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τὰς μαντηίας: so Cleomenes carried off a collection from Athens (v. 90).

μούνους: i. e. without the Ephors and Gerousia.

πατρούχου. An only daughter was styled ἐπίκληρος (or in Doric ἐπιπαματίς or παμῶχος), which means not that she is the heiress, but that she passes with the inheritance. Aristotle (Pol. ii. 6. 11, 1270 a 26 f.) distinctly tells us that if a father died intestate leaving only a daughter, the heir, as guardian of the orphan daughter, chose her a husband, and that even the father had but recently acquired the right to dispose of his daughter's hand as he pleased. In the days of H. the kings dealt with the question, as did the Archon Eponymus at Athens. In so doing they clearly acted as judges merely determining to whom the ἐπίκληρος belonged by law. All this is explained by the primitive constitution of the GraecoRoman family. The inheritance, along with the household cults, and patria potestas, always passed to males. If, then, there were no sons but only a daughter, the ancient principle debarred her from heirship, but by custom she passed with the inheritance to the nearest male relative, whom she married (so Gorgo Leonidas, vii. 205; cf. also vi. 71; Plut. Agis 11). Apparently a father, if he gave an only daughter in marriage, must give her to the nearest relative, or to an adopted son. But adoption (§ 5) itself took place before the kings, and must have been subject to legal rules. If the father died without betrothing his daughter, the nearest male relative could claim both the inheritance and the hand of the daughter. If there were several claimants the kings decided between them. The same principles held good in Crete (cf. the Gortyna Code) and at Athens. Cf. Fustel de Coulanges, Nouvelles Recherches, pp. 97 f.

ὁδῶν δημοσιέων. According to Stein and Gilbert, this refers only to the delimitation of roads and private estates, but the kings as leaders in war may have been charged with the care of roads.

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