Biography solon

After implementing his reforms in Athens, Solon left the city for a self-imposed period of exile.

The exact reasons for his departure remain unclear, but it is believed that he left to avoid potential unrest or backlash as his reforms took effect.

During his exile, Solon traveled extensively, visiting places such as Egypt, Cyprus, and Lydia.

One notable encounter during Solon's travels was with the Lydian King Croesus in his capital city, Sardis.

Their conversation, preserved by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, is a famous tale of wisdom and hubris.

In their exchange, Croesus asked Solon who the happiest person was, expecting Solon to praise his immense wealth and power.

However, Solon responded by highlighting the fates of three individuals who had led virtuous lives and died with honor.

This answer served as a reminder that true happiness and prosperity should not be judged by wealth and power alone, but by one's actions and character.

Athenian statesman (c. 630 – c. 560 BC)

For other uses, see Solon (disambiguation).

Solon (Ancient Greek: Σόλων; c. 630 – c. 560 BC) was an archaicAthenian statesman, lawmaker, political philosopher, and poet. He is one of the Seven Sages of Greece and credited with laying the foundations for Athenian democracy. Solon's efforts to legislate against political, economic and moral decline resulted in his constitutional reform overturning most of Draco's laws.

Solon's reforms included debt relief later known and celebrated among Athenians as the seisachtheia (shaking off of burdens). He is described by Aristotle in the Athenian Constitution as "the first people's champion". Demosthenes credited Solon's reforms with starting a golden age.

Modern knowledge of Solon is limited by the fact that his works only survive in fragments and appear to feature interpolations by later authors. It is further limited by the general paucity of documentary and archaeological evidence covering Athens in the early 6th century BC.

Ancient authors such as Philo of Alexandria,Herodotus, and Plutarch are the main sources, but wrote about Solon long after his death. Fourth-century BC orators, such as Aeschines, tended to attribute to Solon all the laws of their own, much later times.

Biography

Early life and ancestry

Solon was born in Athens around 630 BC. His family was distinguished in Attica as they belonged to a noble or Eupatrid clan. Solon's father was probably Execestides. If so, his lineage could be traced back to Codrus, the last King of Athens. According to Diogenes Laërtius, he had a brother named Dropides, who was an ancestor (six generations removed) of Plato. According to Plutarch, Solon was related to the tyrantPisistratus, for their mothers were cousins.^&

Solon, the Athenian politician and lawmaker: Solon (638-558 BC) was an Athenian politician, lawmaker and poet. He is considered as the first innovative lawmaker that set the ground for the creation of democracy, the governmental system that made Athens powerful and granted the city its fame all over the centuries. Although his reforms lasted for short in his time, he laid the foundations for the economic, cultural and military development of the town.

Solon was born into a noble family in 638 B.C. He was a merchant by profession and a poet. In 594 BC, he was elected an Archon, kind of governor, in ancient Athens. That time, the society of Athens was facing an economic and moral depression due to an agricultural crisis. Farmers could not repay their debts to the wealthy landowners and in return they were sold as slaves, including their wives and children.

Political and social instability

This caused instability and rivalry in the society. As Athens was kind of divided in regions and families, there was much controversy over which family rules and which would prove better than the other. In this miserable point, Solon was elected and made the necessary reforms to improve the local society. In fact, he mostly reformed three domains: constitution, economy and morality.

The Laws of Solon

The first thing of Solon was to set all enslaved Athenians free and to relieve them from their debts. This made him very popular among the people. Also, as he had understood that farming couldn't get people enough for living, he envisioned to make Athens a powerful trade centre and to have Athenian ships traverse the Aegean and the Mediterranean Sea.

He prohibited exporting any other product than olive oil and he gave benefits for foreign tradesmen to settle in Athens. This was he set the foundation for the economic growth of Athens, which would also grant the city its cultural development and military power.

New political system

Another important contrib

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In the course of the late seventh and sixth century, when Greece was experiencing rapid social and political changes, many Greek towns were ruled by tyrants or sole rulers. Often, these men were aristocrats who had seized extra powers, sometimes relying on a group of wealthy nouveaux riches. Although the word 'tyrant' sounds very negative to us, this was not the case in ancient Greece.

Athens was no exception. A class of aristocrats, the Eupatrids, ruled the city and excluded the wealthy nouveaux riches. Moreover, there were social conflicts. One would have expected the rise of tyrant, but instead the Athenians appointed a wise man named Solon as lawgiver (594/593).

He is responsible for several measures: for example, he decreed that no Athenian would be sold into slavery, even if he were severely indebted (a hectemoros), and that magistracies were open to all rich people (diminishing the power of the aristocrats). He also took economic measures and founded the Heliaia, the people's court. The main result was that people for the first time began to define themselves as Athenians.

After Solon had written these laws, he left Athens for some time. He is said to have visited Egypt and king Croesus of Lydia. Later, he returned home, where he was forced to see how Athens got its tyrant: Pisistratus.

Solon is reckoned among the Seven sages.

Literature

Plutarch's Life of Solon is available at LacusCurtius. A biography was included in the Lives of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius (here).

This page was created in 2005; last modified on 28 October 2020.

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