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GORTYN
Form: Law of
[An archaic Greek inscription discovered in 1884 by Halbherr, in the bed of a mill-stream at Hagios Deka in Crete, the site of the Greek city of Gortyn. After many difficulties, the whole of it was copied and published at the end of the year. It was found to be inscribed in 12 columns on the inside wall of a circular building about 100 feet in diameter, which was probably a theatre, and covers a space of about 30 feet in length, to a height of between 5 and 6 feet from the ground. The lines are written alternately from left to right and from right to left. Two fragments of it had been discovered before, one of them being in the Louvre at Paris, and with the addition of these fragments the inscription was found to be practically complete. It contains a collection of laws regulating the private relations of the inhabitants of Gortyn. These laws deal chiefly with such subjects as Inheritance, Adoption, Heiresses, Marriage and Divorce, and incidentally afford much information on the slave system, the tenure of land and property, the organization of the courts, and other matters of interest. Its chief value is perhaps as throwing light upon the laws of the earlier Athenian legislators. The inscription is probably to be dated a few years before 400 B.C.]- C. A. M.Pond.
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gutter splint
gutter splint