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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] people's lives was their subjection to the rich. Since his father had ruined his estate by benefiting others, Solon became a merchant and gained wealth, though he said he would not procure it by wrong, because justice though slow is sure. Tired of battling the Megarians over the island of Salamis, the Athenians made it a capital crime to suggest recovering it, but Solon was said to have feigned madness while reciting his verses on Salamis in the marketplace until his kinsman Peisistratus led the citizens to repeal the law and retake Salamis. Anacharsis became Solon's friend and laughed at him for believing that the dishonest and covetous would be restrained by written laws, which are like spider webs in that they would catch the poor but be easily broken by the rich and powerful. Solon replied that he would design his laws so that it would be more beneficial to be just than to break them. Solon exhorted the rich not to be so grasping, warning them that they would not always have their way, because they would not always be obeyed. In Athens the disparity between the rich and poor had become very great, and most people had to pay one-sixth of their crop to the landlord or had fallen into slavery from debt. Solon, who had not joined the oppressive methods of the rich but did not suffer the needs of the poor, was elected archon in 594 BC and chosen to give laws, the rich agreeing because he was wealthy, the poor because he was honest. When he said he would make things even, the rich thought he meant a fair proportion, but others that everyone would be equal. Not submitting to the powerful nor pleasing the others, Solon refrained from the violence and usurpation of a tyrant to make new laws for Athens that would combine force and justice. When asked if they were the best laws that could be given, he replied that they were the best the Athenians could receive. The archons or magistrates had to swear to observe the laws or dedicate a golden statue to the gods if they failed to do so, and the assembly of the citizens could hear such cases to check them. First Solon canceled debts to relieve the poor and did not allow a person to be security for a debt. The mortgage stones that had been placed on most people's land were removed, and slaves were freed. However, some of his friends knowing he was going to cancel debts borrowed money to buy land, which brought suspicion and enmity upon Solon, but he at least released his debtors of five talents. The moderate Solon was criticized by the rich for their loss of money and by the poor because he did not redistribute the land, as Sparta had. He repealed Dracon's laws for being Get any book for free on: www.Abika.com GREEK CULTURE TO 500 BC 25 too severe except for those on homicide. He allowed the lowest class of workers to come into the assembly as jurors; farmers having more than 200 measures could serve in the new council; the knights having more than 300 and the fourth class of rich with more than 500 measures could be elected to high offices. Birth was no longer a prerequisite. He allowed and encouraged any citizen to prosecute a wrong-doer not just the victims, saying that the best city is where those who are not injured punish the unjust as much as those who are. He founded a council of 400 from the four tribes to inspect matters before they went to the assembly. Solon limited dowries to three suits of clothes and a few household items so that wives would be selected for love and children. Realizing that Athenian agriculture was becoming inadequate to their needs, he encouraged trades and ordered the Areopagus to punish the idle. Food, except for olive oil, was not to be exported. Any man who neglected to provide for his parents was disenfranchised unless he had not been taught a trade. He reduced the money paid to athletic champions while providing for the sons of those killed in battle. His laws protected boys from sexual assaults and required every citizen to teach his sons to read and write. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |