Legal System

Since Greece was a country comprised of several mini independent states, its international, domestic, civil, criminal laws were different. Initially, these states didn’t have any written laws. They were made along accordingly to cater to the needs of their time. The main purpose of making these laws was to save the society from cruelty, and to create a peaceful environment for everyone. The laws were not made by professional ‘lawyers’ or ‘Judges’, but by any person who was given the authority to do it. That person could be a religious authority, or a king or any other person. No divine guidance was there to help them in designing their laws that is why savagery and cruelty also became a part of it. We see the continuous development of new laws in the Grecian era as every ruler had the laws amended as per his opinion for the benefit of his dynasty and his favored followers.

Among the Greeks and Romans, as among the Hindus, law was at first a part of religion. The ancient codes of the cities were a collection of rites, liturgical directions, and prayers, joined with legislative regulations. The laws concerning property and those concerning succession were scattered about in the midst of rules for sacrifices, for burial and for the worship of the dead. ¹

The law, says Aristotle, ‘has a compulsory power, and is at the same time a rational ordinance proceeding from a kind of prudence or reason. And whereas we take offence at individuals who oppose our inclinations, even though their opposition is right, we do not feel aggrieved when the law bids us do what is right.’ What was needed in the Greek states at this time, both as a stimulus and a safeguard, was a table of written commandments. Fortunately for Greece and for the world, the need and the opportunity brought forth the men. What Solon achieved for Athens, the mysterious Lycurgus achieved for Sparta, and a host of other lawgivers, few of whose names we know, achieved for many other City States both in the East and in the West. The fundamental laws which they established through the greater part of the Greek world formed the basis, well – laid and unshakable, of the famous and familiar fifth-century system of government. ²

The heroic age of the Greeks, exhibited a mixture of savageness and magnanimity, and the first outlines of the laws of nations. The enemy who has been slain, was not secure against outrage, and yet the corpse was not always abused. The conquered party offered a ransom and it depended on the victor to accept or refuse it. ³

As time wore on, groups of citizens came together to consider how to prevent transgressions or punish criminals from other areas and thus avoid protracted wars based on blood feuds. Popular assemblies were called for this purpose in instances where the action affected the community as a whole. Over the years, leaders within the aristocracy of Athens began issuing their rulings. This system was not without its problems, as these “chiefs” were often the recipients of bribes. ⁴

The work of writing down the laws, and fixing customs in legal shape, was probably in most cases combined with the work of reforming; and thus, the great codifiers of the seventh century were also law givers. Among them, the most famous were the misty figures of Zaleucus who made laws for the western Locrians, and Charondas the legislator of Catane; the clearer figure of the Athenian Draco, of whom more will be said later on and most famous of all, Solon the Wise. But other cities in elder Greece had their lawgivers too, men of knowledge and experience; the names of some are preserved but they are mere names. It is probable that the laws of Sparta herself, which she afterwards attributed to the light-god, were first shaped and written down at this period, the cities of Crete too were affected by the prevalent spirit of law-shaping, and some fragments are preserved of the early laws of Gotyn, which were the beginning of an epoch of the legislative activity culminating in the Gortynian code which has come down to us on tablets of stone. ⁵

Lawgivers

Law and justice were essential elements of the polis, and each city made its own laws, many of which were probably similar, although each polis remained independent. There was no police force, but at Athens and other city-states publicly owned slaves were put at the disposal of particular magistrates so that they could be used, for example, to keep order at public meetings. Most information about law derives from Classical Athens, although generally evidence is lacking. The most common word for law in the 5th century B.C. was nomos, meaning law or custom, while eunomia meant law and order. In the Archaic Age, law was removed from the control of the aristocrats by the establishment of written law codes, which magistrates had to follow. Previously, laws were unwritten. These law codes were made by one lawgiver (nomothetes, plural: nomothetai), although later laws were made by the whole community. Lawgivers, some of whom were famous, included Zaleucus, Charondas, Draco and Solon. ⁶

