the old jurisdictions of the clan, the phratry, and the tribe. We have shown that local tribal courts still functioned, with State-sanction, in historical Attica.[39] We have quoted a passage[40] from Plato which suggests that some such local courts had power to condemn to death a person who maliciously wounded one of his parents. We agree with Müller[41] and Coulanges,[42] in opposition to Glotz[43] and Philippi,[44] in the view that Plato’s _Laws_ are based, in the main, upon the Attic legal codes. There are certain points in which Platonic law seems independent of Attic law. Are these variations to be attributed to the fancy of an idealist or are they rather a supplement, an incorporation of local and tribal laws which the State codes did not mention but always presupposed? So far as homicide at least is concerned, we prefer the second alternative: and we shall give at a later stage the reasons for our preference. In describing the trial of inanimate objects and of animals which were guilty of human bloodshed, Plato says[45]: ‘If a beast of burden or any other animal shall kill any person (except in a public contest) let the relatives (of the deceased) prosecute the cause of death: and let the wardens of rural areas (ἀγρόνομοι) upon whom ... the relatives shall impose this task, decide upon the matter: and let them destroy the animal (if) condemned and cast it beyond the boundaries (of the State). If any inanimate object deprives a person of life (except lightning or such god-sent bolt ...) either by the person falling upon it or by its falling upon the person, let the nearest of kin appoint the nearest neighbour to act as judge, and (thus) free from pollution himself and his whole kindred, and cast the condemned object beyond the boundaries.’ There is no mention of the Prytaneum Court or of the Tribe-Kings. We can explain the omission by supposing that Plato is referring to local courts and local cases of bloodshed, in which the relatives had not to go outside their immediate neighbourhood to obtain jurisdiction. The ancient phratry was an assembly of local clans: neighbourhood was the essential factor in the bond which the phratry religion represented. The ‘nearest neighbour’ in this quotation would have been a member of the phratry, if not of the clan, to which the slain person belonged. The duty of prosecution which is here referred to was no sham duty[46]; it was a serious religious obligation. Failure to prosecute would have ‘polluted’ the relatives of the slain.