Athenian lawgiver whose harsh legal code punished both trivial and serious crimes in Athens with death—hence the continued use of the word draconian to describe repressive legal measures.

The six junior archons (thesmotetai), or magistrates, are said by Aristotle to have been instituted in Athens after 683 BC to record the laws. If this is correct, Draco's code, which is generally dated to 621, was not the first reduction of Athenian law to writing, but it may have been the first comprehensive code or a revision prompted by some particular crisis. Draco's code was later regarded as intolerably harsh, punishing trivial crimes with death; it was probably unsatisfactory to contemporaries, since Solon, who was the archon in 594 BC, later repealed Draco's code and published new laws, retaining only Draco's homicide statutes. A decree of 409/408 BC orders the public inscription of this murder law, which is partly extant. Later authors refer to other laws of Draco, which may be genuine; but the constitution ascribed to Draco in chapter 4 of the Constitution of Athens by Aristotle is certainly a later fabrication.

genus of the lizard family Agamidae. Members of the genus are commonly referred to as flying lizards, because scaly membranes between the forelegs and hindlegs allow them to glide from tree to tree. There are more than 40 species of Draco. Most species are small, with a snout-vent length less than 8 cm (about 3 inches), and occur in the forests of Southeast Asia and the East Indies.

Draco species are usually dull-coloured, although their “wings” can be brightly coloured (e.g., orange with black spots). The membranes are supported by ribs that grow away from the body. At rest, the ribs and membranes fold against the sides of the body. To glide, these animals jump outward, spread their rib wings, and drift downward. A low-angle glide can carry the lizard as much as 50 metres (about 160 feet) to another tree or to the ground.