miniature Solon's laws were inscribed on , large wooden slabs or cylinders attached to a series of axles that stood upright in the
Prytaneion. Originally the axones recorded laws enacted by
Draco in the late 7th century (traditionally 621 BC). Nothing of Draco's codification has survived except for a law relating to homicide, yet there is consensus among scholars that it did not amount to anything like a constitution. During his visit to Athens,
Pausanias, the 2nd century AD geographer reported that the inscribed laws of Solon were still displayed by the Prytaneion. Fragments of the axones were still visible in
Plutarch's time but today the only records we have of Solon's laws are fragmentary quotes and comments in literary sources such as those written by Plutarch himself. Moreover, the language of his laws was archaic even by the standards of the fifth century and this caused interpretation problems for ancient commentators. Modern scholars doubt the reliability of these sources and our knowledge of Solon's legislation is therefore actually very limited in its details. Generally, Solon's reforms appear to have been constitutional, economic, moral, and sexual in their scope. This distinction, though somewhat artificial, does at least provide a convenient framework within which to consider the laws that have been attributed to Solon. Some short-term consequences of his reforms are considered at the end of the section.
Constitutional , as viewed from the
Acropolis, is a monolith where Athenian aristocrats decided important matters of state during Solon's time. Depending on how we interpret the historical facts known to us, Solon's constitutional reforms were either a radical anticipation of democratic government, or they merely provided a plutocratic flavour to a stubbornly aristocratic regime, or else the truth lies somewhere between these two extremes. Before Solon's reforms, the Athenian state was administered by nine archons appointed or elected annually by the
Areopagus on the basis of noble birth and wealth. There was an assembly of Athenian citizens (the
Ekklesia) but the lowest class (the
Thetes) was not admitted and its deliberative procedures were controlled by the nobles. There therefore seemed to be no means by which an archon could be called to account for breach of oath unless the Areopagus favoured his prosecution. According to the
Athenian Constitution, Solon legislated for all citizens to be admitted into the Ekklesia and for a court (the
Heliaia) to be formed from all the citizens. The Heliaia appears to have been the Ekklesia, or some representative portion of it, sitting as a jury. By giving common people the power not only to elect officials but also to call them to account, Solon appears to have established the foundations of a true republic.
Classes There is consensus among scholars that Solon lowered the requirements – those that existed in terms of financial and social qualifications – which applied to election to public office. The Solonian constitution divided citizens into four political classes defined according to assessable property a classification that might previously have served the state for military or taxation purposes only. The standard unit for this assessment was one
medimnos (approximately 12 gallons) of cereals and yet the kind of classification set out below might be considered too simplistic to be historically accurate. • '''''' • valued at 500 or more of cereals annually. • eligible to serve as (generals or military governors) • '''''' • valued at 300 or more annually. • approximating to the
medieval class of
knights, they had enough wealth to equip themselves for the
cavalry • '''''' • valued at 200 or more annually. • approximating to the medieval class of
yeoman, they had enough wealth to equip themselves for the infantry (
hoplite) • '''''' • valued up to 199 annually or less • manual workers or sharecroppers, they served voluntarily in the role of personal servant, or as auxiliaries armed for instance with the
sling or as rowers in the navy. According to the
Athenian Constitution, only the were eligible for election to high office as archons and therefore only they gained admission into the Areopagus. A modern view affords the same privilege to the . The top three classes were eligible for a variety of lesser posts and only the were excluded from all public office.
Economic The real motives behind Solon's economic reforms are as questionable as his real motives for constitutional reform. Were the poor being forced to serve the needs of a changing economy, was the economy being reformed to serve the needs of the poor, or were Solon's policies the manifestation of a struggle taking place between poorer citizens and the aristocrats? Solon's economic reforms need to be understood in the context of the primitive, subsistence economy that prevailed both before and after his time. Most Athenians were still living in rural settlements right up to the
Peloponnesian War. Opportunities for international trade were minimal. It has been estimated that, even in Roman times, goods rose 40% in value for every 100 miles they were carried over land, but only 1.3% for the same distance were they carried by ship and yet there is no evidence that Athens possessed any merchant ships until around 525 BC. Until then, the narrow warship doubled as a cargo vessel. Athens, like other Greek city states in the 7th century BC, was faced with increasing population pressures and by about 525 BC it was able to feed itself only in good years. , one of the earliest known coins. It was minted in the early 6th century BC in
Lydia. Coins such as this might have made their way to Athens in Solon's time but it is unlikely that Athens had its own coinage at this period.Solon's reforms can thus be seen to have taken place at a crucial period of economic transition, when a subsistence rural economy increasingly required the support of a nascent commercial sector. The specific economic reforms credited to Solon are these:, • Fathers were encouraged to find trades for their sons; if they did not, there would be no legal requirement for sons to maintain their fathers in old age. • Foreign tradesmen were encouraged to settle in Athens; those who did would be granted citizenship, provided they brought their families with them. • Cultivation of olives was encouraged; the export of all other fruits was prohibited. • Competitiveness of Athenian commerce was promoted through revision of weights and measures, possibly based on successful standards already in use elsewhere, such as
Aegina or
Euboia or, according to the ancient account but unsupported by modern scholarship,
Argos.
Coinage It is generally assumed, on the authority of ancient commentators, that Solon also reformed the Athenian
coinage. However, recent numismatic studies now lead to the conclusion that Athens probably had no coinage until around 560 BC, well after Solon's reforms. Nevertheless, there are now reasons to suggest that
monetization had already begun before Solon's reforms. By the early sixth century the Athenians were using silver in the form of a variety of
bullion silver pieces for monetary payments.
