Foreigner by Inscription Determining Ethnicity in Some Cretan Inscriptions

Foreigner by Inscription Determining Ethnicity in Some Cretan Inscriptions* Anselm C. Hagedorn (Berlin) Ancient Crete provides us with a remarkable set of laws of which the oldest written statutes date back to late 7th century B.C.E.1 In contrast to ancient Athens, writing down the law in Crete did not lead to the development of a democratic society so that Crete represents an alternative to the legal culture of Athens.2 It is further noteworthy that we have almost no other epigraphical evidence from Crete apart from laws and this suggests an importance of written law for its society.3 Here, the most * 1 2 3 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. 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. 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 (poli/xnai). On Cretan Society see S. Link, Das griechische Kreta. Untersuchungen zu seiner staatlichen 194 Anselm C. Hagedorn famous one is clearly Gortyn Code consisting of twelve columns written on one of the city’s famous walls.4 I have treated the many parallels to legal stipulations from the Book of Deuteronomy elsewhere and therefore Gortyn and its laws will only play a secondary role in the current investigation.5 Rather, I would like to look at one particular inscription from the Cretan polis of Lyttos – or Lyktos if one prefers the unassimilated version of the city name6 – as a testcase how a Cretan city regards foreigners and envisages its ethnicity. We will begin with a brief definition of ethnicity before moving on to the inscriptional evidence. 1. Ethnicity Within the disciplines of cultural anthropology and classical studies discussion about ethnicity are currently widespread:7 “Ethnicity too, has achieved a new ubiquity. The concept itself has come in for a good deal of deconstruction, but it dies hard.”8 4 5 6 7 8 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. 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. 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. See Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica s.v. Lu/ktoj: po/lij Krh/t hj a0po\ Lu/ktou tou= Luka/onoj. e)n/ ioi Lu/tton au0th/n fasin dia_ to\ kei=sqai e0n metew&rw| to/pw|. to\ ga\r a)n/ w kai\ u9yhlo\n lu/tton fasi/. to\ e0qniko\n Lu/ktioj kai\ qhluko\n Lukthi/j. 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. 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. 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. Foreigner by Inscription 195 The reason for such a prominence can be found in the most significant progress in the study of ethnicity, namely the observation of the relational aspect of the concept.9 This insight is already found in Max Weber’s Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft when he defines linguistic and cultic communities independent from bloodlines or biological features: “Wir wollen solche Menschengruppen, welche auf Grund von Aehnlichkeiten des äußeren Habitus oder der Sitten oder beider oder von Erinnerungen an Kolonisation und Wanderung einen subjektiven Glauben an eine Abstammungsgemeinsamkeit hegen, derart, daß dieser für die Propagierung von Vergemeinschaftungen wichtig wird, dann, wenn sie nicht ‚Sippen‘ darstellen, ‚ethnische‘ Gruppen nennen, ganz einerlei, ob eine Blutsgemeinsamkeit objektiv vorliegt oder nicht.”10 Using M. Weber’s insights, anthropologists have been able to move beyond seeing ethnicity as a biological phenomenon – the use of the rather problematic term “race” can thus be avoided.11 We should note however, that recent anthropological research has also suggested that the term “race” should be replaced by the term “culture”.12 Following these anthropological insights I will employ a definition by the Norwegian anthropologist Thomas Eriksen who takes up F. Barth’s fundamental insight of ethnicity as a relational concept and defines ethnicity as follows: 9 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. 10 M. Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Grundriß der verstehenden Soziologie, Tübingen 5 1980, 237. 11 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, 234–238 who 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). 12 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. 