Draco was an aristocrat in 7th century BCE Athens who was tasked with composing the city's first written law code to replace the prevailing system of oral law and blood feuds. His code was famously harsh, prescribing death as the punishment for even minor crimes. However, it helped consolidate the political power of the aristocracy. Draco's draconian laws were later replaced by the more moderate laws of Solon in 594 BCE.
Draco was an aristocrat in 7th century BCE Athens who was tasked with composing the city's first written law code to replace the prevailing system of oral law and blood feuds. His code was famously harsh, prescribing death as the punishment for even minor crimes. However, it helped consolidate the political power of the aristocracy. Draco's draconian laws were later replaced by the more moderate laws of Solon in 594 BCE.
Draco was an aristocrat in 7th century BCE Athens who was tasked with composing the city's first written law code to replace the prevailing system of oral law and blood feuds. His code was famously harsh, prescribing death as the punishment for even minor crimes. However, it helped consolidate the political power of the aristocracy. Draco's draconian laws were later replaced by the more moderate laws of Solon in 594 BCE.
Draco, also called Drako or Drakon, was the first recorded
legislator of Athens in Ancient Greece. He replaced the prevailing system of oral law and blood feud by a written code to be enforced only by a court of law. Source by: https://en.wikipedia.org/
About Draco’s life
Draco was an aristocrat who in 7th century BCE Athens was handed the task of composing a new body of laws. We have no particular clues concerning his life and general biography and the only certainty is that, as an aristocrat and an educated man, he was in the right place at the right time in order to take his opportunity and legislate. During the infancy of the Athenian legal system Draco composed the cities first written law code with the aim of reducing arbitrary decisions of punishment and blood feuds between parties. Ultimately, though, the laws aided and legitimized the political power of the aristocracy and allowed them to consolidate their control of the land and poor. Famously harsh, the laws were ultimately replaced by Solon in 594 BCE. Source by: https://www.worldhistory.org/
Draco’s Attitude towards Crime
Draco is said to have declared that the smallest crime deserved death, and that he knew of no severer penalty to attach to greater crimes. Of this grim code of laws men said that they were "written in blood," and the word "draconian" remains in use today as mark a rule fearlessly severe. Source by: https://www.publicbookshelf.com/
Athenian life Under Draconian Constitution
The most ancient lawmaker in Ancient Greece was Draco, whose harsh laws have come down to later generations in the form of the adjective draconian. Athens from its earliest days was controlled by aristocrats and the rich. They were not the only ones living there, however, and even for them the way that laws and punishments were carried out was inconsistent. Draco, an aristocrat himself, was tasked with making laws for Athens. For most of Draco's laws, the punishment for breaking them was death. Murderers were put to death; so, too, however, were people who had killed someone else involuntarily, as in self-defence. (Modern laws make a distinction between voluntary and involuntary homicide.) Draco is said to have said that he had envisioned the death penalty for breaking his laws, even the so-called minor ones, but that he could envision no greater punishment for the so-called major offenses. Source by: http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/