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1
His 1001
Professor. R. Trumbach
Feb, 28, 2018
Solon in Athens
Introduction
If Solon had not rearranged the law, so the aristocrats had dominated
everything, what would our present life be like? During the Athenian period, the
Aristocrats dominated all. Although Solon did not solve all the problems, he partly
solved many conflicts. In this essay, I will talk about conflicts that Solon solved, divided
into three parts; the first part will talk about the aristocrats dominating the peasants
and the conflict over land ownership. Second part will show the conflicts between
aristocratic families over political power, and last, but not least, how Solon took a part
in the political constitution. My essay is based on “the Rise and Fall of Athens.” by
Plutarch, The Athenian Constitution and the lectures by Professor. R. Trumbach.
Part I
In this part, I want to discuss about conflicts between peasants and aristocrats’
lands. Before I talk about this, we should look into ancient Athen’s society. As in
modern society, land was a very important resource back in the ancient Athens society.
There were three types of lands: Hill, Shore, and Plain. “The city was divided into as
many parties as there were geographical features in its territory. The party of the Hill
supported an extreme democracy, the Plain an extreme oligarchy, while the Shore
formed a third party.” (Plutarch P.54, #13)
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In the Athens, 98% of the population was poor peasants, only 1~2% of the
population was rich aristocrats, and there was no middle class. Aristocrats were big
landowners who also had army, political power, and the plain which was a fertile place.
It would have been nice if people had shared the land fairly, but unfortunately most
peasants could not own the land. Some of the peasants could own a little land with
poor quality on the hill. These landowning peasants had to borrow seeds from the
aristocrats. To return the borrowed seeds, the crops had to grow well. However, it was
not easy to grow them on the rocky hill. If peasants did not pay back on time, they
became the debt slave for the aristocrats who had lent the seeds. (Prof R. Trumbach)
The other peasants were called sharecroppers. They had to rent land, which