196 Anselm C. Hagedorn “Ethnicity is an aspect of social relationship between agents who consider themselves as culturally distinctive from members of other groups whith whom they have a minimum of regular interaction.”13 This definition shows that the boundaries of ethnicity or an ethnic group for that matter are never static but fluid entities that change with the adaptation to changes in the “other”, i.e. the group that is perceived as an opponent from which one has to distinguish itself. This is a rather broad definition that fits the broad concept of ethnicity quite well, J. Hall tries to be a bit more specific when he says: “The criteria of ethnicity are the definitional set of attributes by which membership in an ethnic group is ultimately determined. They are the result of a series of conscious and socially embedded choices, which attach significance to certain criteria from a universal set while ignoring others.”14 Ethnicity, therefore, creates an ‘imagined community’, since each member of an ethnic group will never meet most of his or her fellow members but will imagine he or she can ‘know’ them all by attributing to them the same notion of ethnicity and thus expressing community with them.15 An ethnic group defines itself by the perceived or imagined dissimilarities such as history, religion, physical and cultural appearance,16 language etc., that seem to exist between itself and others.17 Anthropological research has shown that such a notion of ethnicity does not necessarily need to be connected to a specific physical entity such as land.18 Rather, following the proposal put forward by Fredrik Barth ethnicity should be seen as a process of selfascriptive group-belonging where the members manifest a (changeable) set of signs of cultural difference that function to mark and defend social boundaries and to channel and structure interactions and exchange across those boundaries.19 A further point already mentioned in Barth and later developed by Jonathan Hall is the fact that ethnicity often emerges in the context of conquest, migration or the acquisition of resources by one group at the expense of others. 13 T.H. Eriksen, Ethnicity and Nationalism, 12. 14 J.M. Hall, Ethnic identity, 20–21. 15 B. Anderson, Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, London/New York 21991, 6. 16 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’”. 17 S. Harrison, Cultural difference, 343. 18 “Ethnic groups are not merely or necessarily based on the occupation of exclusive territories.” (F. Barth, Introduction, 15). 19 F. Barth, Introduction, 18–20 followed by S. Harrison, Cultural difference, 343–361. Foreigner by Inscription 197 Ethnicity is furthermore “conceptualized as relationships, not of difference or perceived difference, but of denied or disguised resemblance”.20 This means that ethnic identities tend to emerge during processes of systematically forgetting most of the shared features or felt similarities between groups.21 2. The Cretan City of Lyttos The city of Lyttos is located approximately 13 miles southeast of Knossos (lat. 35.15, long. 25.20).22 In Greek epic Rhea the mother of Zeus flees to Lyttos to give birth to him and thus to save him from being swallowed up by his father Cronos: pe/myan d' e0j Lu/kton, Krh/thj e0j pi/o na dh=mon, o(ppo/t' a)r / ' o9plo/taton pai/dwn h)m / elle teke/sqai, Zh=na me/g an: [They told her to go to Lyctus, to the rich land of Crete, when she was about to bear the youngest of her children, great Zeus.] 23 In Homer Lyctus is listed amongst the cities, a joy to live in of hundred citied Crete and as part of the Greek contingent commanded by Idomeneus: Krhtw~n d' 'Idomeneu\j dourikluto\j h(gemo/neuen, oi(\ Knwso/n t' ei]xon Go/rtuna/ te teixio/essan, Lu/kton Mi/lhto/n te kai\ a)rgino/enta Lu/kaston Faisto/n te 9Ru/tio/n te, po/leij e0u+\ naietow&saj, a)/lloi q' oi(\ Krh/th e9kato/mpolin a)mfene/monto. [And the great spearman Idomeneus led his Cretans, the men who held Cnossos and Gortyn ringed with walls, Lyctos, Miletus, Lycastus’ bright chalk buffs, Paestos and Rythion, cities a joy to live in – The men who peopled Crete, a hundred cities strong.]24 One inhabitant of Lyttos is known by name in Homer: Koiranos the charioteer of Meriones, “who butchered men like the god of war himself” (t' a0ta/lantoj 'Enua- 20 S. Harrison, Cultural difference, 345. 21 Ibid. 22 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. 23 Hesiod, Theogony, 477–79. 24 Homer, Iliad 2.645–49; English translation acc. to R. Fagels, The Iliad, London 1990, 120. 198 Anselm C. Hagedorn li/w| a0ndreifo/nth|) is killed by accident in battle,25 when Hector was aiming his spear at Idomeneus: au0ta\r o9 Mhrio/nao o0pa/ona/ q' h9ni/o xo/n te, Koi/ranon, o(/j r9' e0k Lu/ktou e0u+ktime/nhj e(p / et' au0tw~| [but he caught Meriones’ aide and driver Coeranus, one who’d come with his lord from rock-built Lyctus.] 