Aristotle says that every household is ruled ({ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER BETA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH OXIA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}) by its oldest member,(216) and gives this prerogative of the household-_basileus_ as the type and origin of the kingship in the village and the State. Reference has already been made, in the section on the limitations of the { ~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER CHI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH OXIA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}, to the passage in the Gortyn law, viz.--
"The father shall have power over the children and the property to divide it amongst them.... As long as they (the parents) are alive there is no necessity for division."(217)
(M108) But it must be borne in mind that though the { ~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH PERISPOMENI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} was set apart in theory for the use and sustenance of a head of a family with all his descendants, and was supposed to be inalienable therefrom, there is no reason to suppose that there existed among the Greeks a system of joint holding between father and son. The ownership and management of the property vested in the head of the family. It is true that brothers did not always divide their inheritance on the death of their father, but their undivided right to their respective equal shares remained to each one and his descendants as an individual property, and they always seem to have had the expectation of an ultimate subdivision amongst the separate { ~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH PSILI AND PERISPOMENI~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{ ~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~} that had sprung into being.(218)
(M109) The Gortyn Laws throw some light on the subject.
