An early-fifth century inscription from Central Cretan Gortyn allowed freedmen to take residence in a place called Latosion and granted them protection from being robbed and enslaved. Furthermore, the inscription obligated a number of polis-institutions to persecute those who might violate this regulation. The first part of this paper argues for a new reading and interpretation of this inscription, which have considerable consequences for our understanding of how Archaic Cretan institutions cooperated and how they were controlled by the polis. The (...) second part will present thoughts on what purpose the freedmen’s protection might have had, thereby contributing to our understanding of ‚citizenship‘ in Archaic Greece. (shrink)