26 Aristotle reports that Lyttos was founded by Sparta and that in turn the Spartans modelled their constitution on the laws of the legendary Cretan lawgiver Minos:27 fasi\ ga\r to\n Lukou=rgon, o(t / e th\n e0p itropei/an th\n Xarila/ou tou= basile/w j katalipw_n a0p edh/mhsen, to/te to_n plei=ston diatri=yai xro/non peri\ th_n Krh/thn dia_ th_n sugge/neian: a)p / oikoi ga_r oi9 Lu/ktioi tw~n Lakw¿nwn h]san, kate/labon d' oi9 pro_j th_n a0poiki/an e0lqo/ntej th_n ta/cin tw~n no/mwn u9pa/rxousan e0n toi=j to/te katoikou=sin: dio\ kai\ nu=n oi9 peri/o ikoi to_n au0to_n tro/pon xrw~ntai au0toi=j, w(j kataskeua/santoj Mi/nw prw¿tou th_n ta/cin tw~n no/mwn. [For it said that when Lycurgus relinquished his post as guardian of King Charilaus and went abroad, he subsequently passed most of his time in Crete because of the relationship between the Cretans and the Spartans; for the Lyctians were colonists from Sparta, and the settlers that went out to the colony found the system of laws already existing among the previous inhabitants of the place; owing to which the neighbouring villagers even now use these laws in the same manner, in the belief that Minos first instituted this code of laws.] 28 The same tradition is reported in the Historian Ephoros of Kyme.29 It is unclear whether these information is historically correct or whether both Ephoros and Aristotle simply wanted to stress the connection between Lyttos and Sparta. We should, however, note that in Greek antiquity “it was almost self-evident that similarity in nomima implied a relationship of mother city and colony”.30 This connection is further mentioned in Pausanias, when he reports of mercenaries from Lyttos serving as archers in the Spartan army: 25 Homer, Iliad 2.651. 26 Homer, Iliad 17.610–11. English translation acc. to R. Fagels, The Iliad, 462. 27 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. 28 Aristotle, Politics, 1271b.25–33. 29 Ephoros, fr. 147–149 = Jacoby, FGH 70. 30 I. Malkin, Myth and Territory in the Spartan Mediterranean, Cambridge 1994, 78. Foreigner by Inscription 199 kai\ au0toi\ me\n a0naxwrh/santej oi)/kade e9w rtazon, Krh=tej de\ toco/tai - metepe/myanto ga\r e0k te Lu/ktou kai\ e9te/rwn po/lewn misqwtou/j - ou[toi sfi÷sin a0na\ th\n Messhni/an e0p lanw~nto. [They themselves returned home to keep the feast, but some Cretan archers, whom they had summoned as mercenaries from Lyttos and other cities were patrolling Messenia for them.] 31 In a further mention of the city, Polybios calls Lyttos Crete’s oldest city, which is certainly incorrect.32 As far as the expansion of the Lyttian territory is concerned, Pseudo-Skylax describes their territory reaching the Northern and Southern Cretan sea.33 Though Lyttos is “largely unknown archaeologically”34 we have several fragmentary laws from the ancient polis to which we will turn now.35 3. The Law on Foreigners from Lyttos The inscription under scrutiny was discovered by Nikolaos Platon in 1950 and is now housed in the archaeological museum of Heraklion (Crete). The rectangular block of limestone is inscribed on two sides. On side A our law regarding the foreigners is found, while side B contains a legal enactment regulating grazing rights. The block is 52 cm wide, 30 cm high, and 35 cm in diameter. 31 Pausanias IV.19.4 32 See Polybios, IV.53–55 and IX.54. 33 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’ (e0n de\ ta~i qala/[ssai po/li ... [ICr I xviii 9 fr. a]) and has to be distinguished from ‘Lyttos above’ (a)n/ w po/lij [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’ (o)z/ oi a)noqen): - - .. esta ... o)z/ oi a)noqen | ga[- - -]e [p]roΩeip?em / en | h)\ au0to\n | h)\ - - -]n? a0meu/s ontai | a0mpotero - Strabo 10.4.14 (Lu/ttou de\ ... e0pi/neion e0stin h9 legoume/nh Xreso/nhsoj) mentions Chresonasos as being the harbour of Lyttos. 34 P. Perlman, Crete, 1176. 35 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. 200 Anselm C. Hagedorn Text:36 –> <– 4 8 [Qioi/: | e)/Ω]ade | Lukti/o isi | a)l<l>opolia/tan | o)s / tij ka de/ks[etai . . . . . . . . ]en, | ai0 mh\ o)/sw <a0>Ωuto/j te | kartei= | kai\ to\nj 0Itani/o nj. | Ai0 de/ ka[. . . . . . ]ai | h)\ kosmi/wn | h)\ a0po/kosmo[j. . . e0]JΩwla=j | Ω ada=j | e0kato\n le/bht[aj. . . . ]ei | e0ka/stw | o)s / oj ka de/kse<tai. | T[. . . . . .] de\ | oi0 e0szikiaiwth=rej | e0p' o)t / e[. . . . de/k?]se<tai | ai. . . . .ni/w ntai, | p. . . . e0piΩo/]rΩwi o0 [- - - - - -]domen . .]okos [- - - - - -]tai | t. . . . [Gods! Decree of the Lyttians: whoever takes in a foreigner (shall be punished), except he himself was his master or the person is an Itanian. If, however, a Kosmos or a previous Kosmos (takes in a foreigner), he shall (pay) because of the law on - - - - 100 Lebetes for each one whom he takes in. The judges (shall punish) everyone, as soon as he takes somebody in - - - - (translation A.H.)] After the invocation of the gods that is common in many Cretan inscriptions regardless of their contents,37 the inscriptions identifies itself as a decree of the Lyttians (e)/Ωade Lukti/o isi). Cretan e)/Ωade is related to Ionian e)/ade and thus equivalent to Attic a9nda/nw (= doke/w).38 The verb is used in Herodotus to express the opinion 36 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.), Eilapinh To/moj Timhtiko\j gia_ to_n Kaqhghth_ Nikolao Platwna, Heraklion 1987, 329–334. 