Draco (lawgiver)

Draco
A representation of Draco at the library of the Supreme Court of the United States
Born	c. 650 BC
Died	c. 600 BC (age c. 50) Aegina
Residence	Athens, Ancient Greece
Occupation	Legislator
Known for	Draconian constitution

Draco (/ˈdreɪkoʊ/; Greek: Δράκων, Drakōn; fl. c. 7th century BC) 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. Draco was the first democratic legislator, inasmuch as he was requested by the Athenian citizens to be a lawgiver for the city-state, but the citizens were fully unaware that Draco would establish harsh laws. Draco's written law was characterized by its harshness, with the adjective "draconian" referring to similarly unforgiving rules or laws.

During the 39th Olympiad, in 622 or 621 BC, Draco established the legal code with which he is identified.

Little is known about his life. He may have belonged to the Greek nobility of Attica, with which the 10th-century [Suda] text records him as contemporaneous, prior to the period of the Seven Sages of Greece. It also relates a folkloric story of his death in the Aeginetan theatre. In a traditional ancient Greek show of approval, his supporters 'threw so many hats and shirts and cloaks on his head that he suffocated, and was buried in that same theatre'. The truth about his death is still unclear, but we do know that Draco was driven out of Athens by the Athenians to the neighbouring island of Aegina, where he spent the remainder of his life.

The laws (θεσμοί - thesmoi) that he laid down were the first written constitution of Athens. So that no one would be unaware of them, they were posted on wooden tablets (ἄξονες - axones), where they were preserved for almost two centuries on steles of the shape of three-sided pyramids (κύρβεις - kyrbeis). The tablets were called axones, perhaps because they could be pivoted along the pyramid's axis to read any side.