explanation of it. Clan-extradition arose, we believe, as a solvent of war between the clans concerned. The tribal court or the city court may possibly have acted in Pelasgian times as a medium for the operation of this solvent. But the historical system of extradition, with all its minute differentiations and variations, bears, we think, the stamp of Amphictyonic legislation in the age of aristocratic rule in Greece, or in what we may call the Apolline era. It was only when homicide became an offence against an international god at Delphi, that is, in the seventh century B.C., that such legislation came to be applied to this kind of ‘crime.’ This is our explanation of the origin of the law. It was an international compact issued in the form of an oracle. As an illustration of the interference of oracles in international disputes we will cite one or two passages from Herodotus. At the battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. Leonidas, the famous king and commander of the Spartan band, was slain, and Xerxes, the Persian king, mutilated the corpse by decapitation and crucifixion.[205] This act is regarded by Herodotus as a barbarous violation of the customs of war, and is attributed by him to the rage and anger of Xerxes at the time. The Spartans seem to have been able to present the act afterwards as a case for damages, and they secured the support of the Delphic oracle. When the Persians had failed in their expedition against Greece, and Xerxes was returning to the Hellespont, ‘an oracle came from Delphi to the Lacedaemonians bidding them ask satisfaction from Xerxes for the death of Leonidas and accept that which should be given by him.’[206] Xerxes ridiculed the suggestion at first, but later he referred the herald to Mardonius, who would, he said, pay satisfaction. At the battle of Plataea Mardonius was slain, and then, says Herodotus,[207] ‘the satisfaction for the death of Leonidas was paid by Mardonius according to the oracle given to the Spartans.’ Again, we are told[208] that after the Persian conquest of Lydia, Cyrus charged Mazares to bring to him alive a certain Pactyas, a leading anti-Persian rebel. Pactyas fled to Kyme, and when messengers came from Cyrus demanding his ‘extradition,’ ‘the Kymeans resolved to consult the deity at Branchidai as to the course which they should follow.... For there was there an oracle established of olden time, which all the Ionians and Aeolians used to consult’: and ‘when they thus inquired, the answer was given them that they should deliver up Pactyas to the Persians.’ Herodotus says that the Kymeans did not give up Pactyas, as they suspected the oracle of political designs. Later, the oracular shrine informed them that they were bidden to deliver up Pactyas only in order that they should be punished by the gods for contemplating the violation of a suppliant’s rights! This does not imply, as Glotz[209] supposes, that such rights belonged to murderers, for Pactyas was not a murderer.