l’origine de la juridiction sociale, comme dans la période antérieure de l’arbitrage, le tribunal, pour faire exécuter ses arrêts, n’avait que les armes de celui qu’il déclarait vainqueur. C’était le principe universel en droit grec, que l’exécution du jugement fût abandonnée à la partie gagnante.’[168] ... ‘Reconnaître le privilège de la famille en matière de poursuite et d’exécution, c’était pour Dracon admettre le principe de la vengeance privée, sauf opposition de l’état.’[169] But philanthropy will not explain the evolution of State execution, any more than the right of sanctuary will explain it. Public execution may be of a much more revolting character than the private infliction of death by an avenging relative in some secret place or at the tomb of the victim. Moreover, Glotz cannot suggest any definite date for the change of custom. He would probably have attributed it to Solon, only that he cannot assume a tremendous growth of philanthropy in that space of twenty years which separated him from Dracon; and he could not attribute an act of philanthropy to a legislator whose main object was the exaltation of State power! We admit that there is a certain suggestion of private execution in the infliction of death which was not only permitted but commanded when a murder-outlaw returned to forbidden territory. But in this case slaying was not the exclusive privilege of the relatives of the slain, but it was the duty of ‘the first citizen who met him’ to act as the avenger of the law. We have already[170] described such an ‘execution’ as a case of justifiable homicide. It is not in the least indicative of a _system_ of private execution. The slayer acts as a State executioner. Neither can we argue, as Glotz does,[171] from the right of an injured husband to slay an adulterer _in flagrante delicto_, to the prevalence of private execution. Such an act is definitely declared by law to be justifiable homicide. Our opinion on this subject may be thus summarised: (1) It is misleading to assume that the Achaean system of vengeance which is found in the _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_ is the norm or standard of blood-vengeance either of tribal village communities or of synoekised States possessing a strong centralised government. Even amongst the Achaeans, we have shown,[172] there was a certain submission to military discipline, to a public opinion which discriminated between murder and vengeance, and therefore the avenger’s act was not entirely ‘private.’ (2) On the analogy of Indian tribal life, which Maine[173] has investigated, we may suppose that amongst Pelasgian village communities or tribal cities there existed a body of official police who acted as the supporters and preservers of tribal law. If, in such societies, homicide was not officially avenged, this was only because homicide was what we should now call a ‘civil offence,’ a matter for retribution between the families concerned.