Draco

In 621 B.C accordingly Draco was commissioned as thesmothete ⁷ with extraordinary power to codify the criminal law, which thus far had remained an oral tradition. The usages of Attic law, as we know it in later time, prove that in the remote past the Athenians, like the Homeric Greeks, were accustomed to the blood feud and to the acceptance of compensation for injury and homicide. There existed further in Attica, probably as a Minoan inheritance, sanctuaries to which the slayer might flee while making terms with the kinsmen of the slain. Taking advantage of this condition, Draco made use of these sanctuaries as places of trial for the various classes of homicide. Accusations were still to be brought by the near kin, assisted by the phratry; but henceforth the state alone had power over the accused, to punish or acquit. All prosecutions came before the king, who determined the appropriate court for the trial according to the nature of the offence. Cases of willful murder came before the old aristocratic council sitting on the Areopagos (a prominent rock outcropping located northwest of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece.). The punishment was death with confiscation of property. ⁸

George Grote described it as:

  In 624 B.C. Draco wrote down the Thesmoi or Ordinances, so that they might be “shown publicly” or known “beforehand”. He did not meddle with the political constitution and in his ordinances, Aristotle finds little worthy of remark except the extreme severity of the punishments awarded; petty thefts, or even proved idleness of life, being visited with death or disfranchisement. Indeed, the few fragments which have reached us, far from exhibiting indiscriminate cruelty, introduce us for the first time in to the Athenian Law, mitigating distinctions in respect to homicide. Founded on the variety of concomitant circumstances, he is said to have constituted the judges called the Ephetae, fifty-one elders belonging to some respected gens or processing an exalted position, who held their sitting for trial of homicide in three different spots, according to the difference of the cases submitted to them. ⁹

The reason of Draco’s appointment was explained in Brief History of Greece as:

  “In absence of written laws, the archons processed an arbitrary power, which they probably availed themselves to the benefit of their friends and their order, and to the injury of the general body of citizens. The consequence was great discontent, which at length became so serious that Draco was appointed in 624 B.C. to draw up a written code of laws. He did not change the political constitution of Athens, and the most remarkable characteristic of his laws was their extreme severity. He affixed the penalty of death to all crimes alike, - to petty thefts. Hence, they were said to be written, not in ink, but in blood. We are also told that he justified this extreme harshness by saying that small offences deserved death and we knew no severer punishments for great ones.”¹⁰

Solon

Lawgiver, one of the Seven Wise Men of Greece, founder of the Athenian democracy etc. were the titles which are associated with the name of Solon in the minds of well-informed persons of the present day. ¹¹ He was appointed to reform the constitution and formulate a code of laws. No Limit was set to his powers and every function of the state was committed to his charge, the magistracies, the public assemblies, the courts of law and the councils. He had the authority to decide the property qualifications, the numbers and the times of meetings of each of these bodies as well as to preserve or dissolve the existing institutions as he thought fit.

First of all, he repealed all the draconian laws because of their harshness and the excessively heavy penalties they carried, the only exceptions were the laws relating to homicide. ¹² His laws were set down on wooden beams (axones), then later carved in stone, these new laws (and many subsequent ones) became associated with Solon for the next 200 years, and such was the lawmaker’s lasting reputation. The body of laws drawn up by Solon was credited by later Athenians as being very wide-ranging, covering such diverse matters as inheritances, funerals, adultery, theft, damages, and the working of political institutions. Solon’s laws regarding trade helped an economic recovery. ¹³

The great misery of the common people was debt. The farmers had borrowed money at very high interest from the wealthy, giving their farms in pledge for the payment of the debt. At the boundaries of every farm, mortgaged pillars were set up as a witness, with the amount of debt and the name of the lender cut upon them. The debt grew greater every year due to the heavy interest, so the farmer lost all hope of paying the debt and was now like a laborer on the farm which had once been his own. Thus, the debtor became the slave of the creditor and could be sold. Some were sold abroad, others were working at home or struggling in miserable poverty. To save the state, Solon was compelled to take very strong measures. He ordered that the common silver coins called ‘drachmae’ to be made of lighter weight, so that 100 new ones should be worth 73 old ones, and that the new drachmae should be accepted as if they were equal to the old ones in payment of debts. Thus, a man who owed 100 old drachmae would pay it by 100 new drachmae, which were worth only 73 old ones and would really have his debt reduced by 27. Farmers who owed money to the state were freed from debt altogether, and made a fresh start. Many persons who had been sold abroad as slaves were brought back and set free. It was Solon who first made Athens a state in which man could take part as citizens without being part of any of the clans. ¹⁴

