A rich medley of ruins greet the visitor to Gortyn, one of the most extensive archaeological sites on the island of Crete. Many date from the Roman period, while others originated in earlier eras of the city’s impressively long life. In the centre of the ruins of the ancient city lies its most famous remnant: the Law Code of Gortyn. Hewn into pale ashlar stone blocks, it is one of the largest inscriptions in Greek ever found. Yet this is not its only claim to distinction, for the code that is today often known as the Great Code, the Great Inscription, or the Queen of Inscriptions is also among the most complete codes of laws remaining from the ancient European world.
The society that gave rise to the Code was long in the making. Occupied for thousands of years, Gortyn’s acropolis has revealed evidence of human habitation in Neolithic period (c.3000 BC) and in the Bronze Age. Homer refers to the city in his Odyssey, when some of King Menelaus’ ships were blown off course near Crete. An abundant collection of myths were associated with the site, including its founding by legendary King Minos, the son of Zeus and Europa. The Minoans settled in Gortyn and built the great Minoan palace at Phaistos and the villa at Aghia Triada, both nearby. Lying in the middle of the island, and poised between its northern and southern shores, Gortyn was perfectly placed to grow and prosper. A settlement grew up around an agora here and higher up on the acropolis. Its temple of Pythian Apollo, dating from the Archaic period, became renowned. Small towns sprang up, scattered around the surrounding valley. By the 5th century BC, the settlement was evolving into a more organised city-state, with the agora at the centre of its social and economic life. Gortyn was by then also the most populous place in Crete and it was during this period that its famed Code was inscribed. When the Romans seized Crete in 67 BC, they were quick to appreciate the strategic position of the city. Gortyn then became the capital of their province of Crete and Cyrenaica (the latter is a region in North Africa). Under Roman control, Gortyn continued to thrive and grew to cover some 200 hectares. After Christianity came to Crete, the city became especially prominent. The island’s first bishop, St Titus, lived in Gortyn and, in the Byzantine period, the city boasted six basilicas and a number of smaller churches. Finally, though, the long life of the city was said to have been ended by the Arab conquest in AD 828.
With the decline of the city, parts of it – including the Code – found their way into later buildings nearby. But in the ensuing centuries visitors came to the island and fragments of the inscription began to emerge from obscurity. In 1577, Francesco Barozzi, an Italian mathematician and scholar born on Crete during the Venetian occupation, found some Greek lettering among the ruins at Gortyn. Later, in 1857, two Frenchmen, Louis Thenon and Georges Perrot, found a fragment of the Code in the walls of a watermill close to the site. This fragment was acquired by the Louvre, where it remains today. Study of the Louvre’s inscription in 1878 revealed that it dealt with the adoption of children. Then, in 1879, French scholar Bernard Hassoullier found that more inscriptions built into the wall of the mill related to inheritance law. The discovery of parts of the Code ignited great interest in Italy and, in 1884, the leading linguist and epigraphist Domenico Comparetti sent his talented pupil Federico Halbherr to Crete to investigate. By diverting the waters of the mill, Halbherr was able to find more columns of the Code. After the intervention of the authorities in Heraklion, the nearby field was explored and much of what remains of the Code was discovered.
