Law of Homicide
After much debate from the Athenians, it was decided to revise the laws, including the homicide law, in 409. The homicide law is a highly fragmented inscription, but it does state that it is up to the victim’s relatives to prosecute a killer. According to the preserved part of the inscription, unintentional homicides receive a sentence of exile, while intentional murders are punishable by death. Apart from the inscriptions very little is known about Draco’s background or the nature of most of his laws. However, the significance of his work was prevalent when most of his laws were successfully abolished by Solon.
Read more about this topic: Draco (lawgiver)
Famous quotes containing the words law of, law and/or homicide:
“Macavity, Macavity, there’s no one like Macavity,
He’s broken every human law, he breaks the law of gravity.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“The law is simply expediency wearing a long white dress.”
—Quentin Crisp (b. 1908)
“Life and language are alike sacred. Homicide and verbicide—that is, violent treatment of a word with fatal results to its legitimate meaning, which is its life—are alike forbidden.”
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)