After
the Dark Ages - About 1200-900 BC - and beginning at about 900 BC, the
Ancient Greeks had no official laws or punishments.
Murders
were settled by members of the victim's family, who would then go and
kill the murderer.
This
often began endless blood feuds.
It
was not until the middle of the seventh century BC that the Greeks first
began to establish official laws.
Around
620 BC Draco, the lawgiver, set down the first known written law of Ancient
Greece. These laws were so harsh that his name gave rise to our English
word "Daconian" meaning an unreasonably harsh law.
Solon,an Athenian statesman and lawmaker, refined Draco's laws and is
credited with "democratizing" justice by making the courts more
accessible to citizens. Solon created many new laws that fit into the
four basic categories of Ancient Greek law. The only one of Draco's laws
that Solon kept when he was appointed law giver in about 594 BC was the
law that established exile as the penalty for homicide.
Tort Laws
A
tort occurs when someone does harm to you or to your property
Murder
was a tort law, and the punishment was exile as set by Draco.
Under
Solon's laws, fine for rape was 100 drachmas, and the penalty for theft
depended on the amount stolen. Other
offenses and penalties were things like the offense of a dog bite, the
penalty for which was to surrender the dog wearing a three-cubit-long
wooden collar. Solon
even made laws to serve as guidelines for the spacing and placement of
houses, walls, ditches, wells, beehives, and certain types of trees.
Family Laws
Solon
also created many family laws, which were laws that regulated the behavior
of men and women. He wrote laws on allowances in marriage and adoption,
as well as laws concerning inheritances and supporting roles of parents.
Penalties
for these laws were not set, but were enforced by the head of the particular
family.
Public
Laws
Public
laws dictated how public services were to be provided and how public functions
should be conducted. Solon contributed some of these laws. He wrote laws
that required that people who lived a certain distance from public wells
needed to dig their own, laws that forbade the export of agricultural
goods except olive oil, laws that restricted the amount of land a man
could own, laws that allowed venders to charge any kind of interest rate
they wanted to, and even laws that prohibited dealing in perfume.
Procedural Laws
Procedural
laws were guidelines that told judges how to use other laws. These laws
told in step-by-step detail how law should be enforced. Procedural laws
even included such minute details as how many witnesses must be called
forward for someone to be found guilty of homicide.
Law Givers
Law
givers were not rulers or kings, but appointed officials whose only job
was to write laws. Most of the lawgivers were middle class members of
the aristocracy. The officials in the government wanted to make sure that
law givers would not take sides or be a part of just one group, otherwise
laws might be unfair. Because of this, law givers were not a part of normal
government, and they were considered political outsiders.
Courts
and the Judicial System
In
order to have punishments carried out, the Ancient Greeks needed some
sort of system to "try," "convict," and "sentence" guilty persons. To do this, they created a court system. Court officials
were paid little, if anything, and most trials were completed in the same
day, private cases even more quickly.
There
were no "professional" court officials, no lawyers, and no official
judges. A normal case consisted of two "litigants," one who
argued that an unlawful act was committed, and the other argued his defense.
The audience, or "jurors," would vote for one side or the other.
The result was either a guilty or not guilty, after which another vote
by the jury would decide the punishment. |
Laws of Ancient Greece
Lawyers:
