The law prohibited the admission into the city of allopoliatai (for other occurrences of the term cf. ICret. II.12 3, l. 2; perhaps in ICret. I.18 2, l. 5; ICret. IV 72, col. VI, l. 47, which has allopolia), with the exception of citizens of the Cretan polis of Itanos and those who were dependents of citizens of Lyktos. The precise meaning of the term allopoliatai has been the subject of scholarly debate. Several interpretations have been proposed: political refugees; citizens of other Cretan cities settled in Lyktos; freedmen without citizenship; former citizens of Lyktos now living far from their homeland and therefore regarded as external to the civic body. Unless one accepts, with H. and M. van Effenterre, that the term is synonymous with allodemos, it seems reasonable to assume that allopoliatai refers to citizens of poleis other than Lyktos, as is also suggested by the contrast drawn in the text between these allopoliatai and the Itanians, who were in fact poliatai of another polis. Equally difficult to determine are the motivations underlying the prohibition on admitting such allopoliatai (see H. and M. van Effenterre 1985 on this issue).
What is of particular interest, however, is that in late archaic Lyktos there was already a clear distinction between poliatas and non-poliatas, and that the poliatai themselves implicitly affirmed their identity from a strictly legal and institutional perspective by assembling and enacting a law as a deliberative political community that sharply distinguished itself from external elements. It should also be noted that this inscription provides the earliest attested example known to us of a community of citizens self-designating by means of the ethnic (ewade Lyktioisi), whereas, for example, a century earlier the community of Dreros had employed the formula ewade poli (Gagarin – Perlman Dr5, l. 1). The assertion of this status is all the more significant if one considers that one of the principal targets of the law was presumably the city’s supreme magistrates, both those still in office (kosmoi) and those no longer serving (apokosmoi). Assuming that the kosmoi were generally recruited only from certain elite groups, it is evident that they could have easily admitted external elements into the civic body in order to use them as “clients” and supporters to consolidate personal power. The poliatai of Lyktos, however, neutralised this danger through the exercise of their deliberative and political power, channelled precisely into the promulgation of a law.
[Θιοί. Ἔϝ]αδε | Λυκτίοισι | ἀλ(λ)ο- πολιάταν | ὅστις κα δέκσ[εˉται ․․․․] [․․․․]εν, | αἰ μὴ ὄσωϝ̣υτός τε | καρτε- ῖ | καὶ τὸνς Ἰτανίονς· | Αἰ δέ κα [․․․․] 5 [․․]α̣ι | ἢ κοσμίων | ἢ ἀπόκοσμο[ς ․] [․․ε]ϙϝωλᾶς | ϝαδᾶς | ἐκατὸν λέβητ[ας τ-] [εισ]εῖ | ἐκάστω | ὄσος κα δέκσεˉται. | T[․․]
6. 2-3]ρ Fωλᾶς Gagarin – Perlman
Gods. The citizens of Lyktos have decreed that whoever admits an allopoliates shall […], unless it be someone who is the personal dependent of a citizen, or an inhabitant of Itanos. But if one of the kosmoi or one of the apokosmoi [should admit one?], in accordance with the law on ekwola (van Effenterre – Ruzé) / in accordance with the decision of the council (wola? Gagarin – Perlman), he shall be liable to pay one hundred lebetes for each allopoliates admitted
- J. Chadwick, Some Observations on Two New Inscriptions from Lyktos in L. Kastrinaki, G. Orphanou, N. Giannadakis (eds.), Ειλανίπη. Τόμος τιμητικός γιά τόν Καθηγητή Νικόλαο Πλάτωνα Ι, Heraklion 1987, 329-334
- M. Gagarin, P. Perlman, The Laws of Ancient Crete c. 650-400 BCE, Oxford 2016
- H. J. Gehrke, Der Nomosbegriff der Polis in O. Behrends, W. Sellert (eds.), Nomos und Gesetz. Ursprünge und Wirkungen des griechischen Gesetzesdenkens, Göttingen 1995, 13-35
- K. J. Hölkeskamp, Schiedsrichter, Gesetzgeber und Gesetzgebung im archaischen Griechenland, Stuttgart 1999
- R. Koerner, Inschriftliche Gesetzestexte der frühen griechischen Polis, Köln 1993
- Z. Papakonstantinou, The Cretan Apokosmos, ZPE 111, 1996, 93-96
- P. Perlman, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor: The Economies of Archaic Eleutherna, ClAnt 23, 2004, 95-137
- G. Seelentag, Das archaische Kreta. Institutionalisierung im frühen Griechenland, Berlin – Boston 2015
- H. e M. van Effenterre, Nouvelles lois archaïques de Lyttos, BCH 109, 1985, 157-188
- H. van Effenterre, F. Ruzé, Nomima. Recueil d’inscriptions politiques et juridiques de l’archaïsme grec, vol. 2, Rome 1995