Editing Solon (section)

==== {{lang|grc-Latn|Seisachtheia}} ====
Up until Solon's time, land was the inalienable property of a family or clan<ref>[[Harold Innis|Innis, H.]] ''Empire and Communications'', Rowman and Littlefield (2007), p. 91 f.</ref> and it could not be sold or mortgaged. This was no disadvantage to a clan with large landholdings since it could always rent out farms in a [[sharecropping]] system. A family struggling on a small farm however could not use the farm as security for a loan even if it owned the farm. Instead the farmer would have to offer himself and his family as security, providing some form of slave labour in lieu of repayment. Equally, a family might voluntarily pledge part of its farm income or labour to a powerful clan in return for its protection. Farmers subject to these sorts of arrangements were loosely known as {{lang|grc-Latn|hektemoroi}}<ref>Stanton, G. R. ''Athenian Politics c. 800–500 BC: A Sourcebook'', Routledge, London (1991), p. 38, n. 3.</ref> indicating that they either paid or kept a sixth of a farm's annual yield.<ref>Stanton, G. R. ''Athenian Politics c. 800–500 BC: A Sourcebook'', Routledge, London (1990), p. 35, n. 3.</ref><ref>Kirk, G. ''Historia'', Vol. 26 (1977), p. 369 f.</ref><ref>Woodhouse, W. ''Solon the Liberator: A Study of the Agrarian Problem in Attika in the Seventh Century'', Oxford University Press (1938).</ref> In the event of 'bankruptcy', or failure to honour the contract stipulated by the {{lang|grc-Latn|horoi}}, farmers and their families could in fact be sold into slavery.

Solon's reform of these injustices was later known and celebrated among Athenians as the {{lang|grc-Latn|[[seisachtheia]]}} (shaking off of burdens).<ref name="autogenerated2">''Athenaion Politeia'' [[s:Athenian Constitution#6|6]]</ref><ref name="autogenerated3">Plutarch, ''Solon'' [[s:Lives (Dryden translation)/Solon#15|15.2]].</ref> As with all his reforms, there is considerable scholarly debate about its real significance. Many scholars are content to accept the account given by the ancient sources, interpreting it as a [[History of debt relief|cancellation of debts]], while others interpret it as the abolition of a type of feudal relationship, and some prefer to explore new possibilities for interpretation.<ref name="E. Harris, 1997"/> The reforms included:
*annulment of all contracts symbolised by the {{lang|grc-Latn|horoi}}.<ref name="autogenerated4">''Athenaion Politeia'' [[s:Athenian Constitution#12|12.4]], quoting Solon.</ref>
*prohibition on a debtor's person being used as security for a loan, i.e., [[debt slavery]].<ref name="autogenerated2"/><ref name="autogenerated3"/>
*release of all Athenians who had been enslaved.<ref name="autogenerated4"/>

The removal of the {{lang|grc-Latn|horoi}} clearly provided immediate economic relief for the most oppressed group in Attica, and it also brought an immediate end to the enslavement of Athenians by their countrymen. Some Athenians had already been sold into slavery abroad and some had fled abroad to escape enslavement – Solon proudly records in verse the return of this diaspora.<ref>Solon quoted in ''Athenaion Politeia'' [[s:Athenian Constitution#12|12.4]].</ref> It has been cynically observed, however, that few of these unfortunates were likely to have been recovered.<ref>Forrest G. ''The Oxford History of the Classical World'' ed. Griffin J. and Murray O. (Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 32.</ref> It has been observed also that the {{lang|grc-Latn|seisachtheia}} not only removed slavery and accumulated debt but may also have removed the ordinary farmer's only means of obtaining further credit.<ref>Stanton, G. R. ''Athenian Politics c. 800–500 BC: A Sourcebook'' Routledge, London (1991), p. 57, n. 1.</ref>

The {{lang|grc-Latn|seisachtheia}} however was merely one set of reforms within a broader agenda of moral reformation. Other reforms included:
*the abolition of extravagant dowries.<ref>Plutarch, ''Solon'' [[s:Lives (Dryden translation)/Solon#20|20.6]].</ref>
*legislation against abuses within the system of inheritance, specifically with relation to the {{lang|grc-Latn|[[epikleros]]}} (i.e. a female who had no brothers to inherit her father's property and who was traditionally required to marry her nearest paternal relative in order to produce an heir to her father's estate).<ref name=Grant49>Grant, Michael. ''The Rise of the Greeks'', Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 1988, p. 49.</ref>
*entitlement of any citizen to take legal action on behalf of another.<ref>''Athenaion Politeia'' [[s:Athenian Constitution#9|9]].</ref><ref>Plutarch, ''Solon'' [[s:Lives (Dryden translation)/Solon#18|18.6]].</ref>
*the disenfranchisement of any citizen who might refuse to take up arms in times of civil strife, and war, a measure that was intended to counteract dangerous levels of political apathy.<ref>''Athenaion Politeia'' [[s:Athenian Constitution#8|8.5]].</ref><ref>Stanton, G. R. ''Athenian Politics c. 800–500 BC: A Sourcebook'' Routledge, London (1991), p. 72, n. 17.</ref><ref>Plutarch, ''Solon'' [[s:Lives (Dryden translation)/Solon#20|20.1]].</ref><ref>Goldstein J. ''Historia'', Vol. 21 (1972), pp. 538–545.</ref><ref>Develin R. ''Historia'', Vol. 26 (1977), p. 507 f.</ref>

[[Demosthenes]] claimed that the city's subsequent golden age included "personal modesty and frugality" among the Athenian aristocracy.<ref>Demosthenes, [https://web.archive.org/web/20010522162244/http://www.4literature.net/Demosthenes/Oration_on_the_Regulation_of_the_State/ ''On Organization''].</ref>