Suchergebnisse

In my Aristocratic Society in Ancient Crete I suggested the possibility that the Dorians of the historical period entered as masters into a "caste-system" first established, according to a tradition reported by Aristotle, in Minoan times; and further, that the original Dorian land settlement was the product of the amalgamation of two systems: the native system of land tenure was adapted to the tribal institutions of the conquerors. The present article is an attempt to clarify these two propositions by presenting some of the relevant arguments. For the propositions themselves seem fundamental to a proper understanding of the conservative character of the economic and social structure of the Cretan aristocratic cities in the historical period, as compared with the radical transformation of the democratic states, and, in particular, of Athens.