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Solon's Reforms — Solon (Athens)

~594 BC · Transmission: Global
LawLegalGreek

Solon repealed nearly all of Draco's laws except those on homicide, to pacify Athens on the brink of civil war. His key achievement was abolishing debt slavery (seisachtheia): a poor citizen unable to repay a loan had legally become his creditor's slave. He divided citizens by wealth rather than noble birth, creating the concept of isonomia (equality before the law) that Romans later studied for the Twelve Tables.

Historical regionAthens (Greece)
Primary sourceFragments of Solon's poems; Plutarch, Life of Solon
Secondary sourceRhodes, P.J. — A History of the Classical Greek World (2010, Wiley-Blackwell)
Original languageAncient Greek
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