ABOUT Dragon and draconian laws today you can often hear on TV, as well as find information about them on the Internet or literature.
And yet, many people have never heard of either the Dragon or the draconian laws, which in ancient times acquired a negative household name.
The Dragon, or Dragon, was one of the earliest Greek legislators. He was the author of the first written laws that began to operate in the Athenian Republic in 621 BC.
These laws turned out to be so harsh that later a catch phrase appeared - draconian measures, which meant too severe punishments.
Draconian laws
The dragon remained in history primarily as the creator of his famous laws, which were in effect for about 2 centuries after his death. After the oligarchic coup in 411 BC. e. draconian criminal law provisions were re-written on stone tablets.
These signs were installed on the city square so that each person could find out what awaited him for breaking this or that law. Historians suggest that the Dragon introduced the distinction between intentional and unintentional murder.
It is worth noting that if an unintentional murder was proved, then the person guilty of the death of a person could, under certain conditions, reach a truce with the victim's relatives.
In the laws of the Dragon, great attention was paid to the protection of the property interests of the dominant minority, to which he belonged, and he himself. An interesting fact is that most of the offenses were punishable by death.
For example, even for stealing fruits or vegetables, the thief faced a death sentence. The same sentence was imposed for blasphemy or arson. At the same time, a violation of a number of laws could end for a criminal either by expulsion from the country, or by paying a corresponding fine.
They said that once Drakont was asked why he imposed the same punishment for both theft and murder, to which he replied: "I considered the first worthy of death, but for the second I did not find a more severe punishment."
Since the death sentence was most popular in draconian laws, they became a catch phrase as early as antiquity.
