Abstract
My thesis examines the factors that led to the creation of the Gortyn Law Code on Crete in 450 BCE. Scholarship has up to this point referred to the eastern nature of Cretan law codes, at times comparing it to Hammurabi’s Code from Babylon, written in the eighteenth century BCE. I justify this claim by providing specific examples and a discussion on the extent of that influence from the east, and how it came to Crete. I do this by first looking at the Bronze Age and the relationship between Crete and Mesopotamia at the time the Eastern law codes were written, before moving to the Iron Age and the time period leading up to the materialization of the Gortyn Law Code. \r I found that although a connection existed between Crete and the East in the Bronze Age, literacy was not yet developed enough on Crete for the formation of public law codes to be of any use. The Iron Age marked a new time in Crete, and Phoenician immigrants served as the means of transmission of ideas from the East to Crete during this time. Earlier legal inscriptions demonstrate a growing tradition of literacy and public codes throughout the island, and the rise of the aristocracy following the Bronze Age disruption aided in creating the authority needed to produce a law code of this magnitude. The Gortyn Law Code was created due to a variety of factors that are laid out in this thesis.