amenes (end of
5th century) and this alleged constitution shows a suspicious similarity
(hoplite census, nobody to hold office a second time until all duly
qualified persons had been exhausted, fine of one drachma for
non-attendance in Boul[=e]). It is reasonable, therefore, to conclude
that the constitution of Draco was invented by the school of Theramenes,
who wished to surround their revolutionary views with the halo of
antiquity; hence the allusion to "the constitution of our father"
([Greek: he patrios politeia]).

This hypothesis is further corroborated by a criticism of the text. Not
only is chapter iv. considered to be an interpolation in the text as
originally written, but later chapters have been edited to accord with
it. Thus chapter iv. breaks the connexion of thought between chapters
iii. and v. Moreover, an interpolator has inserted phrases to remove
what would otherwise have been obvious contradictions: thus (a) in
chapter vii., where we are told that Solon divided the citizens into
four classes ([Greek: timemata]), the interpolator had added the words
"according to the division formerly existing" ([Greek: kathaper dieretai
kai proteron]), which were necessary in view of the statement that Draco
gave the franchise to the Zeugites; (b) in chapter xli., where
successive constitutional changes are recorded, the words "the
Draconian" ([Greek: he epi Drakontos]) are inserted, though the
subsequent figures are not accommodated to the change. Solon is also
here spoken of as the founder of democracy, whereas the Draconian
constitution of chap. iv. contains several democratic innovations. Two
further points may be added, namely, that whereas Aristotle's treatise
credits Draco with establishing a money fine, Pollux definitely quotes a
law of Draco in which fines are assessed at so many oxen; secondly, if
chapter iv. did exist in the original text, it is more than curious that
though the treatise was widely read in antiquity there is no other
reference to Draco's constitution except the two quoted above. In any
case, whatever were Draco's laws, we learn from Plutarch's life of Solon
that Solon abolished all of them, except those dealing with homicide.

AUTHORITIES.--Beside the works of J. E. Sandys and G. Gilbert quoted
above, see those quoted in article CONSTITUTION OF ATHENS; Grote,
_Hist. of Greece_ (ed. 1907), pp. 9-11, with references; and histories
of Greece published after 1894. (J. M. M.)

F