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131:; the 12 columns of text which survive are 10 m (30 ft) in length and 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) in height and contain some 600 lines of text. In addition, some further broken texts survive; the so-called second text. It is the longest extant ancient Greek inscription except for the inscription of
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The code deals with such matters as disputed ownership of slaves, rape and adultery, the rights of a wife when divorced or a widow, the custody of children born after divorce, inheritance, sale and mortgaging of property, ransom, children of mixed (slave, free and foreign) marriages and adoption. The
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If the husband dies with children, the property is held in trust by the wife for the children. If the children are of age upon their father's death, the property is divided between the children, with males receiving all of the land. If the husband dies without any children, the wife is compelled to
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Rape under the code is punished with fines. The fine is largely determined by the difference in social status between the victim and the accused. A free man convicted of raping a serf or a slave would receive the lowest fine; a slave convicted of raping a free man or woman would warrant the highest
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The code devotes a great deal of attention to the allocation and management of property. Although the husband manages the majority of the family property, the wife's property is still delineated. If the wife dies, the husband becomes the trustee to her property and may take no action on it without
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The Gortyn law code grants a modicum of property rights to women in the case of divorce. Divorced women are entitled to any property that they brought to the marriage and half of the joint income if derived from her property. The code also provides for a portion of the household property. The code
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Adultery is punished similarly to rape under the code but also takes into consideration the location of the crime. The code dictates higher fines for adultery committed within the household of the female's father, husband or brother, as opposed to another location. Fines also depend on whether the
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and various other areas of central Crete. The Code stands with a tradition of Cretan law, which taken as a totality represents the only substantial corpus of Greek law from antiquity found outside Athens. The whole corpus of Cretan law may be divided into three broad categories: the earliest
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The code provides a measure of protection for individuals prior to their trial. Persons bringing suit are prohibited from seizing and detaining the accused before trial. Violations are punishable by fines, which vary depending on the status of the detained individual.
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and a team, obtained permission to excavate the rest of the site, revealing 8 more text columns whose stones had been reused as part of the foundations of a Roman Odeion from the 1st century BCE. The wall bearing the code has now been partially reconstructed.
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Though all the texts are fragmentary and show evidence of a continuous amendment of the law, it has been possible to trace the development of the law from
Archaic proscriptions onwards, notably the diminishing rights of women and the increasing rights of
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IV 1-40., ca. 600 BCE to ca. 525 BCE) was inscribed on the steps and walls of the temple of Apollo
Pythios, the next a sequence, including the Great Code, written on the walls in or near the agora between ca. 525 and 400 BCE
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dialect and is one of a number of legal inscriptions found scattered across Crete but curiously, very few nonlegal texts from ancient Crete survive. The Dorian language was then pervasive among Cretan cities such as
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the consent of her children. In the case of remarriage, the first wife's property immediately comes into her children's possession. If the wife dies childless, her property reverts to her blood relatives.
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stipulates that any children conceived before the divorce but born after the divorce fall under the custody of the father. If the father does not accept the child, it reverts to the mother.
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woman has previously committed adultery. The fines are levied against the male involved in the adultery, not the female. The code does not provide for the punishment of the female.
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Adopted children receive all the inheritance rights of natural children and are considered legitimate heirs in all cases. Women are not allowed to adopt children.
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found a further four columns of the text while excavating a site near a local mill in 1884. Since this was evidently part of a larger text, he, with
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code makes legal distinctions between different social classes. Free, serf, slave and foreigner social statuses are recognized within the document.
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The terms "Gortyn code" and "Great Code" may be used interchangeably for the text and the inscription.
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Complete transcription of the 12 columns of the Gortyn Code, with the boustrophedon writing retained.
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Fragment of the Gortyn Code in the Louvre, concerning the inheritance rights of adopted children.
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The Law Code of Gortyn / ed. with introduction, transl. and a commentary by Ronald F. Willets.
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IV 141-159), which contain Ionian characters and so are dated to the 4th century.
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The
Packard Humanities Institute (full Greek text after Willetts 1967).
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Codificiation, tradition and innovation in the law code of Gortyn
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of Gortyn. The original building was 30 m (100 ft) in
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Our sole source of knowledge of the code is the fragmentary
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The first fragment of the code was discovered in 1857 by
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454:For a full discussion of the text see John Davies:
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119:on the circular walls of what might have been a
521:J. Whitley, "Cretan Laws and Cretan Literacy",
27:5th-century BC legal code used in Gortyn, Crete
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439:Deconstructing Gortyn: When is a CODE a Code?
460:The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek Law
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294:The Amphitheatre containing the Gortyn code.
557:The Law Code of Gortyn (Crete), c. 450 BCE
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537:The Law and the Courts in Ancient Greece
516:Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek Law
306:Inscription of the Great Code at Gortyn.
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514:Michael Gagarin, David J. Cohen (eds),
146:Boustrophedon code on the circular wall
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427:see Willetts, "The Law Code of Gortyn"
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613:Archaeological discoveries in Crete
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535:M. Harris, Lene Rubinstein (eds),
443:Greek Law in its Political Setting
414:p. 248 for a statistical analysis.
197:IV 41-140), followed by the laws (
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412:The Archaeology of Ancient Greece
170:The Great Code is written in the
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318:Photomontage of the Gortyn Code.
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523:American Journal of Archaeology
257:Property rights and inheritance
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445:L Foxhall, ADE Lewis (eds).
342:List of ancient legal codes
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248:Divorce and marriage rights
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561:Ancient History Sourcebook
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48:35.0632209°N 24.9469189°E
598:Doric Greek inscriptions
509:The Law Code of Gortyn
502:Inscriptiones Creticae
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53:35.0632209; 24.9469189
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528:Ilias Arnaoutoglou,
133:Diogenes of Oenoanda
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530:Ancient Greek Laws
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154:and Louis Thenon.
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593:Ancient Greek law
579:downloadable pdf.
544:Writing Greek Law
542:Michael Gagarin,
398:Willets 1967, p.
347:Ancient Greek law
235:Rape and adultery
160:Federico Halbherr
77:(also called the
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67:Federico Halbherr
16:(Redirected from
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75:Gortyn code
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18:Gortyn Code
587:Categories
566:PHI 200508
482:4 November
353:References
211:public law
94:city-state
83:legal code
79:Great Code
39:24°56′49″E
36:35°03′48″N
274:remarry.
87:civil law
389:IV 41-50
387:I. Cret.
366:I. Cret.
336:See also
199:I. Cret.
195:I. Cret.
190:I. Cret.
129:diameter
81:) was a
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539:, 2004.
532:, 1998.
518:, 2005.
511:, 1967.
495:Sources
281:Gallery
217:Content
177:Knossos
156:Italian
108:History
89:of the
477:Louvre
240:fine.
207:slaves
181:Lyttos
172:Dorian
98:Gortyn
559:from
441:, in
368:IV.72
125:agora
102:Crete
484:2023
185:Axos
73:The
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137:BCE
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