Draco

Archon of Athens (621/620 b. c.e.)

Born: Seventh century b. c.e.; perhaps Athens, Greece Died: c. 600 b. c.e.; perhaps Athens, Greece Also known as: Dracon Category: Government and politics

Life Little is known of the personal life of Draco (DRAY-koh). According to Aristotle, Draco gave Athens its first legal code at the request of the other archons. The fragment that remains deals with homicide. Before Draco’s code, the tribes andphraties (aristocratic brotherhoods) meted out punishment for murder. In cases in which the murderer and victim belonged to different families, retaliation by the victim’s clan against a member of the murderer’s, not necessarily the perpetrator, led to extended blood feuds. Draco established a court system in which the murderer was judged depending on whether the homicide was accidental or intentional. If the killing was accidental, the victim’s family could pardon the culprit or order him out of the country. Intentional murderers were executed. Modern scholars are uncertain whether Draco actually wrote other laws, but writings created several centuries later attribute a complete code to him. His punishments were said to be so harsh, including execution for minor crimes, that his name has given English speakers the word “draconian.”

Influence Draco’s code was an advance over a lawless system. However, it left the administration of the law in the hands of the archons, a closed aristocratic group of magistrates.

Further Reading

Carawan, Edwin. Rhetoric and the Law of Draco. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Gagarin, Michael. Drakon and Early Athenian Homicide Law. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1981.

Gagarin, Michael, and David Cohen, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek Law. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Gallia, Andrew B. “The Republic of Draco’s Law on Homicide.” Classical Quarterly 54, no. 2 (2004): 451-460.

Stroud, Ronald S. Drakon’s Law on Homicide. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968.

Frederick B. Chary

See also: Athens; Draco’s Code; Government and Law.