HISTORY 36B Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Debt Bondage, Homicide
Document Summary
Either a man or possibly a group of priests on the acropolis that worshipped a sacred snake (drakon = snake in greek) Replace family/kin with the state in matters of intentional and unintentional homicide. Before draco"s revisions, family had to settle matters of murder, usually via vengeance or monetary compensation. Now next of kin could still prosecute, but matter decided upon by officials. Little is know about draco"s full revisions, but he used the death penalty frequently. Call for revision suggests some kind of unrest. Attempt to established fixed principles of justice, remove older cultural/customary law. Driven by aristocratic families who took over the majority of land. Those with smaller amount of land faced the problem of inheritance. Could be divided so many times over generations. Families with barely enough land or no land. Politics and economy in the 6th century bce. Aristocrats main employer for those without land or in need of more.
