Draco
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- This article is about Draco, the Greek lawgiver from Athens. For other uses of Draco see Draco (disambiguation).
Draco (World Book «DRAY koh») was the first law scribe of ancient Athens, Greece. The laws, transcribed in 621 BC when he was archon eponymous, were particularly harsh: the death penalty was the punishment for even minor offenses. Any debtor whose status was lower than that of his creditor was forced into slavery. The punishment was more lenient for those who owed their debt to a member of a lower class. The stringency of these laws gave rise to expressions such as "draconian punishment", "draconian laws", and more generally, the far-reaching "draconian measures".
Draco may have been the first to codify Athenian law or at least comprehensively record the laws; contrary to popular belief, however, he was not the creator of those laws.
Draco's code of law was superseded by that of Solon in the early 6th century BC.
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