The way in which the aristocratic form of government was born within the earlier period of the monarchy is clearly portrayed in epic poetry. It is significant that a petty chieftain of Crete should refuse to put himself under the orders of Idomeneus, prefer to lead his own troops independently, and assassinate the king's son who tried to deprive him of the spoils of war; cited by Glotz ibid. The literary sources of information about the Cretan forms of the aristocratic state, Ephoros and Aristotle in particular, are relatively late. But if we bear in mind that our fourth-century sources provide indications that the Cretan political structure had reached a stage of crisis, it is possible to supplement their accounts from the epigraphic evidence so as to recover an adequately firm outline of this political structure in its maturity. The more advanced system, now organized centrally by the state, won Aristotle's approval, as compared with the Spartan.