37 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 (a0nagra/yai de\ to\ yh/f isma tou=t o e0m me\n Lu/ttwi e0n [tw~I i9erwi | t]ou= Apo/llwnoj tou= Poit/ou ktl.) and ICr I xviii 12 speaks of the temple of Artemis (to\n nao\n ta=j Arte/-| midoj ta=j Swtei/raj). On the form Poi/tioj 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. 38 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. Foreigner by Inscription 201 of a body of people.39 It is precisely this meaning that is used in the first line of the inscription. The term indicates that a decision of a common body is presented here. In contrast to similar constructions from Dreros it is not simply said that the polis made a decree.40 Rather the city-ethnic of the community as a whole, i.e. “Lyttians” is used.41 This term is used on two further occasions in legal enactments from Lyttos. Once the context is quite uncertain and we cannot deduce from it anything else than the singular use of the city ethnic and that it probably was a law that referred to another law:42 - - oi | Joro i | o0coi - - - | o a0podomeno - 5 - - ioi | o0 Lu/ktioj | - - - doi | o0numen | ai0 a0po - - - a]i0 [e)]/ grat[t[ai - - - - -] - - - - - -43 The second occurrence is found on the reverse side of our inscriptions and introduces a law regulating grazing rights of the Lyttians. The legal enactment begins just like the law on foreigners and it has been suggested that both laws relate to each other – a fact that we can ignore for today:44 [Qi]oi/: | e)/Ω ade | Lukti/oisi ... Furthermore we find the designation outside the polis of Lyttos in a treaty from the fifth century between the Rhodian city of Lindos and Lyttos:45 39 See e.g. Herodotus, Hist. 6.106; 7.172; 9.5,19, see also Homer, Il. 17.645–47 (Zeu= pa/ter, a0lla_ su\ r9u=sai u9p' h0er / oj ui[aj 'Axaiw~n, | poi/hson d' ai)q/ rhn, do\j d' o0fqalmoi=sin i0de/sqai: | e0n de\ fa/ei kai\ o)/lesson, e0pei/ nu/ toi eu)a / den ou(t / wj) and Od. 2.113–14 (mhte/ra sh_n a0po/pemyon, a)/nwxqi de/ min game/esqai | tw~| o(t / ew&| te path\r ke/letai kai\ a(nda/nei au0th=|). 40 See Nomima I.64 (po/li e)Ω / ade dialh/sasi pula~si ...); Nomima I.81 (a]d' e)Ω / ade | po/li ...). Also the term can be used without a determination, see Nomima I.68 (e0(t)arhia~n | e)/Ωade: ...). 41 See also the similar constructions in ICr IV 78 = Nomima I.16 (Qioi/. Ta/d' e)/Ωade toi=j Gortuni/oij psapi/dons?[i --]) and Nomima I.22 ‘Spensithios Decree’ (Qioi/: e)/Ωade Dataleu=s i kai\ e0spe/nsamej? po/lij ...). 42 See R. Koerner, Inschriftliche Gesetzestexte der frühen griechischen Polis, Cologne 1993, 350. 43 Text according to ICr I xviii 4. 44 See H. and M. van Effenterre, Nouvelles lois archaïques, 182–185 and different R. Koerner, Inschriftliche Gesetzestexte, 328–332. 45 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 (Tlhpo/lemoj d' 9Hraklei+/dhj h0uj +/ te me/gaj te | e0k 9Ro/dou e0nne/a nh=aj a)g / en 9R odi/w n a0gerw&xwn | oi(\ 9R o/don a0mfene/monto dia_ tri÷xa kosmhqe/ntej | Li/ndon 0I hluso/n te kai\ a)rgino/e nta Ka/meiron) and Callimachus, Aetia 202 Anselm C. Hagedorn [Lutti/w]n ka[i\] Lindi/wn [spondai\] kai\ sunqh/ka [...8....]toi Luttio [....9.... L]uttio.. 5 [.......17........] oi¢de Lutti/wn e0n Li/ndwi ta\j sponda\j e0[s]pe/santo a 5 [. i0a]rw~n e0mpu/[rwn ....]a?to [....10....] [....10....] [..5..]epe . [.] [..5..arxo[.] [..6... Ella 5 [....10....] 46 The reason for such a use of a city-ethnic in our inscription from Lyttos is most likely the occurrence of Itanos, another polis, in the same inscription, a fact to which we will have to return. The legal stipulation moves from the general to the specific. First of all it is prohibited that members of the polis of Lyttos take in any foreigners. The term used for foreigners (a0llopolia~tai) is not attested outside Crete and even in Cretan inscriptions it is not very common. We have one certain attestation in an inscription from Eleutherna and one from the sixth column of the Gortyn Code: 4 8 ------------------------ a0p]o?do=i? t?o i=j a)llopol?