Lycurgus

Sparta never had a written law code. However, the earliest surviving political constitution known as the Rhetra or Great Rhetra (7th century B.C.) was from Sparta. It may have been the work of the lawgiver Lycurgus, and was allegedly brought back from Delphi as an oracle concerning the gerousia. ¹⁵

In surviving ancient sources, he is first mentioned by the Greek writer Herodotus (5th century B.C.), who claimed that the lawgiver (Lycurgus) belonged to Sparta’s Agiad house, one of the two houses (the other being the Eurypontid) that held Sparta’s dual kingship. According to Herodotus, the Spartans of his day claimed that Lycurgus’ reforms were inspired by the institutions of Crete. ¹⁶

A very bold political measure of Lycurgus, was his redistribution of the land. For there was a dreadful inequality in this regard, the city was heavily burdened with indigent and helpless people, and wealth was wholly concentrated in the hands of a few. Determined, therefore, to banish insolence and envy and crime and luxury, and those yet more deep-seated and afflictive diseases of the state, poverty and wealth, he persuaded his fellow-citizens to make one parcel of all their territory and divide it up anew, and to live with one another on a basis of entire uniformity and equality in the means of subsistence, seeking pre-eminence through virtue alone, assured that there was no other difference or inequality between man and man than that which was established by blame for base actions and praise for good ones.

Next, he undertook the division of their movable property so that every vestige of unevenness and inequality might be removed; and when he saw that they could not bear to have it taken from them directly, he took another course, and overcame their avarice by political devices. In the first place, he withdrew all gold and silver money from currency, and ordained the use of iron money only. Then to a great weight and mass of this he gave a trifling value, so that ten minas' worth required a large store-room in the house, and a yoke of cattle to transport it. When this money became the official currency, many sorts of unethical practices were eradicated since the thieves did not have enough place to hide the plundered wealth. Secondly vinegar was used, to quench the red-hot iron, robbing it of its temper and making it worthless for any other purpose, when once it had become brittle and hard to work.

In the next place, he banished the unnecessary and superfluous arts. With a view to attack luxury still more and remove the thirst for wealth, he introduced his third and most exquisite political device, namely, the institution of common messes, so that they might eat with one another in companies, of common and specified foods. ¹⁷

Laws of War

Such things usually prevailed among uncivilized nations, and no quarter was given except for ransom in ancient Greece as well. Armor and property of slain was a part of spoils for the victor. The dead body was treated with indignity, and exposed to vultures. When the city was taken, men were put to death, and women and children made concubines (women who lives with a man but has lower status than his wife or wives) and slaves, and distributed like other spoils. ¹⁸

Poisoned weapons were not tolerated, and if the prisoners became the slaves of the victors, ransom was very general, and according to Herodotus, there was even an acknowledged tariff accepted throughout Peloponnesus for the release of such a prisoner. ¹⁹

Generally, one completely fails to comprehend that how the body was treated with dignity when it is exposed to vultures? Exposing the sacred human body for the vultures to feast upon is a grave insult to the body. It would have been called a dignified treatment if the body was buried with respect, or handed over to its rightful owner without mutilating it.

Law for Homosexuality

To protect the teachers from abusing their students, a law was passed. Mr. Adonis explains thatlaw as:

  "Teachers should not open the schools before sunrise and they should close them before sunset. No one above the age of thirteen is allowed to enter the school when children are still in, unless he is the son, brother or brother ·in law of the teacher. The law breakers will be sentenced to death. During Hermes' celebrations, gymnasts must let no one of age, and in no way, sit with the children. The gymnast, who permits this and doesn't chase the law breaker out of the gymnasium, is guilty according to the law about the corruption of free children. Patrons named by the people should be above forty years old."

It is obvious from this first law that, in Athens of the antiquity, no effort was spared to keep the children pure in every way. Precautions taken could appear exaggerated. To ancient Athenians, someone's presence in the schools was implying lewd intentions and was enough to cause his sentence to death. ²⁰ It is evident how the practices of homosexuality and child molestation were deeply rooted within the Greek society. These unfortunate events depict how the Greeks were morally and spiritually corrupt.

