We are told elsewhere in Homer that sometimes a man accepted blood-money from the slayer of his brother or his son, and that the slayer remained in the land after paying this penalty (_Il._ ix. 633). As a rule the slayer found it safest to flee (_Od._ xxiii. 118 f.), but even so, he might be pursued by the friends of the slain (_Od._ xv. 272-278). If he remained, the land was not (as in later ages) deemed to be polluted by his presence. In Homer, Orestes does not slay Clytaemestra, and he needs no "purification" for slaying Aegisthus. Greek lawgivers: Lycurgus at Sparta. The laws of Sparta are ascribed to the legislation of Lycurgus, whose traditional date is 884 B.C. Written laws are said to have been expressly forbidden by Lycurgus (Plutarch, _Lycurgus_, 13); hence the "laws of Sparta" are simply a body of traditional observances. We learn that all trials for homicide came before the Council of Elders and lasted for several days, and that all civil causes were tried by the ephors (q.v.). We are also told that originally the land was equally divided among the citizens of Sparta, and that this equality was enforced by law (Polybius vi. 45-46). Early in the 4th century the ephor Epitadeus, owing to a disagreement with his son, enacted that every Spartan should be allowed to transfer his estate and his allotment to any other person (Plutarch, _Agis_, 5), while Aristotle, in a much-debated passage of the _Politics_ (ii. 9. 14-15), criticizes the Spartan constitution for allowing the accumulation of property in a few hands, an evil aggravated by the large number of "heiresses"; "a man (he adds) may bestow his heiress on any one he pleases; and, if he dies intestate, this privilege descends to his heir." Era of written laws. Law was first reduced to writing in the 7th century B.C. A written code is a necessary condition of just judgment, and such a code was the first concession which the people in the Greek cities extorted from the ruling aristocracies. The change was generally effected with the aid of a single legislator entrusted with complete authority to draw up a code. Zaleucus at Locri Epizephyrii. Charondas at Catana, etc. Androdamas of Rhegium. Philolaus of Corinth.