Athens in crisis
By the end of the seventh century BCE and into the sixth, Athens was marked by tension between a landowning elite and poorer farmers. Later sources describe a society where many farmers had fallen into debt, and where those who could not repay could be seized and enslaved, sometimes sold abroad. The reforms of Solon were the response. The main evidence comes from fragments of Solon’s own poems and from later writers, especially Aristotle’s school and Plutarch, who wrote centuries afterwards. The poems are the closest we have to a contemporary voice, but they were written to defend his record, and details of the laws remain debated.
Solon was appointed as archon, the chief magistrate, with special powers to resolve the crisis. The traditional date is around 594 BCE, although some scholars prefer slightly different dates.
Draco’s earlier laws
Before Solon, Athens had a first written code attributed to Draco, traditionally dated to around 621 or 620 BCE. Little survives. The best-known element concerns homicide, and a later inscription preserves a version of the rules. They distinguished killing that was intentional from killing that was not, and they provided for exile and, in some cases, reconciliation with the victim’s kin. Ancient authors remembered Draco’s laws as extremely harsh, and the English word “draconian” derives from this reputation. Tradition says Solon repealed Draco’s laws except those on homicide, and the homicide rules remained in use long afterward.
Cancelling debts
The most famous act associated with Solon is the seisachtheia, a term often translated as “shaking off of burdens”. The sources say that Solon cancelled debts that had been secured on the person or the land of the debtor, ended the practice of enslaving Athenians for debt, and brought back some who had been sold abroad or had fled. In his poems, Solon describes removing the markers on the land, which were stones that signalled debts secured on it, and freeing the land.
The exact nature of the relief is debated. Some scholars think that Solon cancelled specific debts, others that he abolished certain dependent statuses. A group called the hektemoroi, or “sixth-parters”, is often mentioned as the farmers affected, but whether they paid a sixth of their crop as rent or kept five-sixths is not clear in the sources. Ancient writers say Solon declined demands to redistribute land, which disappointed some of the poor.
Four property classes
Solon is credited with dividing citizens into four classes on the basis of the agricultural produce of their land, rather than birth. From top to bottom, the sources name the pentakosiomedimnoi, the hippeis (knights), the zeugitai, and the thetes. The classes determined which offices a man could hold and what military role he played. The top classes provided the major magistrates. The zeugitai are usually linked with those who could equip themselves as heavy infantry, joining the hoplite phalanx, while the thetes, the poorest group, were excluded from office but could take part in the assembly and, according to tradition, the people’s court.
This system tied political status to wealth rather than ancestry. It did not create democracy, but it opened a path for newly rich families to hold power and gave all citizens a role in collective decisions. Later Athenian writers sometimes treated Solon as a founder of their democracy, though this view is a simplification.
Courts and the citizen
Ancient writers attribute several legal changes to Solon that mattered for later practice. One was the right of appeal to a popular court, the heliaia, against decisions of magistrates, which gave ordinary citizens a check on the powerful. Another was a rule allowing any willing citizen, not only the injured party, to bring a case on behalf of someone who had been wronged. Aristotle’s school considered these among Solon’s most democratic measures. The Athenian jury courts of the classical period grew from this base.
Other laws attributed to Solon covered inheritance and wills, restrictions on lavish funerals, and rules about the export of agricultural goods. A law reported by ancient writers punished citizens who stayed neutral during civil strife, though its purpose and authenticity are debated. Attribution is a general problem: later Athenians tended to credit Solon with many laws, so some may have been added afterward.
Solon is also credited with reforms in weights and measures, and with some change in the Athenian coinage system, but the details and dates are uncertain.
After Solon
According to tradition, Solon made the Athenians swear to keep his laws for ten years and then left Athens to travel, partly to avoid pressure to change them. The reforms did not end conflict. Factions continued to compete, and around 561 BCE Peisistratos took power as a tyrant. His rule left much of Solon’s legal structure in place, according to ancient writers, and a generation later Cleisthenes’ reforms moved Athens further toward democracy.
Assessing Solon
Solon’s reputation in antiquity was high, and he came to be counted among the Seven Sages. Modern historians are more cautious. They stress that the sources are late, that many details are uncertain, and that the political settlement was a compromise that satisfied neither the wealthy nor the poor entirely. Even so, the main outlines are widely accepted: a crisis of debt dependence, a reform ending bondage for Athenian citizens, and a restructuring of political roles by wealth.