We have discussed[32] the theory of Glotz that ‘private settlement’ was legal, even for wilful murder. How can Glotz reconcile such a theory with this Draconian law which provided for[33] a trial and a verdict even in cases of accidental slaying? According to our interpretation of the restored inscription, the relatives of the slain may not always agree, but the kings and the Ephetae must adjudicate in each case. Glotz suggests,[34] further, that Dracon first introduced the distinction between murder and manslaughter. Is this the view which is suggested _prima facie_ by the restored inscription? To us it seems quite obvious that the inscription assumes, as a familiar fact, an already existing distinction, not merely between murder and manslaughter, but also between manslaughter and accidental slaying. If the distinction appeared as a legal innovation in the Draconian legislation, surely such a distinction would have received some emphasis, since it would have been necessary to enlighten an uncivilised public opinion; surely the definitions of the various kinds of homicide would have been more clearly marked and the penalties more clearly indicated. Since the Draconian inscription has been restored from quotations in Demosthenic speeches, we shall turn to those speeches for a more complete account of Attic homicide law. But the Demosthenic references must be supplemented from other sources—especially from Plato’s penal code. HOMICIDE LAWS IN PLATO AND DEMOSTHENES If we accept the opinion of Coulanges[35] that the synoekism of Attica did not abolish the local prytanies and magistracies, it will be readily conceded that the Athenian city courts, that is, the Attic State courts, did not necessarily adjudicate in all cases of homicide. Owing to the civic and religious aspect of wilful murder and kin-slaying—crimes which involved the penalty of death or the confiscation of property—we may feel certain that the State courts had exclusive jurisdiction in such cases.[36] But we cannot be sure that the same principle applied to manslaughter and minor degrees of guilt, except when such deeds occurred between parties who had only one civic bond between them, namely, the political union of the State. Most frequently, we admit, the parties involved would be of such a kind. The rise of political democracy and of a new nobility of wealth led to the accumulation, in the cities of Attica, of a vast multitude of persons who did not belong to any of the old tribes or religious corporations.[37] The common worship of the clan, the phratry and the tribe did not receive their allegiance. Hence, probably, the courts of such organisations would not, even if they could, adjudicate in their case. But there survived in Attica, all through the historical era, families who still belonged to these more primitive groups. They were the old nobility, the country gentry, scattered over rural Attica,[38] who continued to obey and, where possible, to exercise