Drachma and
obol as a term of bullion value had already been adopted, although the corresponding standard weights were probably unstable.
Foreign trade , depicts the olive harvest. Many farmers, enslaved for debt, would have worked on large estates for their creditors. Solon's economic reforms succeeded in stimulating foreign trade. Athenian
black-figure pottery was exported in increasing quantities and good quality throughout the Aegean between 600 BC and 560 BC, a success story that coincided with a decline in trade in Corinthian pottery. (but farmers' difficulty of lasting until payback may also give rise to a
mercantilist argument in favour of supporting them through that, since the British case illustrates that "One domestic policy that had a lasting impact was the conversion of 'waste lands' to agricultural use. Mercantilists felt that to maximize a nation's power all land and resources had to be used to their utmost").
Moral In his poems, Solon portrays Athens as being under threat from the unrestrained greed and arrogance of its citizens. Even the earth (
Gaia), the mighty mother of the gods, had been enslaved. The visible symbol of this perversion of the natural and social order was a boundary marker called a , a wooden or stone pillar indicating that a farmer was in debt or under contractual obligation to someone else, either a noble patron or a
creditor.
Up until Solon's time, land was the inalienable property of a family or clan and it could not be sold or mortgaged. This was no disadvantage to a clan with large landholdings since it could always rent out farms in a
sharecropping system. A family struggling on a small farm however could not use the farm as security for a loan even if it owned the farm. Instead the farmer would have to offer himself and his family as security, providing some form of slave labour in lieu of repayment. Equally, a family might voluntarily pledge part of its farm income or labour to a powerful clan in return for its protection. Farmers subject to these sorts of arrangements were loosely known as indicating that they either paid or kept a sixth of a farm's annual yield. In the event of 'bankruptcy', or failure to honour the contract stipulated by the , farmers and their families could in fact be sold into slavery. Solon's reform of these injustices was later known and celebrated among Athenians as the (shaking off of burdens). As with all his reforms, there is considerable scholarly debate about its real significance. Many scholars are content to accept the account given by the ancient sources, interpreting it as a
cancellation of debts, while others interpret it as the abolition of a type of feudal relationship, and some prefer to explore new possibilities for interpretation. • prohibition on a debtor's person being used as security for a loan, i.e.,
debt slavery. It has been cynically observed, however, that few of these unfortunates were likely to have been recovered. It has been observed also that the not only removed slavery and accumulated debt but may also have removed the ordinary farmer's only means of obtaining further credit. The however was merely one set of reforms within a broader agenda of moral reformation. Other reforms included: • the abolition of extravagant dowries. • legislation against abuses within the system of inheritance, specifically with relation to the (i.e. a female who had no brothers to inherit her father's property and who was traditionally required to marry her nearest paternal relative in order to produce an heir to her father's estate). • entitlement of any citizen to take legal action on behalf of another. • the disenfranchisement of any citizen who might refuse to take up arms in times of civil strife, and war, a measure that was intended to counteract dangerous levels of political apathy.
Demosthenes claimed that the city's subsequent golden age included "personal modesty and frugality" among the Athenian aristocracy.
Sexual As a regulator of Athenian society, Solon, according to some authors, also formalized its sexual mores. According to a surviving fragment from a work ("Brothers") by the comic playwright
Philemon, Solon established publicly funded brothels at Athens in order to "democratize" the availability of sexual pleasure. While the veracity of this comic account is open to doubt, at least one modern author considers it significant that in Classical Athens, three hundred or so years after the death of Solon, there existed a discourse that associated his reforms with an increased availability of heterosexual contacts. Ancient authors also say that Solon regulated
pederastic relationships in Athens; this has been presented as an adaptation of custom to the new structure of the . According to various authors, ancient lawgivers (and therefore Solon by implication) drew up a set of laws that were intended to promote and safeguard the institution of pederasty and to control abuses against freeborn boys. In particular, the orator Aeschines cites laws excluding slaves from wrestling halls and forbidding them to enter pederastic relationships with the sons of citizens. Accounts of Solon's laws by 4th-century orators like Aeschines, however, are considered unreliable for a number of reasons: Besides the alleged legislative aspect of Solon's involvement with pederasty, there were also suggestions of personal involvement. Ancient readers concluded, based on his own erotic poetry, that Solon himself had a preference for boys. According to some ancient authors Solon had taken the future tyrant
Pisistratus as his . Aristotle, writing around 330 BC, attempted to refute that belief, claiming that "those are manifestly talking nonsense who pretend that Solon was the lover of Pisistratus, for their ages do not admit of it", as Solon was about thirty years older than Pisistratus. Nevertheless, the tradition persisted. Four centuries later Plutarch ignored Aristotle's skepticism and recorded the following anecdote, supplemented with his own conjectures: A century after Plutarch,
Aelian also said that Pisistratus had been Solon's . Despite its persistence, however, it is not known whether the account is historical or fabricated. It has been suggested that the tradition presenting a peaceful and happy coexistence between Solon and Pisistratus was cultivated during the latter's dominion, in order to legitimize his own rule, as well as that of his sons. Whatever its source, later generations lent credence to the narrative. Solon's presumed pederastic desire was thought in antiquity to have found expression also in his poetry, which is today represented only in a few surviving fragments. The authenticity of all the poetic fragments attributed to Solon is however uncertain – in particular, pederastic aphorisms ascribed by some ancient sources to Solon have been ascribed by other sources to
Theognis instead. == Poems ==