A: No one likes getting traffic tickets. You’re forced to pay a large fine, your premium goes up, you have to retake driver’s ed. You’re told you need to drive with a seatbelt, and with working blinkers, and with your clothes on. . . Yes, the requirements are endless, and we’ve all been there before. And while the punishment never feels like it fits the crime, on the other hand, we should consider ourselves quite lucky that it’s not Draco who’s dealing out the discipline. After all, capital punishment for driving through a red light just wouldn’t seem right. So who is this Draco? In the late 600s BCE Draco was an official who drew up a new set of laws in the Greek city-state Athens. These weren’t the first Athenian laws, or even the first to be written down, but they were systematic and codified as never before. And they were extremely cruel with even minor offenses being punishable by death. Not long after Draco, another lawgiver – Solon – struck down Draco’s code in favor of a more compassionate system. But even though Draco’s laws were short-lived, his name lives on as the adjective draconian, meaning unusually harsh. And, oh yeah, as for Draco himself – the man responsible for so many severe sentences – he may have been assigned the cruelest fate of all. One night at a reception in his honor, the guests – in a customary gesture of respect – showered him with their hats and cloaks (evidently too many hats and cloaks!). By the time they pulled Draco out from under all the apparel, the stern legislator had been smothered to death.