Editing Solon (section)

==Historical rivalries==
[[File:Solon, the wise lawgiver of Athens.jpg|thumb|250px|"Solon, the wise lawgiver of Athens", illustration by [[Walter Crane]], from ''The Story of Greece, told to boys and girls'', by Mary Macgregor (1910s)]]

The social and political upheavals that characterized Athens in Solon's time have been variously interpreted by historians from ancient times to the present day.  The historical account of Solon's Athens has evolved over many centuries into a set of contradictory stories or a complex story that might be interpreted in a variety of ways. As further evidence accumulates, and as historians continue to debate the issues, Solon's motivations and the intentions behind his reforms will continue to attract speculation.<ref>See, for example, J. Bintliff, "Solon's Reforms: an archeological perspective", in ''Solon of Athens: new historical and philological approaches'', eds. J. Blok and A. Lardinois (Brill, Leiden 2006)[https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/dspace/bitstream/1887/8303/1/1_036_145.pdf], and other essays published with it.</ref>

Two contemporary historians have identified three distinct historical accounts of Solon's Athens, emphasizing quite different rivalries: economic and/or ideological rivalry, regional rivalry, and rivalry between aristocratic clans.<ref name="Stanton G.R. 1991 pp. 3-4">Stanton G.R. ''Athenian Politics c. 800–500 BC: A Sourcebook'', Routledge, London (1991), pp. 3–4.</ref><ref name="infrastructures2007">Walters, K.R., ''Geography and Kinship as Political Infrastructures in Archaic Athens'' {{cite web |url=http://www.uwo.ca/english/florilegium/vol2/walters.html |title=Florilegium |access-date=5 July 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013223755/http://uwo.ca/english/florilegium/vol2/walters.html |archive-date=13 October 2007 }}</ref> These different accounts provide a convenient basis for an overview of the issues involved.

=== Economic and ideological ===

Economic and ideological rivalry is a common theme in ancient sources. This sort of account emerges from Solon's poems, in which he casts himself in the role of a noble mediator between two intemperate and unruly factions. This same account is substantially taken up about three centuries later by the author of the Aristotelian ''[[Constitution of the Athenians (Aristotle)|Athenaion Politeia]]'' but with an interesting variation:

{{quote|...&nbsp;there was conflict between the nobles and the common people for an extended period. For the constitution they were under was oligarchic in every respect and especially in that the poor, along with their wives and children, were in slavery to the rich...All the land was in the hands of a few. And if men did not pay their rents, they themselves and their children were liable to be seized as slaves. The security for all loans was the debtor's prison up to the time of Solon. He was the first people's champion.<ref>''Athenaion Politeia'' 2.1–3 [[s:Athenian Constitution#2]].</ref>}}

Here Solon is presented as a partisan in a democratic cause whereas, judged from the viewpoint of his own poems, he was instead a mediator between rival factions. A still more significant variation in the ancient historical account appears in the writing of Plutarch in the late 1st – early 2nd century AD:

{{quote|Athens was torn by recurrent conflict about the constitution. The city was divided into as many parties as there were geographical divisions in its territory. For the party of the people of the hills was most in favour of democracy, that of the people of the plain was most in favour of oligarchy, while the third group, the people of the coast, which preferred a mixed form of constitution somewhat between the other two, formed an obstruction and prevented the other groups from gaining control.<ref>Plutarch ''Solon'' 13 [[s:Lives (Dryden translation)/Solon#13]]</ref>}}

===Regional ===
Regional rivalry is a theme commonly found among modern scholars.<ref>B. Sealey, "Regionalism in Archaic Athens," ''Historia'' 9 (1960) 155–180.</ref><ref>D. Lewis, "Cleisthenes and Attica," ''Historia'' 12 (1963) 22–40.</ref><ref>P. Rhodes, ''A Commentary on the Aristotelian Athenian Politeia'', Oxford University Press (1981) 186.</ref><ref>P. Rhodes, ''A History of the Greek City States'', Berkeley (1976).</ref> "The new picture which emerged was one of strife between regional groups, united by local loyalties and led by wealthy landowners. Their goal was to take control of the central government at Athens and with it dominate over their rivals from other districts of Attica."<ref name="uwo.ca">Walters K.R. ''Geography and Kinship as Political Infrastructures in Archaic Athens'' {{cite web |url=http://www.uwo.ca/english/florilegium/vol2/walters.html |title=Florilegium |access-date=5 July 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013223755/http://uwo.ca/english/florilegium/vol2/walters.html |archive-date=13 October 2007 }}</ref><br>Regional factionalism was inevitable in a relatively large territory such as Athens possessed. In most Greek city states, a farmer could conveniently reside in a town and travel to and from his fields every day. According to [[Thucydides]], on the other hand, most Athenians continued to live in rural settlements right up until the [[Peloponnesian War]].<ref name="Thucydides 2.14–16">Thucydides 2.14–16.</ref> The effects of regionalism in a large territory could be seen in [[Laconia]], where [[Sparta]] had gained control through intimidation and resettlement of some of its neighbours and enslavement of the rest. Attika in Solon's time seemed to be moving towards a similarly ugly solution with many citizens in danger of being reduced to the status of [[helots]].<ref>Andrews, A. ''Greek Society'' (Penguin 1967) 118.</ref>

===Clan===
Rivalry between clans is a theme recently developed by some scholars, based on an appreciation of the political significance of kinship groupings.<ref name="uwo.ca" /><ref name="Stanton G.R. 1991 pp. 3-4" /><ref>Frost, "Tribal Politics and the Civic State", ''AJAH'' (1976) 66–75.</ref><ref>Connor, ''The New Politicians of Fifth Century Athens'', Princeton (1971) 11–14.</ref><ref>Cary, ''Cambridge Ancient History'', Cambridge Univ. Press (1925) 3:582–586.</ref><ref>Ellis, J. and Stanton, G., ''Phoenix'' 22 (1968) 95–99.</ref> According to this account, bonds of kinship rather than local loyalties were the decisive influence on events in archaic Athens. An Athenian belonged not only to a [[phyle]] or tribe and one of its subdivisions, the [[phratry]] or brotherhood, but also to an extended family, clan or [[genos]]. It has been argued that these interconnecting units of kinship reinforced a hierarchic structure with aristocratic clans at the top.<ref name="Stanton G.R. 1991 pp. 3-4" /><ref name="infrastructures2007" /> Thus rivalries between aristocratic clans could engage all levels of society irrespective of any regional ties. In that case, the struggle between rich and poor was the struggle between powerful aristocrats and the weaker affiliates of their rivals or perhaps even with their own rebellious affiliates.