Athens in the age of Kylon, Drakon, Solon: 632-594 BCE Below: Athenian Acropolis today

1. Athens in the age of Kylon, Drakon, Solon:632-594 BCE Below: Athenian Acropolis today

2. Athens, Attica, Salamis, Megara  Megara

3. Archaic Athens • Sources: • Plutarch Theseus, Solon • Aristotle Athenian Constitution (AthenaionPoliteia) • Solon himself • Principal questions: What were the conditions under which Solon made his reforms? What circumstances did he face? What options did he have? How did he resolve these problems?

4. Agora Pnyx:ekklesia Areopagus“Hill of Ares” Acropolis“high point of city” Archaic Athens ca. 600 BCE

5. Archaic Athens: 632-594 BCE • Aristokratia = “power of the best” (Aristotle’s gnoromoi) • Eupatridai= “well-born” families who claimed to be “autochthonous” • Geomoroi = “landed class” in Attica • Demiourgoi = “artisan class” in Athens, baunasic tasks

6. Archaic Athens: magistracies post-monarchy, ca. 700 BCE • Eponymous archon: civic authority (gives name to year) • Polemarchos: military authority • Archonbasileus (“king archon”): religious authority • Traditional date of aristocratic coup d’état: 683/2 BCE (eponymous archon-lists)

7. Agora Pnyx:ekklesia Areopagus“Hill of Ares” Acropolis“high point of city” dokimasia euthyna Archaic Athens ca. 600 BCE

8. Acropolis ca. 632-628 BCE • Kylon vs. Megakles son of Alkmaion • Curse of the Alkmaionids Temple of Athena

9. Athens, Attica, Salamis  Megara

10. Law code of Gortyn (Crete)ca. 500-450 BCE

11. Law code of Gortyn (Crete)ca. 500-450 BCE

12. Drakon’s Law on Homicide: what principles matter? • Why create a lawcode ca. 621 BCE? Response to power of the Eupatridai? Rising discontent? • Details of the Drakonian law still in force in 409/8 BCE • Even if without premeditation someone kills someone, he shall be exiled. • Pardon may be granted if the father (of the victim) is alive, or brothers, or sons, by all of them in agreement, or the one opposing it shall prevail. • Proclamation shall be made against the homicide in the agora by relatives (of the victim). • If the killing was (later determined to be involuntary) … he may be admitted into the country …. • What principles matter?

13. Possible reconstruction of Drakon’s(and later Solon’s) axones(Arist. Ath. Pol. 7.1 in D&G 8.15)

14. Agora Pnyx:ekklesia Areopagus“Hill of Ares” Acropolis“high point of city” Archaic Athens ca. 600 BCE

15. Athenian agora, ca. 400 BCEBuildings labelled in red ca. 594 BCE =“Royal Stoa”

16. Debt-slavery: hektemoroiand the horos(“boundary”) stone from the agora, similar to Solon’s horoi hektemoroi =1/6thparters ΗΟΡΟΣ ΕΙΜΙ ΤΕΣ ΑΓΟΡΑΣ (“diplomatic” or actual text) ὅρος εἶμι τῆς ἀγοράς (classical Greek version) HOROS EIMI TES AGORAS (transliteration into Roman alphabet) “I am the boundary stone of the agora” (translation into English)

17. Solon: eponymous archon 594/3

18. Land, debt and Solon • Limited arable land, increasing debt hektemoroi= 1/6th-parters (debt-slaves) • Political divisions among the wealthy – the Eupatridai, other well-to-do Athenians • Political divisions between the wealthy and the lower classes, who did not trust those in power • Power in hands of Eupatridai, the only ones who could be the chief magistrates = archontes(archon) • 594/3 BCE: Solon as archon, Solon as mediator: champion of poor but moderate in his solutions. Member of Eupatridai but not wealthy, and not interested in long-term rule

19. Solon’s solutionsArist. Ath. Pol. 6.1-4 (D&G 8.11), 12.3-5 (D&G 8.12), 7.3-4 (D&G 8.16) • Seisachtheia = “shaking-off of burdens” (cancellation of debt) and elimination of debt-slavery • Law-giver, he categorized the Athenians by wealth • Pentakosiomedimnoi x > 500 bushelmen = aristocrats • Hippeis: “horsemen” 300 < x < 500 = cavalry • Zeugitai: “yokemen” 200 <x < 300 = hoplites • Thetes: “rowers” x < 200 = oarsmen • Thesmothetai: “law-givers”

20. Solon’s solutions • Sortitionfor holding the archonship. Archonship open to top two classes. Result? • Boule (“council”) of 400, 100/tribe: prepared business for the ekklesia(“assembly”) • Areopagus (“Hill of Ares”) = ex-archons, power to punish and protect the polis

21. Athenian Areopagus & Acropolis

22. Athenian agora, ca. 400 BCEBuildings labelled in red ca. 594 BCE

23. Royal Stoa, Athenian agora, ca. 400 BCE

24. Other Solonian measures • Returned exiles to the polis • Allowed some metics to acquire citizenship • Prohibited exportation of olive oil • Legal redress for wrongs done against oneself • Right of appeal to a dikasterion (“jury-court”)

25. Solonian political changes • Political power based on wealth not birth • Political decisions no longer in hands of Areopagus only: boule (“council”) of 400 (100/tribe) and hence the demos (“people”) • Forestalled tyranny … for now • Did not create democracy, but introduced some democratic notions

26. Assessing Solon after his apodemia • Intellectual and moral ideal of arete • Stasis and anarchia (“lack of an archon”) • Anarchia: 586/5; unknown 585/4, 584/3, 583/2 • Archonship of Damasias, 582/1-580/79 • Anarchia: 580/79-579/8