Gortyn code

The municipal law of Gortyn (Greek Γόρτυς ) or Gortyn, also known as Greater Inscription, is one of the oldest known European laws. It dates from around 500 BC to 450 BC and is located in Gortyn on Crete.

The inscription

In the 1880s, led by Italian archaeologists in excavations Gortyn; 1884 discovered Federico Half Men and Ernst Fabricius inscription panels.

The composed of 42 blocks of stone inscription was originally located on the walls of a public building at the Agora of the ancient polis. Receive only 12 of the panels, which were on the walls of a Hellenistic building, which was incorporated into the Roman period in the construction of a Odeion with.

The text is written in a Doric dialect and consists of twelve columns, each with 53 to 55 rows; the line guide runs in Boustrophedon ( " like an ox turns " - meaning: when plowing ); this is written alternately from left to right and from right to left; in writing from right to left, the letters are reversed. In this early Greek alphabet nor the characters Φ (phi ), Χ (chi ), Ψ (Psi ), Ζ (Zeta), Η ( Eta ) and Ω are missing ( Omega).

Content

Content is in this longest preserved Greek inscription rather a kind of amendment older, not known laws as a new codification.

Codified regulations are made

  • Family law, such as the adoption, the legal status of divorced women and widows, the legal status of children born after a divorce and the children of mixed marriages ( between slaves, free and non-residents)
  • Inheritance, for example, the so-called heiress
  • Property law, such as the purchase and mortgaging of land and the ownership of slaves and their children: The child of an unmarried female slave should be awarded to the men of her father, the child of a married slave should be awarded to her husband's men ...
  • Criminal law, such as penalties for adultery and rape
  • Litigation, for example, were the sale of real estate as well as in divorces and adoptions "memory men " or " flag " (Greek μνημόνες, Mnemónes ) brought in, even with property disputes as respondents; Furthermore, the burden of proof is regulated:
Federico Halbherr Doric Greek Slavery in ancient Greece Procedural law Ernst Zitelmann Josef Kohler
282005
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