[ ia/taij – ----- ko)r / kon tiqe/men to\n? ---to=i de\ o)r / k[oi ta_n a0ra_n i0nh/m e[n --------pinumen mh/te qhri/on? ---------ta a)p / aton h)m / en o0Ωto --------n ai0 de\ mh\ . . . ba/loi e0po— ------pome------ s. ---47 fr. 7.19–21 (Kw~j de/, qeai/, [Foi/bw|] me\n a)nh\r 0A nafai=oj e0p' ai0s[xroi=j | h( d' e0?p ?i\? d?u[? sfh/moj] Li/ndoj a)g / ei qusi/hn, | h ... thne[ ......t]o\n 9Hraklh=a sebi/zh|;). 46 I.Lindos II.13 47 ICr II xii 3 = Nomima I.10 (Eleutherna); Other possible restorations for lines 4–5: pario/nto[n t|o=n] poliata=n or kataΩelme/non to==m poliata=n (this reading is based on ICr IV 72 X.35–36 and XI.13–14). On the polis of Eleutherna see see P. Perlman, Crete, 1158–1160. Foreigner by Inscription 203 The inscription from Eleutherna is very fragmentary so that a translation is almost impossible. That we have a legal stipulation here is confirmed by the phrase o)r / kon tiqe/men (“to take an oath”) in line 3 as well as by a)/paton h)m / en (“to remain without punishment”) in line 6. The use of the term a)llopol[ia/taij, however, indicates that we have stipulations dealing with members outside one’s own group by the end of the 6th century B.C.E.48 The stipulation from the Gortyn Code yields more information. Here we read: 50 vac. ai0 k' e0ddus[a/menon] pe/ra[nde] e0kj a0llopoli/aj u0p' a0na/nkaj e0ko/menoj kelome/no tij lu/setai, e0pi\ to=i a0llusame/noi e)m / en pri/n k' a0podo=i to\ e0piba/llon. [If anyone bound by necessity, should get a man gone away to a strange place set free from a foreign city at his own request, he shall be in the power of the one who ransomed him until he pay what is due.]49 Col. VI.46–55 of the great code from Gortyn deals with ransomed prisoners. 50 First of all, the stipulation has a parallel in Athens.51 Secondly we learn that a Gortynian citizen is a prisoner abroad and another citizen from Gortyn agrees to pay a ransom for him.52 Until the former prisoner refunds his fellow citizen the ransom, he remains in the power of the one who paid for him. Lines 51–55 continue to address the problem that both parties cannot agree on the amount due; in such a case the judges have to decide. The law does not mention how the Gortynian citizen came to be held abroad. War might be a possibility,53 but so are piracy and simply debt48 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). 49 ICr IV 72 Col. VI.46–51. English translation according to R. Willetts, The Law Code of Gortyn (Kadmos Supplement 1), Berlin 1967, 44. 50 In Col. VI.55–VII.10 follows a stipulation concerning children of mixed marriages: [------- ai)/ k' do=loj | e0pi\ ta\n e0leuqe/ran e0lqo\n o0pui/e i, | e0leu/qer' e)m / en ta\ te/kna. 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. 51 See Demosthenes 53 Nikostr. 11: oi9 no/moi keleu/s in tou= lusame/nou e0k tw~n polemi/wn ei]nai to\n luwe/nta, e0a\n mh\ a0podidw~| ta\ lu/tra. 52 The law uses both, lu/esqai und a0llu/esqai. 53 F. Büchler/E. Zitelman, Das Recht von Gortyn, Frankfurt a.M. 21885, 166 n 4 use e0kj a0llopoli/aj to argue against the possibility of war. 204 Anselm C. Hagedorn slavery.54 In any case, we learn from the Gortyn Code that the a0llopoli/aj denotes a territory outside one’s own with which one can nevertheless have some dealings, here in the form of financial transactions. Furthermore there is a disputed passage in another inscription from Lyttos, which is again too fragmentary to translate: <– –> 4 8 -- .oih | a . . --]s?oito | h . o-- ]i h)\ Josmi/o -- ]i | parionto ---- a0llo?]polia/tan | h ---- d' a0lai= qei=e[n ? ----ion | mh\ phm[ain---- a d'? a0lai= qei=e[n ? –55 Due to the occurrence of Josmi/o we can assume that we have a legal enactment here. The restoration of a0llo]polia/tan in line 5 is highly speculative and informed by a similar reading in our inscription from Lyttos.56 Since Cretan po/lij is equivalent to Attic dh=moj it is possible to relate a0llopolia~tai in Nomima I,12 to a0llodhmi/a, a term found in Plato and signifying here a foreign country: e0a_n de\ kat' oi0ki/aj e0n a)/stei te/ tij xrh=tai, trieth= th\n proqesmi/an ei]nai, e0a_n de\ kat' a0grou_j e0n a0fanei= ke/kthtai, de/ka e0tw~n, e0a_n d' e0n a0llodhmi/a|, tou= panto\j xro/nou o(t / an a0neu/rh| pou, mhdemi/an ei]nai proqesmi/an th=j e0pilh/yewj. [And if a man uses an article indoors in the city, the time-limit shall be three years; if he uses it in a concealed place in the country, it shall be ten years; while if it be in a foreign country, there shall be no limit of time set to making a claim, whenever it is found.] 57 54 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: sw~m[a] e0leu/q eron mh\ w0nei/sqw o9 Milh/sioj Fai/stion mhd' o9 Fai/stioj Milh[h/]sion, a)\m mh\ kelome/nou pri/atai: a)\n de\ ke<l>ome/nou pri/atai, ta=j i0s wn[i/]aj a0polusa/t w: In the decree from Phaistos the person in exile could refuse to be ransomed. In the Gortyn Code (Col. VI.52–53: e)\ me\ [k]elome/- | n]o au0t o= [l]u/saqqai) this can be reason for a legal dispute. 