Attic Law

The Attic law, which represents the highest and also the purest Greek feeling, was extremely concerned not only of the safety, but of the dignity of the citizen, and any assault in the streets, even if it caused no dangerous hurt, was severely punished by the law. As in modern societies, even to touch a man rudely, or against his will, was punished as an assault, and if the man assaulted happened to be performing any official duty for the state, the offense may be considered in the light of treason against the dignity of the state. ²¹

Right to Property

Religion, and not laws, first guaranteed the right to property. Every domain was supervised by household divinities, who watched over it. Every field had to be surrounded, as we have seen for the house, by an enclosure, which separated it completely from the domains of other families. This enclosure was not a wall of stone; it was a band of soil, a few feet wide, which remained uncultivated, and which the plough could never touch.

The nation of Greece, from the earliest antiquity, always held to the idea of private property. In many cities the citizens were required to store their crops together, or at least the greater part, and to consume them in common. The individual, therefore, was not the master of the corn which he had gathered; but, at the same time, by a singular contradiction, he had an absolute property in the soil. To him, the land was more than the harvest. It appears that, among the Greeks the conception of private property was developed exactly contrary to what appears to be the natural order. It was not applied to the harvest, but to the soil only.

The law of Solon, later by seven or eight generations than that of Pheidon of Corinth, no longer forbade a man to sell his land, but punished the vender by a severe fine, and the loss of the rights of citizenship. Finally, Aristotle mentions, that in many cities the ancient laws forbade the sale of land. This was due to the fact that inheritance was based on the foundation of religion, hence it was a very strong bond, and the man couldn’t sell his land. If inheritance was based on labor, then he could have easily disposed it off.

Inheritance

The right to property was established for the accomplishment of a hereditary worship, it was not possible that this right should fail after the short life of an individual. The man died, and the worship remained. So as the domestic religion continued, the right of property had to continue with it. The first is that, the domestic religion being, as we have seen, was hereditary from male to male, property was the same as well. As the son was the natural continuator of the religion, he also inherited the estate. Thus, the rule of inheritance was found; it was not the result of a simple agreement made between men; it was derived from their belief, from their religion, from that which had the greatest power over their minds. It was not the personal will of the father that caused the son to inherit. The father need not make a will; the son inherited of full right, says the Juris consult. He was a necessary successor, he had neither to accept nor to reject the inheritance. The continuation of the property, like that of the worship, was for him an obligation as well as a right. Whether he wished it or not, the inheritance fell to him. ²²

In families in which a son was lacking, the daughters were responsible for perpetuating the oikos. In such a family the daughter was regarded as “attached to the family property”; hence she was named epikleros. The family property went with her to her husband, and thence to their child. This arrangement shows that although males were preferred to females, succession at Athens was not strictly agnatic in the sense that only males were legally able to inherit, although the epikleros never truly owned her father’s property. It was the duty or privilege of the nearest male kinsman to marry the heiress. ²³

Law of Child Care

Among Hellenic Legislators the care of children commenced before their birth. Their mothers were subject (while pregnant) to the operation of certain rules; their foods and exercises were regulated, and in most cases the laws, or at least the manners required them to lead a sedentary inactive and above all a tranquil life.²⁴

Will

The right of willing to dispose of one's property after death, in order to make it pass to other than natural heirs, was in opposition to the religious creed that was at the foundation of the law of property and the law of succession. The property being inherent in the worship, and the worship being hereditary, could one think of a will? Besides, property did not belong to the individual, but to the family; for man had not acquired it by the right of labor, but through the domestic worship. Attached to the family, it was transmitted from the dead to the living, not according to the will and choice of the dead, but by virtue of superior rules which religion had established. ²⁵

This law lacked the basic rule of equality. After the death of the father, if all the property was transferred to the heir or the son, then naturally the daughter was deprived of her share of the property. Contrary to this, Islam brought a proper system of inheritance and will. All the wealth which was left in inheritance for the heirs was divided justly among the heirs according to the teachings of Quran. Additionally, the owner of the wealth could only declare to use 1/3 of the wealth to be spent as per his choice, the 2/ 3 was divided justly among the heirs as per the Islamic rule. In this manner, not only did the daughter would get her share, but all the siblings, wife and other relatives got their just shares as well. This was an important thing which the laws of all the ancient civilizations lacked.

