Draco (; , ), also called Drako or Drakon, according to

Athenian Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

tradition, was the first

legislator A legislator, or lawmaker, is a person who writes and passes laws, especially someone who is a member of a legislature. Legislators are often elected by the people, but they can be appointed, or hereditary. Legislatures may be supra-nat ...

of Athens in

Ancient Greece Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically r ...

. He replaced the system of

oral law An oral law is a code of conduct in use in a given culture, religion or community application, by which a body of rules of human behaviour is transmitted by oral tradition and effectively respected, or the single rule that is orally transmitted. M ...

and

blood feud A feud , also known in more extreme cases as a blood feud, vendetta, faida, clan war, gang war, private war, or mob war, is a long-running argument or fight, often between social groups of people, especially family, families or clans. Feuds begin ...

by the Draconian constitution, a written

code In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communicati ...

to be enforced only by a

court of law A court is an institution, often a government entity, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between Party (law), parties and Administration of justice, administer justice in Civil law (common law), civil, Criminal law, criminal, an ...

. His laws were supposed to have been very harsh, establishing the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

for most offenses. Tradition held that all of his laws were repealed by

Solon Solon (; ; BC) was an Archaic Greece#Athens, archaic History of Athens, Athenian statesman, lawmaker, political philosopher, and poet. He is one of the Seven Sages of Greece and credited with laying the foundations for Athenian democracy. ...

, save for those on

homicide Homicide is an act in which a person causes the death of another person. A homicide requires only a Volition (psychology), volitional act, or an omission, that causes the death of another, and thus a homicide may result from Accident, accidenta ...

. An inscription from 409/8 BC contains part of the current law and refers to it as "the law of Draco about homicide". Nothing is known about the specifics of other laws established by Draco. According to some scholars, Draco may have been a fictional figure, entirely or in part. Biographical information about him is almost entirely lacking; he was held to have established his legal code in the year 621/620 BC. Since the 19th century, the adjective ''draconian'' (Greek: , ) refers to similarly unforgiving rules or laws in Greek, English, and other European languages.

History

Nothing is known about Draco's life except that he established his legal code during the reign of the

archon ''Archon'' (, plural: , ''árchontes'') is a Greek word that means "ruler", frequently used as the title of a specific public office. It is the masculine present participle of the verb stem , meaning "to be first, to rule", derived from the same ...

Aristaechmus in the year 621/620 BC. The ''

Suda The ''Suda'' or ''Souda'' (; ; ) is a large 10th-century Byzantine Empire, Byzantine encyclopedia of the History of the Mediterranean region, ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Soudas () or Souidas (). It is an ...

'', the 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia, records a folkloric story about Draco's death: he went to

Aegina Aegina (; ; ) is one of the Saronic Islands of Greece in the Saronic Gulf, from Athens. Tradition derives the name from Aegina (mythology), Aegina, the mother of the mythological hero Aeacus, who was born on the island and became its king. ...

to establish laws and was suffocated in the theater when his supporters honored him by throwing many hats, shirts and cloaks on him. Some scholars question whether Draco was a real historical figure or consider that he may have been partially fictional. Karl Julius Beloch hypothesized that Draco was not a person; ''drakon'' means 'serpent' in Greek, and a sacred serpent on the acropolis was worshipped in the Athenian religion. Therefore, the "laws of Draco" may have been laws issued in the name of the sacred serpent by its priests; later, this origin was forgotten and Draco was reinterpreted as a lawgiver. Raphael Sealey notes that this hypothesis helps explain how the seemingly protracted development of Athenian homicide law could be attributed to a single source. However, most scholars believe that Draco really did establish laws on homicide and other offenses, and some accept the attribution to him of the inscription partially recording the homicide law.

