The early sixth century is a troubled…

The early sixth century is a troubled time for the Athenians.

An aristocracy of birth, the eupatridae, own the best land, monopolize the government, dominate society and are themselves split into rival factions.

The poorer farmers are easily driven into debt by them and when unable to pay are reduced to the condition of serfs on their own land and, in extreme cases, sold into slavery.

The intermediate classes of middling farmers, craftsmen, and merchants resent their exclusion from the government.

These social, economic, and political evils threaten to culminate in a revolution and subsequent tyranny, as they have in other Greek states.

The Athenian oligarchs, facing a serious economic crisis in 594 BCE and the possibility of a revolt by the common people against their unpopular rule, give the archon Solon unique powers as diallaktes, or mediator, granting him absolute authority to remedy the grave ills afflicting Athens.

The crisis has forced most Athenians into debt; many have been sold into slavery to foreign lands.

To stave off revolution or tyranny, Solon cancels debts, abolishes debt-slavery, and makes wealth, not birth, the criterion of public office by establishing four income classes and granting political rights to members of each of the top three classes on a graduated scale.

Solon, a well-intentioned liberal, passes sumptuary legislation, and modifies the Athenian system of weights and measures, a move that perhaps causes inflation. (He may also have established an Athenian council or senate—consisting of four hundred members of the propertied classes—whose purpose is to prepare proposals to be later voted on by the people sitting in assembly (the ekklesia).)

After completing his reforms, Solon leaves Athens, reportedly as much to escape controversy as to satisfy his curiosity about foreign lands.