[
1274b]
[1]
It was due then to
a reason of this nature that they went to live at
Thebes; but Philolaus became the Thebans'
lawgiver in regard to various matters, among others the size of
families,—the laws called by the Thebans laws of adoption; about this
Philolaus enacted special legislation, in order that the number of the estates
in land might be preserved. There is
nothing special in the code of Charondas except the trials for false witness
(for he was the first to introduce the procedure of
denunciation), but in the accuracy of his laws he is a more finished
workman even than the legislators of today. (Peculiar to Phaleas
1 is the measure
for equalizing properties; to Plato,
2 community of wives and children and of property, and the common
meals for the women, and also the law about drunkenness, enacting that sober
persons are to be masters of the drinking-bouts, and the regulation for military
training to make men ambidextrous during drill, on the ground that it is a
mistake to have one of the two hands useful but the other
useless.)There are laws
of Draco,
3 but he
legislated for an existing constitution, and there is nothing peculiar in his
laws that is worthy of mention, except their severity in imposing heavy
punishment. Pittacus
4 also was a framer
of laws, but not of a constitution; a special law of his is that if men commit
any offence when drunk,
[20]
they are to
pay a larger fine than those who offend when sober; because since more men are
insolent when drunk than when sober he had regard not to the view that drunken
offenders are to be shown more mercy, but to expediency. Androdamas
5 of
Rhegium also became lawgiver to the
Chalcidians in the direction of
Thrace,
6 and to him belong the laws dealing with cases of
murder and with heiresses; however one cannot mention any provision that is
peculiar to him.
Let such be our examination of
the constitutional schemes actually in force and of those that have been
proposed by certain persons.