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ZALEUCUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 951 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ZALEUCUS , of See also:

Locri Epizephyrii in Magna Graecia, See also:Greek lawgiver, is supposed to have flourished about 66o B.C. The statement that he was a See also:pupil of See also:Pythagoras is an See also:anachronism. Little is known of him, and See also:Timaeus even doubted his existence, but it is now generally agreed that this is an See also:error. He is said to have been the author of the first written See also:code of See also:laws amongst the Greeks. According to the See also:common See also:story, the Locrians consulted the Delphic See also:oracle as to a remedy for the disorder and lawlessness that were rife amongst them. Having been ordered to make laws for themselves, they commissioned one Zaleucus, a shepherd and slave (in later tradition, a See also:man of distinguished See also:family) to draw up a code. The laws of Zaleucus, which he declared had been communicated to him in a See also:dream by See also:Athena, the See also:patron goddess of the See also:city, were few and See also:simple, but so severe that, like those of See also:Draco, they became proverbial. They remained essentially unchanged for centuries, and the Locrians subsequently enjoyed a high reputation as upholders of the See also:law. One of the most important provisions was that the See also:punishment for different offences was definitely fixed, instead of being See also:left to the discretion of the See also:judge before whom a See also:case was tried. The See also:penalty for See also:adultery was the loss of the eyes, and in See also:general the application of the lex talionis was enjoined as the punishment for See also:personal injuries. See also:Special enactments concerning the rights of See also:property, the See also:alienation of See also:land, See also:settlement in See also:foreign countries, and various sumptuary laws (e.g. the drinking of pure See also:wine, except when ordered medicinally, was forbidden) are attributed to him. After the code was firmly established, the Locrians introduced a regulation that, if a See also:citizen interpreted a law differently from the cosmopolis (the See also:chief See also:magistrate), each had to appear before the See also:council of One Thousand with a rope See also:round his See also:neck, and the one against whom the council decided was immediately strangled.

Any one who proposed a new law or the alteration of one already existing was subjected to the same test, which continued in force till the 4th See also:

century and even later. Zaleucus is often confused with See also:Charondas, and the same story is told of their See also:death. It is said that one of Zaleucus's laws forbade a citizen, under penalty of death, to enter the See also:senate-See also:house bearing aweapon. During the stress of See also:war, Zaleucus violated this law; and, on its being pointed out to him, he committed See also:suicide by throwing himself upon the point of his See also:sword, declaring that the law must be vindicated. See See also:Bentley, Dissertation on the Epistles of See also:Phalaris; F. D. Gerlach, Zaleukos, Charondas, Pythagoras (1858) ; G. Busolt, Griechische Geschichte, i.; Schol. on See also:Pindar, 01. x. 17; See also:Strabo vi. p. 259; Diod. Sic. xii. 20, 21; See also:Demosthenes, In Timocratenz, p.

744; See also:

Stobaeus, Florilegium, xliv. 20, 21, where the supposed See also:preface of Zaleucus and the collection of laws as a whole is See also:spurious; Suidas, s.v., who makes him a native of See also:Thurii; See also:Cicero, De Legibus, ii. 6. See also See also:article GREEK LAW.

End of Article: ZALEUCUS

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