Estudio sobre el vocabulario jurídico en el dialecto cretense

Abstract

In this paper the author analyzes the Cretan legal terminology related to the judicial procedure and penalties. The terms are gathered into four sections: a) persons in charge of the administration ofjustice and the exercise oftheir duties; b) the litigant parties; c) admissible proofs on a trial; d) andfinally, the result and execution of the lawsuit. There are two clearly differentiated phases in the historical development of the Cretan legal vocabulary. Firstly, the inscriptions of the Archaic and Classical periods show numerous terms peculiar to the Cretan legislative language, along with other words which are usual in Greek or common to other legislations such as the Attic one. And secondly, the influence of a legal supradialectal nomenclature, favoured by the Koine, is observed in inscriptions of the Hellenistic period.