the declaration shall be made
in the market-place when the citizens are gathered. If there be no legitimate children,
the adopted shall received all the property as for legitimates. If there be legitimate
children, the adopted son shall receive with the males the adopted son shall have an equal
share. If the adopted son shall die without legitimate children, the property shall return
to the pertinent relatives of the adopter. A woman shall not adopt, nor a person under
puberty.
XVIII. Whatever is written for the judge to decide according to witnesses or by
oath of denial, he shall decide as is written, but touching other matters shall decide
under oath according to matters in controversy. If a son have given property to his
mother, or a husband to his wife, as was written before these writings, it shall not be
illegal; but hereafter gifts shall be made as here written.