Draconian constitution

The

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

s ( – ) that he laid were the first written constitution of Athens. So that no one would be unaware of them, they were posted on wooden tablets ( – ), where they were preserved for almost two centuries on

stele A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...

s of the shape of four-sided pyramids ( – ). The tablets were called , perhaps because they could be pivoted along the pyramid's axis to read any side. The constitution featured several major innovations: *Instead of oral laws known to a special class, arbitrarily applied and interpreted, all laws were written, thus being made known to all literate citizens (who could appeal to the

Areopagus The Areopagus () is a prominent rock outcropping located northwest of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. Its English name is the Late Latin composite form of the Greek name Areios Pagos, translated "Hill of Ares" (). The name ''Areopagus'' also r ...

for injustices): "the constitution formed under Draco, when the first code of laws was drawn up". (

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

Athenian ConstitutionPart 5, Section 41
*The laws distinguish between

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

and involuntary homicide, a novel concept at that time. The laws were particularly harsh. For example, any

debt Debt is an obligation that requires one party, the debtor, to pay money Loan, borrowed or otherwise withheld from another party, the creditor. Debt may be owed by a sovereign state or country, local government, company, or an individual. Co ...

or whose status was lower than that of his

credit Credit (from Latin verb ''credit'', meaning "one believes") is the trust which allows one party to provide money or resources to another party wherein the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a debt) ...

or was forced into slavery. The punishment was more lenient for those owing a debt to a member of a lower class. The

was the punishment for even minor offences, such as stealing a cabbage. Concerning the liberal use of the death penalty in the Draconic code,

Plutarch Plutarch (; , ''Ploútarchos'', ; – 120s) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''Parallel Lives'', ...

states: All Draco's laws were repealed by

in the early 6th century BC, with the exception of the

law.

Homicide law

After much debate, the Athenians decided to revise the laws, including the homicide law, in 409 BC. The text of the homicide law is partially preserved in a fragmentary inscription. It states that it is up to the victim's relatives to prosecute a killer. According to the preserved part of the inscription, unintentional homicides received a sentence of

exile Exile or banishment is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons ...

. It is not clear whether Draco's law specified the punishment for intentional homicide. In 409 BC, intentional homicide was punished by death, but Draco's law begins: "." Although ambiguous and difficult to translate, one suggested translation is: "Even if a man not intentionally kills another, he is exiled."

Council of Four Hundred

Draco introduced the lot-chosen Council of Four Hundred, distinct from the

, which evolved in later constitutions to play a large role in

Athenian democracy Athenian democracy developed around the 6th century BC in the Ancient Greece, Greek city-state (known as a polis) of Classical Athens, Athens, comprising the city of Athens and the surrounding territory of Attica, and focusing on supporting lib ...

notes that Draco, while having the laws written, merely legislated for an existing unwritten Athenian constitution such as setting exact qualifications for eligibility for office. According to Aristotle, Draco extended the franchise to all free men who could furnish themselves with a set of military equipment. However, this claim is not based on the authentic tradition, thus untrue as claimed by Welwei in 1998. They elected the Council of Four Hundred from among their number; nine

s and the treasurers were drawn from persons possessing an unencumbered property of not less than ten '' minas'', the generals ('' strategoi'') and commanders of cavalry ('' hipparchoi'') from those who could show an unencumbered property of not less than a hundred ''minas'' and had children born in lawful wedlock over ten years of age. Thus, in the event of their death, their estate could pass to a competent heir. These officers were required to hold to account the '' prytanes'' (councillors), ''strategoi'' (generals) and ''hipparchoi'' (cavalry officers) of the preceding year until their accounts had been audited. "The Council of Areopagus was guardian of the laws, and kept watch over the magistrates to see that they executed their offices in accordance with the laws. Any person who felt himself wronged might lay an information before the Council of Areopagus, on declaring what law was broken by the wrong done to him. But, as has been said before, loans were secured upon the persons of the debtors, and the land was in the hands of a few."Aristotle, ''Constitution'', §4.

References

External links

Decree to republish Draco’s law on homicide
��Translation of original inscription * {{DEFAULTSORT:Draco 7th-century BC Athenians Ancient Greek law Ancient legislators Archaic Athens Government of ancient Athens Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown