Solon
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Solon (Greek: Σόλων, ca. 638 BC–558 BC. Pronounced sŏ'lōn) was a famous Athenian lawmaker and Lyric poet.
Summary of Solon's Life : 638–558 B.C.
Solon is known as the one of the greatest of the Seven Wise Men of Greece. He first gained public attention by urging the Athenians to go to war over possession of a nearby island, Salamis. Athens listened to his advice and won the war. Solon became an Athenian hero. Solon began a series of political reforms that greatly increased citizen participation in Athenian government. He said that he "stood with a strong shield before both parties [the common people and the powerful] and allowed neither to win an unfair victory." His reforms, unfortunately, did not please the wealthy nor the poor. He left Athens for ten years to travel. He died not long after his return. However, he spent that period warning people against rulers who would not uphold his reforms.
Life and Political Ordinances
He was the son of Execestides. He first worked as a foreign trader, and his abilities as a poet had him lauded as one of the Seven Sages of Greece.
In the mid-590s BC he worked to promote renewed conflict against Megara over Salamis. In 594 BC he was made eponymous archon of Attica, in order to subdue the civil disorder that was rampant there. He introduced a set of ordinances, Including the seisachtheia, that did much to improve conditions. His ordinances were such a success that he was given the task of rewriting the constitution, creating what was later called the Solonian Constitution, which incorporated the first elements of formalized civil democracy in the history of the world.
He repealed most of the laws of Draco and introduced a timokratia, an oligarchy with a sliding scale of rights determined by property and productive capacity, dividing the population into four classes:
- Pentakosiomedimnoi ("500-bushel men", i.e., those who produced 500 bushels of produce per year),
- Hippeis (knights, i.e., those who could equip themselves and one cavalry horse for war, valued at 300 bushels per year),
- Zeugitai (tillers, i.e., owners of at least one pair of beasts of burden, valued at 200 bushels per year) and
- Thetes (manual laborers);
N.G.L. Hammond supposes that he instituted a graduated tax upon these upper classes at a rate of 6:3:1, with the lowest class of thetes paying nothing in taxes but being ineligible for elected office.
Solon wrote the laws as a compromise between oligarchy and democracy, tailored to what the ordinary people and the elites would both accept. After having his constitution accepted, Solon exacted the promise of the city that his constitution would not change unless he were to change it himself, and then he left Athens for over ten years, travelling to Egypt, Cyprus and Lydia. This way he assured his work would have a fair chance to show its worth. During his trip to Egypt he visited the temple of Neith in the district of Sais. The priests of Neith gave him information on their old history records, which Solon wrote down in a manuscript. It was this manuscript that Plato used in his dialogues Timaios and Critias.
He is also presented by the historian Herodotus of Halicarnassus in his historical accounts as a comment on the human condition. When in Lydia, he offended Croesus when asked, "Who is the happiest man you have ever seen?" by answering, "I can speak of no one as happy until they are dead," instead of with the customary compliment. Solon then went on to say that the happiest man he had ever seen was a man from Athens named Tellus, reasoning as follows: "There are good reasons—first, his city was prosperous, and he had fine sons, and lived to see children born to each of them, and all these children surviving; secondly, he had wealth enough by our standards; and he had a glorious death. [1] It was recalling this story which, again according to Herodotus, saved Croesus from execution when his kingdom was overcome by Cyrus' invading Persians.
Solon returned to Athens in the 560s BC, and was associated with Peisistratus (see below), whom Aristotle describes as an extreme democrat and the leader of the Highland Party.[2] However, Solon opposed Peisistratus' moves to take control of Athens, and again left the city when Peisistratus became Tyrant. Peisistratus retained much of the constitution, presiding over what Aristotle describes as a constitutional government.[3] He showed Solon considerable respect, either out of respect for the older man's wisdom, or out of regard for their former love.[4] Solon returned during Peisistratus' second period of rule and died soon after.
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Accomplishments
Politics
Solon introduced the trial by jury; military obligations were codified based on class; the Council of the Four Hundred (or Boule) and the Areopagus were established as the main consultative and administrative bodies; he introduced many new laws, especially those covering debt and taxation; he remodeled the calendar; he created a court for the lowest classes called the Heliaia and allowed it to audit those passing from the office of archon for each year; he regulated weights and measures.
Solon also encouraged a growth in industry by offering citizenship to skilled foreign laborers and created a law which ensured fathers, unless farmers, passed on the skills of their profession to their sons. His laws were written onto special wooden cylinders and placed in the Acropolis.
Pederasty
He is also credited with being the founder of the pederastic educational tradition in Athens. He composed poetry praising the love of boys and instituted legislation to control abuses against freeborn boys. Specifically, he excluded slaves from the wrestling halls and from pederasty.[5] According to the later histories of Plutarch and Aelian, Solon had the future Tyrant Peisistratus as an eromenos and later appointed him as a commander in the conquest of Salamis in the 590s BC, however Aristotle claims that Peisistratus would have been too young at the time.[6] [7][8]
Quotes
"Look to the end!"
"Poets tell many lies."