55 ICr I xviii 2 = Nomima I.11 (Lyttos). 56 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.” 57 Platon, Laws, 954e. Foreigner by Inscription 205 Following another note in Plato it is tempting to interpret the general prohibition against housing any foreigners as a sign of the general isolation and exclusiveness of Cretan poleis, something also reported from ancient Sparta: ... w(s / per ou0de/na e0w~sin tw~n ne/wn ei0j ta\j a)/llaj po/leij e0cie/na, w(s / per ou0de\ Krh=tej, i(/na mh\ a0pomanqa/nwsin a( au)toi\ dida/kousin. [From their youth, however, they do not let them travel to other cities – just like the Cretans – so that they not forget, what they teach them.] 58 An inscription from the city of Eleutherna, however, opposes such a view, where not only absence from the polis is mentioned but even travels across the Mediterranean seem to be envisaged: –> <– 4 -- Ai)/ ti]j pe?r / ande ple/o i h)\ qiar?o\j h)\ -------oj dialaih e0ksenioΩtitoj ------ e0kt]o/p ioj. Ai)/ tij toi=nu poinika&[zontaj ? ----- h)\ t]oi=nu mh\ dika&zontaj to\j z-------- a0?pa/toj h)\men. A?i0 de\ karpo/saito - - 59 Also the great code from Gortyn knows of Gortyians living outside the confines of the polis, i.e abroad. In one of the stipulations regarding the heiress it is stated that if the man who has the right to marry her is abroad, he misses out on the chance to marry her, since she will the be married to the next available groom-elect who is present in Gortyn: 40 vac. ai0 d' o0 e0piba/llon ta_n patroio=kon o0p ui/en me\ e0pi/damoj ei)e/ a0 de\ patroio=koj o0ri/m a ei)e/ , to=i e0p iba/llonti o0pui/eqai a]i e)g / rattai.60 It is, furthermore, not possible to use our law to argue for a general expulsion of foreigners from the city of Lyttos.61 Such an interpretation draws again too much from the Platonic view of Spartan customs and the apparently close connection be- 58 Platon, Protagoras 342d. 59 ICr II xii 11. Text according to Nomima I.14. The occurrence of qiaro/j is the only epigraphical evidence from Eleutherna that attests foreign relations during the archaic period (P. Perlman, Crete, 1159). 60 ICr IV 72 Col. VIII.36–40. 61 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.” 206 Anselm C. Hagedorn tween Cretan and Spartan society.62 Additionally, the Spartan institution of xenelasia, i.e. expulsion of foreigners has rightly been criticized and scholars have drawn attention to the fact that we neither have a corresponding law from the Spartan lawgiver Lycurgus nor evidence for regular expulsions of foreigners. Rather the attested cases of xenelasia were singular enactments that reacted to specific political crisis such as war with Athens and a shortage of food.63 I am inclined to argue for such an individual enactment here as well. The many exceptions to the rule as well as the use of a0llopolia~tai seem to indicate that the polis of Lyttos is defining their ethnicity via the membership in a political class, i.e. the citizen and the further contents of the stipulation made it difficult to use the more general term of ce/noj.64 If that is the case the law is a stipulation that prohibits foreigners to enter the city-limits of Lyttos. Such a law is unique in Crete since all the other poleis hold hospitality to foreigners in high esteem. Similar prohibitions are, nevertheless, known from cultic centres, such as Delos where access to the holy precinct was forbidden for foreigners: ce/nwi ou0x o9si/h e0si[e/nai]. [It is religiously not permitted for a foreigner to enter.] 65 Whether Lyttos regarded its city-limits as sacred and thus prone to pollution from foreigners cannot be determined by the inscription but could be a possibility. The inscription grants two exceptions to the rule: it is permitted to take in dependent persons into a household. This means slaves and possible war-captives and it is only understandable that such groups were excluded from the prohibition, since it would seriously cripple the right of the citizens to acquire personal property.66 The 62 Next to the Platonic references to the so called xenelasia (cenhlasi/a) 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. 63 On this see S. Rebenich, Fremdenfeindlichkeit in Sparta? Überlegungen zur Tradition der spartanischen Xenelasie, Klio 80 (1998), 336–359. 64 On the role of the xenos and his role in the early Greek polis see P.A. Butz, Prohibitionary Inscriptions, Ce/noi, 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, 75–95 and 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. 