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DRACO (7th century B.C.)

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 464 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DRACO (7th See also:century B.C.) , Athenian statesman, was See also:Archon Eponymus (but see J. E. See also:Sandys, Constitution of See also:Athens, p. 12, See also:note) in 621 B.C. His name has become proverbial as an in-exorable lawgiver. Up to his See also:time the See also:laws of Athens were unwritten, and were administered arbitrarily by the See also:Eupatridae. As at See also:Rome by the twelve Tables, so at Athens it was found necessary to allay the discontent of the See also:people by See also:publishing these unwritten laws in a codified See also:form, and Draco, himself a Eupatrid, carried this out. According to See also:Plutarch (See also:Life of See also:Solon) : " For nearly all crimes there was the same See also:penalty of See also:death. The See also:man who was convicted of idleness, or who See also:stole a See also:cabbage or an See also:apple, was liable to death no less than the robber of temples or the murderer." For the institution of the 51 Ephetae and their relation to the See also:Areopagus in criminal See also:jurisdiction see See also:GREEK See also:LAW. The orator See also:Demades (d. c. 318 B.C.) said that Draco's laws were written in See also:blood. Whether this implies See also:peculiar severity, or merely reflects the attitude of a more refined See also:age to the barbarous enactments of a See also:primitive people, among whom the penalty of death was almost universal for all crimes, cannot be decided.

According to Suidas, however, in his See also:

Lexicon, the people were so overjoyed at the See also:change he made, that they accidentally suffocated him in the See also:theatre at See also:Aegina with the See also:rain of caps and cloaks which they flung at him in their See also:enthusiasm. The See also:appearance in 1891 of See also:Aristotle's lost See also:treatise on the constitution of Athens gave rise to a most important controversy on the subject of Draco's See also:work. From the statements contained in See also:chapter iv. of this treatise, and inferences See also:drawn from them, many scholars attributed to Draco the construction of an entirely new constitution for Athens, the See also:main features of which were: (1) See also:extension of See also:franchise to all who could provide themselves with a suit of armour—or, as See also:Gilbert (Constitutional Antiquities, Eng. trans. p. 121) says, to the Zeugite class, from which mainly the hoplites may be supposed to have come; (2) the institution of a See also:property qualification for See also:office (archon 10 minae, See also:strategus xoo minae); (3) a See also:council of 401 members (see See also:BouLE); (4) magistrates and councillors to be chosen by See also:lot; further, the four Solonian classes are said to be already in existence. For some time, especially in See also:Germany, this constitution was almost universally accepted; now, the See also:majority of scholars reject it. The reasons against it, which are almost overwhelming, may be-shortly summarized. (1) It is ignored by every other See also:ancient authority, except an admittedly See also:spurious passage in See also:Plato 1; whereas Aristotle says of his laws " they are laws, but he added the laws to an existing constitution" (Pol. ii. 9. 9). (2) It is inconsistent with other passages in the Constitution of Athens. According to c. vii., Solon repealed all laws of Draco except those See also:relating to See also:murder; yet some of the most See also:modern features of Solon's constitution are found in Draco's constitution. (3) Its ideas are See also:alien to the 7th century.

It has been said that the qualification of the strategus was ten times that of the archon. This, reasonable in the 5th, is preposterous in the 7th century, when the archon was unquestionably the supreme executive See also:

official. Again, it is unlikely that Solon, a democratic reformer, would have reverted from a democratic See also:wealth' qualification such as is attributed to Draco, to an aristocratic See also:birth quali- 1 A passage (See also:long overlooked) in. See also:Cicero, De republica, shows that, by the 1st century B.c. the See also:interpolation had already been made; the See also:quotation is evidently taken from the See also:list in c. x1i. of the Constitution, which it reproduces.fication. Thirdly, if Draco had instituted a hoplite See also:census, Solon would not have substituted citizenship by birth. (4) The terminology of Draco's constitution is that of the 5th, not the 7th, century, whereas the See also:chief difficulty of Solon's laws is the obsolete 6th-century phraseology. (5) Lastly, a comparison between the ideals of the oligarchs under See also:Theramenes (end of 5th century) and this alleged constitution shows a suspicious similarity (hoplite census, nobody to hold office a second time until all duly qualified persons had beeen exhausted, See also:fine of one drachma for non-attendance in Boule). It is reasonable, there-fore, to conclude that the constitution of Draco was invented by the school of Theramenes, who wished to surround their revolutionary views with the See also:halo of antiquity; hence the allusion to " the constitution of our See also:father " (i warms iratrrei.a). This See also:hypothesis is further corroborated by a See also:criticism of the See also:text. Not only is chapter iv. considered to be an interpolation in the text as originally written, but later chapters have been edited to See also:accord with it. Thus chapter iv. breaks the connexion of thought between chapters iii. and v. Moreover, an interpolator has inserted phrases to remove what would otherwise have been obvious contradictions: thus (a) in chapter vii., where we are told that Solon divided the citizens into four classes (Tlµi2ara), the interpolator had added the words " according to the See also:division formerly existing " ( xa06:aep Scijpl7Tac «ai rrporepov), which were necessary in view of the statement that Draco gave the franchise to the Zeugites; (b) in chapter xli., where successive constitutional changes are recorded, the words " the Draconian " iiri Aparcovros) are inserted, though the subsequent figures are not accommodated to the change.

Solon is also here spoken of as the founder of See also:

democracy, whereas the Draconian constitution of See also:chap. iv. contains several democratic innovations. Two further points may be added, namely, that whereas Aristotle's treatise credits Draco with establishing a See also:money fine, See also:Pollux definitely quotes a law of Draco in which fines are assessed at so many oxen; secondly, if chapter iv. did exist in the See also:original text, it is more than curious that though the treatise was widely read in antiquity there is no other reference to Draco's constitution except the two quoted above. In any See also:case, whatever were Draco's laws, we learn from Plutarch's life of Solon that Solon abolished all of them, except those dealing with See also:homicide. AUTHORITIES.—Beside the See also:works of J. E. Sandys and G. Gilbert voted above, see those quoted in See also:article CONSTITUTION OF ATHENS; (See also:Grote, Hist. of See also:Greece (ed. 1907), pp. 9-11, with references; and histories of Greece published after 1894. (J. M.

End of Article: DRACO (7th century B.C.)

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