2. The Legislator Who Was Applauded to Death
Draco the Lawgiver (flourished 7th century BC) was an Ancient Athenian aristocrat, tasked with creating a legal system to replace a private justice system, in which rights were enforced by citizens and their relatives. Draco put Athens’ laws in writing and had them published, thus reducing the pitfalls of traditional oral laws that were known to only a select few, and were arbitrarily interpreted and applied. It was a huge step towards equality under the law, but Draco made the laws insanely severe, and highly favorable to creditors and the propertied classes. Defaulting debtors were liable to be sold into slavery, and those guilty of petty property crimes, such as stealing a cabbage, were liable to the death penalty.
When asked why he legislated death for most offenses, Draco replied that he considered the petty crimes worthy of death, and he could not think of a greater penalty for the greater offenses. Whatever the poor and indebted might have thought, wealthy Greeks apparently liked Draco’s laws so much that they reportedly killed him with applause. Literally. Ancient Greeks showed their approval by throwing hats and items of clothing at the subject of adoration, and during a visit to Aegina, its citizens showered him with so many hats and shirts and cloaks that he suffocated to death under the barrage.