65 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. 66 R. Koerner, Gesetzestexte, 328. Foreigner by Inscription 207 second exception concerns members of the polis of Itanos in Eastern Crete. Why these citizens were allowed to enter is difficult to determine, especially since the polis of Itanos is far removed from Lyttos and we have no indications that Lyttos and Itanos had any relations.67 The first attestation of the city-ethnic of Itanos is an archaic inscription from the 6th century but it is unclear whether this refers to an individual or a collective entity:68 EUTELHM?E?.O.TE | . AI? | INHOPET?O?KAG?E IEN TO?. S | EUEIH | IT?A?NION N?AT?E? .K?AQANAN. 69 As far as individuals from the city are concerned we know of a Hellenistic sculptor called Damokratis who left his signature on one of his works: Damokra/thj 'Aristomh/deoj 'Ita&nioj.70 Herodotus, furthermore, relates the story of a Corobius a purple-fisher from Itanos who participates in Thera’s colonisation of Cyrene: periplanw&m enoi de\ au0th\n ou{toi a0pi/konto kai\ e0j 'Itanon po/lin, e0n tau/th| de\ summi/sgousi a0ndri\ porfure/i tw~| ou)n/ oma h]n Korw¿bioj, o(\j e)f / h u9p' a)ne/mwn a0peneixqei\j a0p ike/sqai e0j Libu/h n kai\ Libu/h j e0j Plate/an nh=son. [These, in their journeys about the island, came to the town of Itanus, where they met a fisher of murex called Corobius, who told them that he had once been driven out of his course by winds to Lybia, to an island there called Platea.] 71 On the basis of this purple-fisher it is of course tempting to speculate about a connection between Phoenicia and Itanos but unfortunately there is no clear evidence for such interesting connections with the Eastern Mediterranean.72 67 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: “'Ita/nio... ne sont pas le citoyens d’ 'I&tanoj ... 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). 68 Perlman, Crete, 1167. 69 ICr III vii 3. 70 ICr III iii 31. 71 Herodotus, Hist. IV.151. 72 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 Is- 208 Anselm C. Hagedorn Using our inscription it has been speculated that there were hostilities between Itanos and Lyttos and that the Itanians were fugitives that sought shelter in Lyttos.73 But since all documents of foreign relations of the city of Itanos are from Hellenistic times this is again difficult to prove. The use of the definitive article, however, seems to indicate that we are dealing with a group here that is well known to the Lyttians and obviously important enough to form an exception to the general move of the polis to close its gates to foreigners. Unless, of course, one wants to argue that the Lyttians are using a far away polis to construct an exception to the rule that is not really an exception. In my opinion it is a form of creating or formulating ethnic identity in relation to others, whose status is again defined by their relation to the citizens of Lyttos. That the law is well aware of status distinction is apparent from line four onwards, when a special punishment of 100 lebetes74 is set for each foreigner a kosmos or a previous kosmos takes in.75 The kosmos is a (high) city official only known from Crete who seemed to have occupied some form of leading position within a Cretan community.76 This position does not exclude the kosmos from being subjected to the law or any judicial procedure as line six indicates (. . e0]J JΩwla=j | Ωada=j).77 The 73 74 75 76 77 lands: 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. Thus H. and M. van Effenterre, Nouvelle lois archaïques, 180 with reference to similar occurrences in Herodotus, Hist. IV.145–46. 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 Pepargme/na tou D' Dieqnou=j Krhtologikou~ Sundri/ou (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). The exact meaning of the term a0po/kosmoj 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): ... ai)/ tij ta=(n) nu=n kosmio/- | [nt]wn h)\ a0po/k osmoj ta\ [pa/ma]t?a? h)\ a0lla=i qei/h ... 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). 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 (e)x / ei d' a0na/logon h9 Krhtikh\ ta/cij pro\j th\n Lakwnikh/n) and links it to the Spartan ephorate (oi9 me\n ga\r e)f / opoi th_n au0th\n e)x / ousi du/namin toi=j e0n th|= Krh/th| kaloume/noij ko/s moij ktl.). 