EJ+Crime&Punishment+What+were+the+main+laws+in+Ancient+Greece

=﻿What Were The Main Laws in Ancient Greece? (Edd)=

Originally, like any other civilization Greece had no laws in the official sense but crimes were still dealt with by everyone. The worst crime a person could commit back then was murder which was usually settled by the family of the victim killing the murderer. This of course led to another murder and another family trying to get revenge; it would go in a cycle usually ending in bloody and violent feuds.

It wasn’t until 620 BC that Ancient Greece was given official laws, they were founded by Draco the lawgiver and they covered the basic crimes such as murder, rape, theft and adultery and all involved the death penalty. Twenty six years later in 595 BC a new lawgiver, Solon changed the laws and penalties drastically, so drastically that he only kept one law the way it was that the punishment for homicide would continue to end with the death penalty. Solon was the first person to introduce the idea that death wasn’t the only punishment. He started using a system of fining people for their wrong doings with their currency at the time, Drachmas. A known example of a punishment back then was that the fine for rape was one hundred drachmas which is now equal to roughly five U.S cents. He introduced that the punishment for theft was that the criminal would payback in drachmas what the item they had stolen was worth or give back the item. No more, No less. Some laws that Solon introduced were not always fair though an example was that if a dog bit you you had the right to kill it. They also had very strict laws concerning what women can and can’t do.

Solon introduced a lot of very advanced laws that have been a base for modern laws and I believe that some of the laws he created were a main reason of why Ancient Greece was considered to be one of the most advanced civilizations. There were laws on business contracts, marriage, adoption, wills and the roles of parents (If the children were being mistreated they could be taken away). They even had laws concerning properties and where they were placed (Like the council). They had laws concerning the usage of facilities such as if you lived a certain distance away from the local well you had to make your own or use a closer one. This law was probably created to prevent crowding which might have been a problem and maybe it was an early basis for communities. I believe though that the most interesting laws were:


 * Protocol laws (how things had to be done) which would have been used for government, law enforcement, building and possibly fighting/war. An example of this is that only Citizens (those born in Athens or with parents born in Athens) could be part of the government.
 * Trademark laws which would have probably been used mainly in the entertainment industry (for jokes and such) but maybe also for names of royalty and market names

Compared to today: I believe that when we compare Ancient Greece’s laws to our own it seems as if we have a lot in common but some things are very far apart. Ancient Greece’s laws are a base for what we have now and seems like modern laws are a new and improved version of Ancient Greece’s. We still get fined and abide by most of these laws but we have definitely grown law-wise. You can see that we no longer have laws on women or the violent settlements of some laws. I believe that the laws of Ancient Greece were a big contributor to the reputation as a one of the most advanced civilizations in the world.

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