Bust of Solon, copy from a Greek original (c. 110 BC) from the Farnese Collection, now at the National Archaeological Museum, Naples
Born
c. 630 BC
Athens
Died
c. 560 BC (aged approximately 70)
Cyprus
Occupation(s)
Statesman, lawmaker, poet
Solon (Greek: Σόλων; c. 630 – c. 560 BC)[1] was an archaic Athenian statesman, lawmaker, political philosopher, and poet. He is one of the Seven Sages of Greece and credited with laying the foundations for Athenian democracy.[2][3][4] Solon's efforts to legislate against political, economic and moral decline[5] 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.[6]
Ancient authors such as Philo of Alexandria,[7] 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.[5][8]
^"Solon", Encyclopædia Britannica, retrieved 13 April 2019
^Stanton, G. R. Athenian Politics c. 800–500 BC: A Sourcebook, Routledge, London (1990), p. 76.
^Andrews, A. Greek Society (Penguin 1967) 197
^E. Harris, A New Solution to the Riddle of the Seisachtheia, in The Development of the Polis in Archaic Greece, eds. L. Mitchell and P. Rhodes (Routledge 1997) 103
^ abAristotle Politics 1273b 35–1274a 21
^Stanton G. R. Athenian Politics c. 800–500 BC: A Sourcebook, Routledge, London (1990), pp. 1–5.
^Philo Judaeus Alexandria "On the Laws I and II", Loeb Classical Library (1953)
^V. Ehrenberg, From Solon to Socrates: Greek History and Civilization, Routledge (1973) 71
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