Draconian Meaning

Definition of Draconian

harsh and cruel

The definition of draconian is laws or punishments that are extremely severe or cruel. Exceedingly harsh; very severe: a draconian legal code; draconian budget cuts. After Draco. American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth.

Examples of Draconian in a sentence

Giving someone a life sentence for stealing a loaf of bread is a draconian consequence. 🔊

To many, capital punishment is a draconian practice. 🔊

In the movie, the draconian villain killed not only his enemies but also their children. 🔊

My husband says having to eat my cooking is a type of draconian punishment. 🔊

According to child psychologists, children respond better to praise and compliments than they do to draconian consequences. 🔊

Like most wives, I do not get along with my draconian mother-in-law. 🔊

The book is based on the true story of a seventeenth century draconian ruler who brutally killed anyone who disagreed with him. 🔊

Under draconian law, even the smallest offenses are punished with harsh consequences. 🔊

The draconian budget cuts suggested by the president are going to hurt millions of people. 🔊

All too often, draconian measures are taken to win wars. 🔊

Most Searched Words (with Video)

Draco (/ˈdreɪkoʊ/; Greek: Δράκων, Drakōn; fl. c. 7th century BC), 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. Draco was the first democratic legislator, requested by the Athenian citizens to be a lawgiver for the city-state, but the citizens were fully unaware that Draco would establish laws^[1] characterized by their harshness. Since the 19th century, the adjective draconian (Greek: δρακόντειοςdrakónteios) refers to similarly unforgiving rules or laws, in Greek, English^[2] and other European languages.^[3]

Life[edit]

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.^[4] 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'.^[5] The truth about his death is still unclear, but it is known that Draco was driven out of Athens by the Athenians to the neighbouring island of Aegina, where he spent the remainder of his life.^[6]

Draconian constitution[edit]

The laws (θεσμοί - thesmoi) that he laid 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).^[7] The tablets were called axones, perhaps because they could be pivoted along the pyramid's axis to read any side.

The constitution featured several major innovations:

• Instead of oral laws known to a special class, arbitrarily applied and interpreted, all laws were written, thus being made known to all literate citizens (who could appeal to the Areopagus for injustices): 'the constitution formed under Draco, when the first code of laws was drawn up'. (Aristotle: Athenian Constitution, Part 5, Section 41)
• The laws distinguish between murder and involuntary homicide.^[8]

The laws were particularly harsh. For example, any debtor whose status was lower than that of his creditor was forced into slavery.^[9] The punishment was more lenient for those owing a debt to a member of a lower class. The death penalty was the punishment for even minor offences, such as stealing a cabbage.^[10] Concerning the liberal use of the death penalty in the Draconic code, Plutarch states: 'It is said that Drakon himself, when asked why he had fixed the punishment of death for most offences, answered that he considered these lesser crimes to deserve it, and he had no greater punishment for more important ones'.^[11]

All his laws were repealed by Solon in the early 6th century BC, with the exception of the homicide law.^[12]

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Homicide law[edit]

After much debate, the Athenians decided to revise the laws, including the homicide law, in 409 BC.^[13] The homicide law is a highly fragmented inscription but states that it is up to the victim's relatives to prosecute a killer. According to the preserved part of the inscription, unintentional homicides received a sentence of exile.

It is not clear whether Draco's law specified the punishment for intentional homicide. In 409 BC, intentional homicide was punished by death, but Draco's law begins, 'καὶ ἐὰμ μὲ ‘κ [π]ρονοί[α]ς [κ]τ[ένει τίς τινα, φεύγ]ε[ν]', which is ambiguous and difficult to translate. One possible translation offers, 'Even if a man not intentionally kills another, he is exiled'.^[14]

Council of Four Hundred[edit]

Draco introduced the lot-chosen Council of Four Hundred,^[15] distinct from the Areopagus, which evolved in later constitutions to play a large role in Athenian democracy. Aristotle notes that Draco, while having the laws written, merely legislated for an existing unwritten Athenian constitution^[16] such as setting exact qualifications for eligibility for office.

Draco extended the franchise to all free men who could furnish themselves with a set of military equipment. They elected the Council of Four Hundred from among their number; nine archons and the treasurers were drawn from persons possessing an unencumbered property of not less than ten minas, the generals (strategoi) and commanders of cavalry (hipparchoi) from those who could show an unencumbered property of not less than a hundred minas and had children born in lawful wedlock over ten years of age. Thus, in the event of their death, their estate could pass to a competent heir. These officers were required to hold to account the prytanes (councillors), strategoi (generals) and hipparchoi (cavalry officers) of the preceding year until their accounts had been audited. 'The Council of Areopagus was guardian of the laws, and kept watch over the magistrates to see that they executed their offices in accordance with the laws. Any person who felt himself wronged might lay an information before the Council of Areopagus, on declaring what law was broken by the wrong done to him. But, as has been said before, loans were secured upon the persons of the debtors, and the land was in the hands of a few.'^[17]

See also[edit]

• Hammurabi, a Babylonian who wrote some of the earliest codes of law
• List of eponymous laws (those named after their inventor)

