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The Laws
Directions: Answer the questions using the documents provided.
Document 1:
Below is an excerpt from Hammurabi’s Code. The code was named after the Babylon King, Hammurabi, who ruled
from 1792 to 1750 BCE. There were 282 laws in all, which covered all acts of daily life, including: marriage, legal
procedures, family matters, ownership of land, wages, mortgages, business contracts etc. The laws were written
down so that rich and poor alike would be aware of them. The government carried out all sentences.
Document 2:
Below is an excerpt from The 10 Commandments. These served as the code of laws in which the Hebrew
civilization followed. The Hebrews believed that God gave these laws to Moses at Mount Sinai during the Exodus.
The Jews used these laws as both a religious and moral code.
Document 3:
Below is a description of Draco’s code, as described by Plutarch, a Greek historian. No records of the
original code have been found. The code was written by Draco, an Athenian noble in 620 BCE. Athens
was governed as a direct democracy. This meant that each person had a chance to participate in
government. Draco believed that every person, rich or poor, had the right to know what the laws were.
Therefore, he wrote his code down for all to see. Courts were the only unit that could pass judgment.
Draco said the death penalty was appropriate as punishments for most crimes, even for stealing even
so much as a cabbage. If there had been a worse penalty than death, Draco would gladly have
applied it to greater crimes.
“And Draco himself, they say, being asked why he made death the penalty for most offenses,
replied that in his opinion the lesser ones deserved it, and for the greater ones no heavier
penalty could be found.”
- Plutarch Life of Solon
Through the laws of Draco, those in debt could be made slaves – but only if they were members of
the lower class. This means members of a higher class could not be sold as slaves, yet their servants
could.
As a result of Draco’s strict, unforgiving code, the adjective based on the name Draco – draconian –
refers to penalties considered excessively severe.
Document 4:
Below is another excerpt from Plutarch describing Solon’s Constitution. These laws would replace
Draco’s code in Athens in 594 BCE. Although many of the punishments for lesser crimes were made less
sever, Solon did keep some of the original laws.
“First, [Solon] repealed the laws of Draco, except those concerning murder, because of the
severity of the punishments they appointed, which for almost all offences were capital; even
those that were convicted of idleness were to suffer death, and such as stole only a few apples
or [plants] were to be punished in the same manner as sacrilegious persons and murderers.
When Solon undertook the annulling of debts, he intended only to abolish the debts,
and not to take debtors’ lands. This charge, however, was soon removed, and he re-admitted
debt. The method he took satisfied neither the poor nor the rich. The rich were displeased by
the cancelling of their bonds (servants); and the poor at facing losing lands if they were in
debt.
In the next place, Solon took an estimate of the estates of the citizens; intending to
leave the great offices in the hands of the rich, but to give the rest of the people a share which
they had not before. He created three upper classes based on various levels of wealth and
abolished rights based solely on birth, a significant change from the past. All people who did
not meet the wealth requirements for those classes were named Thetes, and not admitted to
any office: they had only a right to appear and give their vote in the general assembly of the
people.
Desirous yet further to strengthen the common people, he empowered any man
whatever to enter an action for one that was injured. If a person was assaulted, or suffered
damage or violence, another that was able and willing to do it might prosecute the offender.
As Attica (the region surrounding and including Athens) was not supplied with water
from perennial rivers, lakes, or springs, but chiefly by wells dug for that purpose, he made a
law, that where there was a public well. If that well was too far to travel, and a person dug ten
fathoms deep in their own ground, and could find no water, they had liberty to fill a vessel of
six gallons twice a day at their neighbor's. Thus he thought it proper to assist persons in real
necessity, but not to encourage idleness.
All his laws were to continue in force for a hundred years, and were written upon
wooden tables. The Senate, in a body, bound themselves by oath to establish the laws of
Solon; and the Thesmothetæ, or guardians of the laws, took an oath in a particular form, by
the stone in the market-place, that for every law they broke, each would dedicate a golden
statue at Delphi of the same weight with himself.”
Direction: On a separate sheet of paper answer the following questions in full sentences/
Questions:
Hammurabi’s Code
1. Did the punishments for these laws “fit the crime?” Why or why not?
2. How does social class play a role in Hammurabi’s Code?
10 Commandments
1. If the Hebrews not obey these laws, what would happen to them?
2. Did the laws apply to everyone, no matter what social class they were in? How do you know?
Draco’s Code
1. What does Draco himself say about the use of the death penalty for most offenses?
2. How do you think the public respond to Draco’s Law Code?
3. Draco’s law was very harsh. Why is it considered a step in the “positive direction” for Democracy in
Athens?
Solon’s Constitution
1. Why do you think Solon kept the death penalty for murder in Solon’s Constitution?
2. How did Solon improve upon Draco’s Laws?
3. What common features are found in all of these documents?
4. Why does simply writing laws down increase a states “democratic status?”