Draco (lawgiver)

Drakon ( ancient Greek Δράκων ὃ Ἀθηναῖος Drakon hó Athenaeus, Drakon the Athenians '; * 650 BC) was an Athenian law reformer v. around the year 621 AD all the then-known in Athens penal chronicled. He led in his work also two significant innovations in criminal law a: the distinction between intentional and unintentional killing as well as the reference of the respective criminal cases to specialized tribunals on the offense.

For anyone she could neither see nor ignore the laws ( θεσμοί thesmoi ) were written on wooden tablets ( οἳ ἄξονες hoi axones, tablets of law that can be rotated about an axis ') and partly rotating three-sided steles ( αἳ κύρβεις hai kýrbeis, rotating pyramidal cornerstones for notice of laws ') or columns ( αἳ στῆλαι hai stelai, laws pillars ') attached, which were placed on the market ( agora ), where they remained for nearly two hundred years. Draco's laws were replaced while maintaining the distinction between intentional and unintentional killing of Solon's legislation.

The draconian legislation ( Δρακόντειοι νόμοι Drakónteioi prefectures, laws of Drakon 'or Δρακόντεια μέτρα Drakónteia Metra measures of Drakon ') was in the classical period of Greece ( "written in blood " ) as extremely cruel viewed and is literally in the German language for an overly hard, just " draconian " punishment become. It was, however, often overlooked that Drakon the existing laws and rules of his time only codified and thus abolished the whole, still harder arbitrary and often escalating penalties of antiquity itself. He also made ​​efforts to replace the hitherto practiced blood revenge by exclusive jurisdiction of the courts for the atonement of crime. The draconian legislation was an important step in the direction of the state monopoly.

With respect to the widely prescribed use of the death penalty Plutarch writes about Drakon:

The laws Drakons from a 409/408 BC inscriptions created new publication of laws are known.