References[edit]

1. ^'Written in Human Blood: Draconian Laws and the Dawn of Democracy'. 2014-01-09. Retrieved 2016-06-26.
2. ^For a look at the use of the term draconian in English today, see:
   • 'GST Arrest Clause 'Draconian', May Lead To Harassment Of Business Leaders: Mamata Banerjee'. NDTV. Indo-Asian News Service. 30 June 2017. Retrieved 3 July 2017.
   • Conroy, Heather (2 July 2017). 'Trump budget will push criminal justice system further into crisis'. The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 3 July 2017. Draconian state budget cuts have already resulted in prisons that hold more inmates than they were originally designed for.
   • Pasqual, Clay (3 July 2017). 'Guest Opinion: GOP's 'Better Care' would hurt Iowans'. The Daily Iowan. Retrieved 3 July 2017. Furthermore, the draconian cuts to Medicaid in the plan would threaten nursing-home services.
3. ^For a look at the use of the term 'draconian' in other western languages today, see:
   • 'Il governo May scricchiola, domani il voto di fiducia'. TicinOnline (in Italian). 28 June 2017. Retrieved 4 July 2017. Emendamento che prevede il superamento del draconiano tetto massimo dell'1% di aumento dei salari per i dipendenti pubblici e di altre misure di austerità.
   • Imarisio, Marco. 'L'ordinanza sotto accusa e gli errori dei poliziotti. Ma ora pesa la fase due del M5S a Torino'. Corriere Della Sera (in Italian). Retrieved 4 July 2017. Un provvedimento varato sull’onda emotiva di piazza San Carlo e accolto con perplessità in questura per via del draconiano orario di inizio del coprifuoco etilico..
   • 'Drakonische Geldstrafen: Nun wehrt sich auch Kroatien gegen Partyurlauber'. Focus (in German). 29 August 2017. Retrieved 5 September 2017. Betrunkene Partytouristen sind nicht nur auf den Balearen ein Problem. Unter den Urlaubsorten, die sich gegen die unangenehmen Besucher wehren, ist die kroatische Insel Hvar. Das auch bei Promis beliebte Urlaubsziel will nicht zu einem neuen „Ballermann“ werden und verhängte deshalb drakonische Strafen für ungebührliches Verhalten.
4. ^Cobham, Ebenezer. The Reader's Handbook of Allusions, References, Plots and Stories, p. 451.
5. ^Suidas. 'ΔράκωνArchived 2015-11-03 at the Wayback Machine'. Suda On Line. Adler number delta, 1495.
6. ^Guerber, H. A., and Joe Larkins. The Story Of The Greeks. Luton: Andrews UK, 2011. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 26 June 2016.
7. ^Holland, Leicester B. (1941). 'Axones'. American Journal of Archaeology. 45 (3): 346–362. doi:10.2307/499024. JSTOR499024.
8. ^*Andrewes, A. (1970). 'The Growth of the Athenian State'. In Boardman, John; Hammond, N.G.L (eds.). The Cambridge Ancient History Volume III, Part 3: The Expansion of the Greek World, Eighth to Sixth Centuries B.C. p. 371. ISBN0-521-23447-6.
9. ^Morris Silver. Economic Structures of Antiquity. Ed. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1995. ISBN9780313293801. P. 117
10. ^J. David Hirschel, William O. Wakefield. Criminal Justice in England and the United States. Ed. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1995. ISBN9780275941338. p.160.
11. ^Plutarch (translation by Stewart; Long, George). He also wrote, 'Draco's code was written not in ink but in blood.'Life of Solon, XVII. gutenberg.org.
12. ^Aristotle, Athenian Constitution, 7.1.
13. ^Volonaki, Eleni (2000). ''Apagoge' in Homicide Cases'(PDF). Dike. 3.
14. ^Gagarin, Michael (1981). Drakon and early Athenian homicide law. New York: Yale U.P. ISBN0300026277.
15. ^Aristotle. The Athenian Constitution, 4.3.
16. ^Aristotle. Politics, 1274a.
17. ^Aristotle, Constitution, §4.

• Roisman, Joseph, and translated by J.C. Yardley, Ancient Greece from Homer to Alexander (Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2011) ISBN1-4051-2776-7

Further reading[edit]

• Carawan, Edwin (1998). Rhetoric and the Law of Draco. Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York City: Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-815086-2.
• Gagarin, Michael (1981). Drakon and Early Athenian Homicide Law. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN978-0-300-02627-6.
• Gagarin, Michael; Cohen, David (editors) (2005). The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN978-0-521-81840-7.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
• Maine, Sir Henry Sumner (2008). 'Ancient Law – Its Connection with the Early History of Society and Its Relativid'. Avengers of Blood: Homicide in Athenian Law and Custom from Draco to Demosthenes. Stuttgart: Steiner. ISBN978-3-515-09123-7.
• Stroud, Ronald S. (1968). Drakon's Law on Homicide. Berkeley: University of California Press. OCLC463502977.

External links[edit]

• Decree to republish Draco’s law on homicide—Translation of original inscription