Who Established the First Law Code for Athens

The word «democracy» (Greek: dēmokratia, δημοκρατία) combines the elements dêmos (δῆμος, traditionally interpreted as «people») and krátos (κράτος, meaning «power» or «power») and thus literally means «power of the people». In the words «monarchy» and «oligarchy» comes the second element of archē (ἀρχή), which means «beginning (that which comes first)», and therefore also «first place or power», «sovereignty». One might expect, by analogy, that the term «canvassing» was adopted for the new form of government of the Athenian democrats. However, the word «demarchy» (δημαρχία) had already been attributed and meant «mayor`s office», the office or rank of a judge of the upper town. (In today`s parlance, the term «approach» has taken on a new meaning.) According to Solon`s plan, only members of the two richest classes could become archons or magistrates. For the first time, however, it opened membership in the Assembly to all Athenian citizens, including the poor. Athenian democracy developed around the 6th century BC in the Greek city-state of Athens (known as Polis), which included the city of Athens and the vicinity of Attica. Although Athens was the most famous democratic city-state of ancient Greece, it was not the only one, nor the first; Several other city-states adopted similar democratic constitutions before Athens. [1] [2] By the end of the 4th century BC, perhaps half of the more than a thousand existing Greek city-states were democracies.

[3] It is not known whether the word «democracy» existed when so-called democratic systems were introduced. The first conceptual articulation of the term is usually dated to around 470 BC. J.-C. with the suppliants of Aeschylus (l. 604) with the line sung by the choir: Dēmou Kratousa Cheir (Δήμου κρατούσα χειρ). This roughly means the «hand of the people`s power» and acts in the context of the play as a counterpoint to the inclination of the votes cast by the people, i.e. authority, as implemented by the people in the assembly, has power. The word is then fully attested in the works of Herodotus (Histories 6.43.3) both in verbal passive and nominal sense with the terms dēmokrateomai (δημοκρατέομαι) and dēmokratia (δημοκρατία).

Herodotus wrote some of the earliest surviving Greek prose, but this could not have been until 440 or 430 BC. Around 460 BC. A.D., a person is known as Democrats,[6] a name that may have been coined as a gesture of democratic loyalty; the name is also found in the Aeolian Temnus. [7] The Draconian Constitution or Codex of Draco was a written code of law adopted by Draco in the late 7th century. It was created in the nineteenth century BC in reaction to the unjust interpretation and modification of the oral law by the Athenian aristocrats. [4] As most Greek societies codified the Basic Law in the middle of the seventh century BC. 5] Athenian oral law was manipulated by the aristocracy[6] until the advent of Draco`s Code. Around 621 BC. The Athenians commissioned Draco to draft a written law and a constitution that gave him the title of first legislator of Athens. The man of letters could read the code in a central place accessible to all.

This introduction of the rule of law was an early manifestation of Athenian democracy. The generals were elected not only because their role required specialized knowledge, but also because they had to be people with experience and contacts in the Greek world where the wars were fought. In the 5th century BC. Generals may have been among the most powerful people in the polis. But in the case of Pericles, it is wrong to see his power as coming from his long line of annual generals (each year with nine others). On the contrary, his function was an expression and the result of his influence. This influence rested on his relationship with the Assembly, which consisted mainly simply of the right of every citizen to stand up and speak before the people. Under the 4th century version of democracy, the roles of general and key political president in the assembly tended to be filled by different people. This was partly a consequence of the increasingly specialized forms of warfare practiced in the last period. It was probably before the end of the 5th century that the Greeks first compiled a list of the Seven Magi, which were used in the 6th century. He was a member of the city of São Paulo in the province of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

The first list, accepted by the Greek philosopher Plato, did not satisfy later authors, who expanded it to 10 and even 17 to accommodate rival contenders. However, each version contained four names that were not disputed. One of them was that of Solon of Athens, testimony to the unwavering respect in which his memory was preserved. Solon embodied the Greek cardinal virtue of moderation. He put an end to the worst evils of poverty in Attica and endowed his countrymen with a balanced constitution and a human code. Solon was also the first poet of Athens – and a poet who truly belonged to Athens. As a means by which he warned, challenged, advised, and called people to action, his poetry was the instrument of his political sense. Athens publicly displayed Solon`s Code of Law on rectangular wooden beams, each with four sides, so that the reader could rotate them. Solon`s laws remained in force for more than 100 years. Solon was the son of an Athenian aristocrat, but apparently his father had lost the family fortune. As a result, young Solon became a merchant to feed himself and his family. He led a modest life and never sought great wealth.

Solon also became the first known poet of Athens. Much of what we know today about his ideas and views comes from his poetry. Draco was an aristocrat who was commissioned to write a new set of laws in Athens in the 7th century BC.