A wise reformer was found in Solon, chosen as an archon in 594 B. C.,
and invested by his fellow citizens, for the special purpose of
restoring tranquility, with unlimited power to change the laws. He was
already distinguished as a poet and as a general in the war of Athens
against her neighbor, Megara. His great object was to remove the
oppressive and excessive power of the aristocracy without introducing
pure democracy.
Solon began with the abolition of Draco’s code, but retained the penalty
of death for murder. His celebrated disburdening ordinance for the
relief of debtors won the complete confidence of the people. This had
the immediate effect of mitigating the oppressions caused by the old
laws of debt: in future neither the person, family, nor estate of the
debtor might be pledged in security for the loan. A further democratic
character was given at the outset to the constitution of Solon by the
division of the people into four classes, according to property, which
was now substituted for birth as a qualification for the higher offices
of state.
A council of state, or senate, called the Boule (council) was chosen
annually by lot, to prepare measures for submission to the popular
assembly, or Ecclesia, in which the citizens of the fourth or lowest
class (who could hold no state office) had the right of voting. The
Ecclesia included all classes of the citizens, who there legislated,
elected the magistrates, decided on peace or war, and other matters sent
down to it from the Boule.
For the courts of justice below the Areopagus, a body of six thousand
jurors was to be annually selected by lot from the popular assembly, and
the causes were tried by divisions of the whole body.
Solon was also the author of many laws which regulated private life and
rights, public amusements, slavery, marriage, and other matters. Among
his miscellaneous enactments may be noted that which legalized the
export of olive oil only, that which obliged the father to teach his son
a trade, that which penalized a citizen for remaining neutral on the
outbreak of civil strife, and that which empowered a man who died
childless to dispose of his property by will.