Judiciary

In the democratic Athens of the mid-400s B.C. and later, the Areopagos was a special law court of 200–300 members, comprised of former archons. With regard to its origin, the Areopagos (the word in Greek means “hill of Ares,” indicating the site where the court’s building stood) was a remnant of Athens’s old-time aristocratic government.

In the days of aristocratic rule, around 900–600 B.C., the Areopagos probably ran the city, acting as a legislative body and high court. As Athens developed in stages toward democracy, however, the Areopagos gradually was shorn of power. Under Solon (594 B.C.), a new council preempted the Areopagos legislative-executive duties, and a newly created court of appeals made the Areopagos legal decisions no longer final. As the job of Athenian archon became less exclusive and demanding (500s–400s B.C), so did the Areopagos cease to function as a right-wing bastion. In 462 B.C. the radical reforms of Ephialtes deprived the Areopagos of most of its important legal jurisdictions and distributed these among the citizens’ Assembly, the council, and the other law courts. The Areopagos henceforth heard only cases of deliberate homicide, wounding, and arson. ²⁶

Unlike the regulations of our modern states, the judiciary department did not form in Greece a distinct, independent branch of the constitution. The judicial institutions of the Greeks were the creation of time and circumstances. In the Heroic age, kings sat on the tribunals of justice, though even then arbitrators were not unusual. There existed at that time no written laws; questions were decided by prescriptions, and good commonsense directed by a love of justice. When the nations begin to emerge from the rude condition of savage, the first necessity which is felt, is that of personal security and next the security of property. ²⁷

Lesley Adkins gives the following description of the judicial system of Ancient Greece:

  “Jurisdiction is best documented at Athens, where it was performed by a variety of courts, councils and officials. Over 100 Athenian law court speeches have survived, though rarely those of the opponent, and rarely is the outcome known. Originally, cases were tried by one or more archons (including the thesmothetai). The Areopagus tried cases of murder, arson and wounding. Ephetai ²⁸ tried cases of unintentional killing and killing of noncitizens; they consisted of a board of 51 citizens over the age of 50, and served under the presidency of the archon basileus. One advance in the administration of justice was Solon’s introduction of a right of appeal against the decision of a magistrate. Appeals were heard by a court of appeal known as the heliaia, which may have originally been the Assembly. This appeal court probably evolved into a jury court. Trial by juries (instead of by magistrates) was instituted in the 5th century B.C., with different size juries for different cases (anything from 200 to 1,000 or more jurors, so preventing bribery). By the 4th century B.C. odd numbers of jurors were used to avoid a tie in voting.

  Each year a list of 6,000 jurors was drawn up who could be called on for jury service. Eligible jurors were given a token of wood or bronze. On the token was inscribed the person’s name, deme and an alphabetical letter. If he wished to serve as a juror, he placed the token in an allotment machine (kleroterion), which randomly allocated where he should sit that day. Payment for jury service was introduced by Pericles to encourage volunteers for jury service; originally this was probably two obols a day, and by 425 B.C. it was increased to three obols, probably on the proposal of Cleon, but this was still less than the pay of a working man, so elderly non-working people tended to be jurors.

  Almost all jurisdiction was taken over by these jury courts, which were known as dicasteries (dikasteria, sing. dikasterion). The same word was used for a juror and a judge—dikastes. Magistrates could impose fines up to a certain limit, beyond which the case had to be tried before a jury. Archons and other magistrates had the responsibility to act as chairmen of the courts in specific cases, but not to act as judges. For example, strategoi were in charge of military and naval cases, the polemarch in cases involving noncitizens, the archon basileus in religious cases and homicide, and the thesmothetai in general cases. Many minor magistrates were involved in specific matters such as the markets. The heliaia was now the law court of the thesmothetai, not a court of appeal. The Areopagos conducted investigations leading to trials in the dicasteries, and the boule took over the role of the Areopagos in investigating illegal behavior of magistrates.

