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This paper is to review the Drakon's law(IG, I², 115[=I³, 104]) on unpremeditated homicide, in relation with the Palladion court for 'akousiosi and 'bouleusis' in the Athenian Constitution (LVII, 3) of Aristotle.
On the text of the Athenian Constitution (LVII, 3), most scholars regard that premeditated homicide was Judged in the Areopagos, while unpremeditated one in the Palladion. Before the Judgement of court, however, we could not be sure to say If a homicide be
premeditated or not. And we had better say that the judgements are to decide whether homicide be premeditated or not, as well as whether defendant is culpable or not, in case both of litigants agree to that a homicide be unpremeditated.
The Drakon's law says that, even if both of litigants accept a homicide as unpremeditated, the basileus(king) judges and fifty-one ephetai ensured it, under whose guide the litigants could compromise by certain legal processes or the defendant should be exiled. Thus, first of all basileus should decide whether defendant is culpable or not. The sixteen or seventeen letters worn out in the twelfth line in the Drakon's law must refer to juristic terminology of balileus' judgement.
The most important points, in my opinion, are two. One is that 'phonos' has the meaning of guilt. The words, however, such as kteino, apokteino, anthropoktonos, etc. just describing facts objectively, do not necessarily refer to culpability. Unpremeditated homicide could be defined as 'akousios phonos' in case defendant proves guilty, but defined just as 'akon', not 'phonos' when defendant turned out innocent. The other point is, homicide being unpremeditated, whether defendant has intended to kill or not at the moment of action. The action without intention of killing could refer to giving just a blow or having athletic games, etc Intentional, although instantaneous, action of killing could be defined as 'autocheir', and unintentional action as 'bouleusis'. Thus, the sentence in the 12th line of the Drakon's law could be restored as following:
d]i / kazen de tos basileas aitio[n] phon[o] e [akon kai autocheira] e [b]oul/eusanta'
It is not so simple and easy, however, to discern whether an unpremeditated homicide is guilty(akousios phonos) or innocent(akon), as well as whether the defendant is responsible for homicide(autocheir) or not(bouleusis). For example, intentional, although instantaneous, killing is much more culpable than unintentional, so that it could be sentenced as 'akousios phonos', not 'akon'.
The Athenian Constitution (LVII, 3) refers to the Palladion court, which used to decide the case for 'akousioi' and 'bouleusis'. The statement makes an allusion to the terms of disputes and the close connection between the two concepts, 'akousioi' and 'bouleusis'.