number of respectable but unintelligent nobles persisted in upholding the obsolete traditions of a ridiculous past! We believe that ‘the kings’ of the Prytaneum Court are identical with ‘the kings’ of our Draconian inscription. The first two lines of the fragment refer, in our view, to accidental slaying, in which there was no degree of guilt attaching to the human agent, but in which it was necessary to prove that the guilt was attached to an animal or an inanimate object. We think it quite probable that such cases were tried at the Prytaneum.[23] We may go so far as to say that such cases were the _raison d’être_ of the survival and the historical importance of such a court.[24] The legislator, in our inscription, says: ‘If a man slays another without intent, let him be put on trial, let “the kings” judge of the causes of death’ (δικάζειν αἰτιῶν φόνου). We shall discuss[25] later the function of the Ephetae judges who are mentioned in this inscription as collaborating with the kings in the judicial investigation of homicide-guilt, and we shall suggest an explanation of the fact that they were invariably fifty-one in number.[26] In regard to the adverb ἄριστίνδην, which means, in general, ‘according to excellence,’ we agree with Philippi[27] that in the context it refers to birth rather than to social rank. The selection of the phrateres would probably have been made from ‘brethren’ who were not kinsmen of the slayer, but merely related by ties of ‘affinity’ or of local contiguity with him. Plato[28] suggests that in certain cases of homicide the judges of guilt (and probably therefore of atonement) should not be akin to the criminal. The fact that the father and the brothers (we assume that the singular form ἀδελφός includes all the brothers) and the sons of the slain could, if unanimous, have accepted ‘appeasement’ and have legalised the manslayer’s return from exile, shows how far from, and yet how near to, the wergeld customs of Pelasgian days were the historical murder laws of Greece. Yet here we have not wergeld proper, but only a survival, a reflection, of its ancient vigour. Nothing could show more clearly than this law does the validity of our theory[29] which finds in a ‘compromise’ between different forces the origin of the historical homicide-code of Greece. Glotz[30] holds that the objection of a single relative to ‘appeasement’ could neutralise the will of the other kinsmen because, if he were obdurate, he could prevent the unanimity which was required by law for such return. But we shall argue, later,[31] that while the relatives had considerable legal powers if they were unanimous, they were probably subject to superior control if they disagreed. It is difficult to suppose that one bitter enemy amongst the relatives of the slain could, _in practice_, have imposed a penalty of perpetual exile for manslaughter.