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 (ou0de\n ga_r lh÷mmatoj e0sti\ toi=j ko/smoij w(s / per toi=j e0fo/r oij, po/rrw g' a0poikou=s in e0n nh/sw| tw~n diafqerou/ntwn) is nothing more than a fantasy as the many references to the acts of kosmoi in the Gortyn code indicate. At Gortyn, the kosmoi could only be liable and subjected to private claims after they ceased to Foreigner by Inscription 209 punishment for both, kosmoi and ordinary Lyttians is in the hand of the judges who act independently.78 The reference to the kosmoi and the special punishment for them has been interpreted as indicating certain social tensions between kosmoi and ordinary members of the polis.79 Unfortunately we do not have any firm indications for such a view and I am inclined to regard the special stipulation for the kosmoi as a way of the Lyttians to enforce the law if even the ruling officals are bound by it. What happens to the foreigners who are already in Lyttos is not mentioned. However the statute makes it clear that foreigners no longer enjoyed any protection or were welcome in Lyttos and since we have epigraphical evidence for the killing of foreigners we might think of some form or other of an exodus of free resident aliens from Lyttos.80 be kosmos; see ICr IV 41 Col. IV.6-14 = Nomima II.65: 8 12 to\n de\ Ωoike/a to\n e0pidi/o menon mh\ a0podo/qqai mh/t e naeu/onta mh/t ' h] k' a0pe/lqhi to= e0niauto=. ai0 de/ ka kosmi/ontoj h]i o0 e0pidio/menoj, mh\ a0podo/qai a]j ka kosmh=i mhd' h] k' a0pe/lqhi to= e0niauto=. 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: 55 vac. ai0 de/ ka kos?[m]i/o n a)/gei e)\ kosmi/o ntoj a)l / loj, e] k'a0posta~i, mole/n, kai)/ ka nikaqe=i, katista/men a0p[o\ a]] j a0me/ra]j a)/gage ta\ e0grame/na. 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). 78 K.J. Hölkeskamp, Schiedsrichter, 200; relates this executive office to the Attic judicial institution of the di/kh e0c ou/lhj (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). 79 See H. and M. van Effenterre, Nouvelles lois archaïques de Lyttos, 180: “On retrouvait la situation de tension politique dont le formulaire même du texte nous avait paru constituer un indice” and R. Koerner, Gesetzestexte, 329; for the opposing view. 80 On the killing of foreigners see lines 33–41 of the Athenian arrangements for Iulis from the year 363/2 B.C.E.: kai\ to\j fi/loj to\j 'Aqhnai/wn o(\j kath/gagen o9 dh=moj to\j me\n a0pe/kteinan, tw~n 35 de\ qa/naton kate/gnwsan kai\ ta ta«j o0[s]i/aj e0dh/meusan para\ 210 Anselm C. Hagedorn 4. Conclusion Much remains unclear and speculative about the law on foreigners from the Cretan city of Lyttos but we are nevertheless able to draw some conclusions. Firstly, during a time when interaction between the poleis of Crete and other city-states of the Greek mainland and areas such a Phoenicia were on the increase the city of Lyttos closes its gates to any foreign interaction. Trade, however, remains possible due to the exception to the rule for people from Itanos and the explicit allowance for slaves etc. Secondly, ethnic identity is formed by negating (previous) relationships and by setting one’s own group off against the other. Here, the city-ethnic becomes an important identity marker. One denies resemblance with other citizens from neighbouring poleis by defining standards of ethnic belonging. Naturally, the inscription does not define what it means to be a Lyttian but it is remarkable that the group does not define itself by reference to territory. Thirdly, to be able to exclude foreigners from one’s own ethnic group one must have had a certain degree of interaction with outsiders. Since the inscription itself already offers possibilities to a change in the definitional set. Whether a conflict about resources such as land was behind the exclusion of foreigners cannot be determined but since ethnicity becomes important in such contexts it might be a distinct possibility. Lastly, the inscription argues against any shared features with other Cretan poleis and thus seems to enforce the view already put forward in the Odyssey that Crete was indeed a mixed country.81 to\j o(r / koj kai\ ta\j sunqh/kaj ... ... o(t / i kathgo/ron 'Antipa/[t]ro o(t / e h9 boulh\ h9 'Aqhnai/wn kate/gnw au0to= qa/naton a0pokt[ei/] nantoj to\n pro/cenon to\n 'Aqhnai/wn {a.} Ai0si/wna para\ [t]a_ yhfi/s mata tou= dh40 mou to= 'Aqhnai/wn k[a]i\ para[ba/] nta to\j o(r / koj kai\ ta_j sunqh/kaj: (Greek text according to P.J. Rhodes/R. Osborne, Greek Historical Inscriptions 404–323 BC, Oxford 2003, No. 39). 81 See Homer, Od. 19.172–177: Krh/th tij gai= e)s / ti, me/sw| e0ni\ oi)n/ opi po/ntw|, kalh\ kai\ pi/eira, peri/rrutoj: e0n d' a)/nqrwpoi polloi/, a0peire/s ioi, kai\ e0nnh/konta po/lhej. a)l / lh d' a)/llwn glw~ssa memigme/nh: en0 me\n 'Axaioi/, e0n d' 'Eteo/krhtej megalh/torej, e0n de\ Ku/dewnej, Dwrie/ej te trixa/ikej di=oi/ te Pelasgoi/. On the significance of language in the emergence of ethnic identity see J.M. Hall, Ethnic identity, 177–180 and id., Hellenicity, 111–117.