Middlemarch vocabulary

a celebrated Athenian law-giver, who first gave stability to the State by committing the laws to writing, and establishing the Ephetæ, or court of appeal, 621 B.C.; only he punished every transgressor of his laws with death, so that his code became unbearable, [...]; he is said to have justified the severity of his code by maintaining that the smallest crime deserved death, and he knew no severer punishment for greater; it is said he was smothered to death in the theatre by the hats and cloaks showered on him as a popular mark of honour; he was archon of Athens.