Ancient Law Spotlight: Solon
People often think of the legal system as a relatively modern concept, but there are actually quite a few legal systems that date back thousands of years. A particularly interesting example of ancient law is Solon.
Solon was an ancient Greek lawmaker and poet in the city-state of Athens. This region of Greece was ruled by an archon, a type of chief ruler responsible for most of the area’s legal matters. When Solon was appointed as archon in 594 BCE, he was responsible for dealing with a lengthy conflict between the peasants and aristocrats of Athens.
To solve this decades long struggle, Solon turned to the law. . Solon’s principled and carefully thought out reforms were the basis for one of the very first constitutions. In Solon’s reform, he divided all Athenian citizens into four classes based on their currently owned property. These classes were then given various civic duties such as serving in public office or certain types of armies.
Solon also aimed to solve the financial crises that were worsening all the political issues by canceling a lot of big debts. Some Athenians got wind of Solon’s plans and took out loans from Solon, but he stuck to his reforms and canceled these debts as well. He also required the release of many Athenian slaves, regulated trade and production to revitalize Athenian commerce, and allowed women to inherit without having to marry their nearest paternal relative.
The reforms of Solon were very extensive, ranging from precise laws meant to solve specific problems to more general laws meant to improve society as a whole. A lot of harsh punishments were removed, except for crimes like homicide. He also changed laws to allow any party in a conflict to sue the other and allow people to appeal a verdict to a citizen’s court.
Solon’s legal codes were fairly revolutionary at the time, and not all Athenians agreed with them. However, Solon took a clever approach to dealing with his detractors. As part of the legal code he enacted, he specified the laws could not be changed for a set amount of time. As soon as he was done being archon, he then left the country for an extended period of travel to avoid any complaints about the laws.