  In a trial the accuser and accused had the same amount of time to speak, measured by a water clock (klepsydra). Lawyers were not allowed to speak on their behalf, although a professional speechwriter could be employed. The accuser spoke first, then the accused (or the nearest adult male relative if the accused was a woman or a child). No matter how serious the charge, all trials took place on a single day only. Witnesses could be called in the allotted time (not women, children or slaves). Written evidence of slaves was admissible only; usually, if they had been tortured. The jury voted immediately without discussion or summing up and without any direction from the judge. There was no appeal. They voted by placing pebbles or shells (later bronze disks) in urns to indicate conviction or acquittal. In some cases, they could also vote on the type of penalty.”²⁹

Murder

In respect to homicide, the Draconian ordinances were partly a reform of the narrowness, partly a mitigation of the rigor, of the old procedure; ³⁰ The Draconian laws were most noteworthy for their harshness; they were said to be written in blood, rather than ink. Death was prescribed for almost all criminal offenses. Solon, who was the archon (magistrate) in 594 B.C., later repealed Draco’s code and published new laws, retaining only Draco’s homicide statutes i.e. homicide was punishable by death. ³¹

Money Obligation

In the case of a money obligation, the debtor who did not repay within a fixed date was commonly fined fifty percent for his delay. ³² To understand the legal procedure pertaining to money obligation, let’s view an example quoted by Mitford:

  “One of them, addressing himself to the by standers, asserted that he had paid the whole; the other insisted that he had received nothing, both were earnest to bring the dispute to a judicial determination. The people grew noisy in favor, some of the one, some of the other; but the heralds interfering enforced silence and the elders approached, with scepters of heralds in their hands, seated themselves on the polished marble benches in the sacred circle. Before them, the litigants, earnestly Prepped forward, pleaded by turns; while two talents of gold lay in the midst, were awarded to him who should support his cause by the clearest testimony, and the fairest arguments. Such is the description which Homer gives of a court of justice, and a lawsuit.”³³

Punishments

Punishments were usually fining, exile, loss of civic rights, and confiscation of property or death. For some offenses, the punishment was laid down by law. Imprisonment was rarely used, except for those awaiting trial or execution. Although people could be exiled from their native home as a punishment, often for homicide, the same word could also mean “to flee”—that is, from an unwelcome situation. Execution could also take place or crimes such as homicide and temple robbery. ³⁴

Even after the development of these religious, criminal, national, international, civil, and business laws, we cannot state that the problems of injustice, cruelty, fraud, etc., were alleviated in the ancient Grecian society. These laws did help in creating a better environment, but the plague of bribery, corruption, and other unjust means existed in that time period as well, which hindered the way for proper implementation of the laws and denied justice. The elite were more interested to protect their benefits and their government, rather than the public.

Hence, we see that the old law systems collapsed, and were replaced by newer systems in the hope of betterment. Laws are made for the welfare of the people and the state, but the laws are only effective if they are implemented indiscriminately. They also help in keeping the state united, and ensure its survival in the long run, whereas cruel, unjust and discriminatory regulations anger the people, and a time comes when the people revolt against the system and become disloyal to the state. Hence the state ends up being disintegrated or conquered by other powers, just like Greece was conquered by Rome.

• ¹ Fustel De Coulanges (1877), A Study on the Religion, Laws (Translated by Willard Small), and Institutions of Greece and Rome, Lee and Shepard, Boston, USA, Pg. 248.
• ² Alfred E. Zimmern (1911), The Greek Commonwealth: Politics and Economy in fifth Century Athens, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, London, U.K., Pg. 124.
• ³ Arnold H. L. Heeren (1821), Reflections on the Politics of Ancient Greece (Translated by George Bancroft), Cummings, Hilliard & Co., Cambridge, U.K., Pg. 96.
• ⁴ Ancient History Encyclopedia (Online Version): http://www.ancient.eu/Dracos_Law_Code/ : Retrieved: 04-04-17
• ⁵ J. B. Bury (1900), A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great, Macmillan and Co. Ltd., London, U.K, Pg. 145.
• ⁶ Lesley Adkins & Roy A. Adkins (2005), Handbook to the Life in Ancient Greece, Facts on File Inc., New York, USA, Pg. 37-38.
• ⁷ Law giver or Legislator. Meriam Webster (Online Version): https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ the smothete: Retrieved: 15-04-19
• ⁸ George Willis Botford (1926), Hellenic History, The Macmillan Company, New York, USA, Pg. 109-110.
• ⁹ George Grote (1851), History of Greece, Printed by Richard and John E. Taylor, London, U.K, Vol. 3, Pg. 102-103.
• ¹⁰ Barne’s One Term Series (1883), Brief History of Greece, A. S. Barnes & Company, New York, USA, Pg. 103-104.
• ¹¹ Ivan M. Linforth (1919), Solon the Athenian, University of California Press, Berkeley, USA, Pg. 3.
• ¹² Plutarch (1967), The Rise and Fall of Athens Nine Greek Lives (Translated by Ian Scott), Penguin Books, Berkeley, USA, Pg. 59.
• ¹³ Ancient History Encyclopedia (Online Version): http://www.ancient.eu/solon/ : Retrieved: 04-04-17
• ¹⁴ Barne’s One Term Series (1883), Brief History of Greece, A. S. Barnes & Company, New York, USA, Pg. 106-107.
• ¹⁵ Lesley Adkins & Roy A. Adkins (2005), Handbook to the Life in Ancient Greece, Facts on File Inc., New York, USA, Pg. 38.
• ¹⁶ Encyclopedia Britannica (Online Version): https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lycurgus-Spartan-lawgiver : Retrieved: 18-04-17
• ¹⁷ Plutarch (1967), The Rise and Fall of Athens Nine Greek Lives, Translated and Introduction by Ian Scott –Kilvert, Penguin Books, Berkeley, USA, Pg. 227, 229, 231, 235.
• ¹⁸ Thomas Dew (1852), A Digest on the Laws, Customs, Manners and Institutions of the Ancient and Modern Nations, D. Appleton and Company, New York, USA, Pg. 45.
• ¹⁹ John Pentland Mhaffy (1910), What have the Greeks Done for Modern Civilization?, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, USA, Pg. 199.
• ²⁰ Adonis A. Georgiades (2004), Homosexuality in Ancient Greece the Myth is Collapsing, Georgiades, Athens, Greece, Pg. 52.
• ²¹ John Pentland Mhaffy (1910), What have the Greeks Done for Modern Civilization?, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, USA, Pg. 192.
• ²² Fustel De Coulanges (1877), A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome (Translated by Willard Small), Lee and Shepard, Boston, USA, Pg. 77-78, 86, 90, 93-94.
• ²³ Sarah B. Pomeroy (1975), Goddesses, Whores, Wives and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity, Schocken Books, New York, USA, Pg. 59-61.
• ²⁴ J. A. St. John (1842), The History of the Manners and Customs of Ancient Greece, Richard Bentley, London, U.K, Vol. 1, Pg. 113.
• ²⁵ Fustel De Coulanges (1877), A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome (Translated by Willard Small), Lee and Shepard, Boston, USA, Pg. 77-78, 86, 90, 93-94, 104.
• ²⁶ David Sacks (2005), Encyclopedia of the Ancient Greek World, Facts on file Inc., New York, USA, Pg. 43.
• ²⁷ Arnold H. L. Heeren (1842), Ancient Greece (Translated by George Bancroft), John Childs and Son Printers, London, U.K., Pg. 146-147.
• ²⁸ A court which consisted of nobles above fifty years of age. They sat near the Palladion, a shrine of Pallas Athena at Phaleron, for the trial of accidental homicide. The penalty in this case was temporary exile followed by purification from the religious guilt. At the Delphinion, a shrine of Apollo and Artemis near Athens, the ephetae tried any who confessed to homicide but claimed that he did the deed in self-defense or on other justifiable ground. There was no penalty, but at least in some cases purification was required. (George Willis Botford (1926), Hellenic History, The Macmillan Company, New York, USA, Pg. 110.)
• ²⁹ Lesley Adkins & Roy A. Adkins (2005), Handbook to the Life in Ancient Greece, Facts on File Inc., New York, USA, Pg. 38-39.
• ³⁰ George Grote (1851), History of Greece, Third Edition, Richard and John E. Taylor, London, U.K., Vol. 3, Pg. 110.
• ³¹ Encyclopedia Britannica (Online Version): https://www.britannica.com/topic/Draconian-laws : Retrieved 01-06-17
• ³² John Pentland Mhaffy (1910), What have the Greeks Done for Modern Civilization?, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, Pg. 194,
• ³³ William Mitford (1795), The History of Greece, Printed by Wright, London, U.K, Pg. 81-82.
• ³⁴ Lesley Adkins & Roy A. Adkins (2005), Handbook to the Life in Ancient Greece, Facts on File Inc., New York, USA, Pg. 39.