The problem he had to alleviate was first of all an economic one. The eupatridai
had reduced many of the poorer citizens who had offered their persons as security
for loans to the condition of serfdom and actual slavery. This practice, as well as
cancelling all existing debts, Solon henceforth forbade in his seisachtheia or shaking
off of burdens. He prohibited the export of agricultural produce, except oil, to
encourage more equitable distribution of food in the city. But he also changed the
constitution, defining four classes according to the annual production of grain,
oil and wine, and opened the archonship, and therefore the Areopagus, to the
two highest classes. The third class could hold minor offices and was eligible for
membership of the new boule, or council of 500, which must have taken over
functions which had previously been the exclusive preserve of the old aristocratic
council, though he confirmed the Areopagus in its ancient right of superintending
the laws and acting as general guardian of the constitution. Nevertheless, even
though Solon had not redistributed land, power had been extended beyond the
wellborn to include the wealthy so that aristocracy was becoming a broader-based
oligarchy. But the author of The Athenian Constitution finds the greatest reform to
rest in the power he gave to all citizen classes, including the lowest, to hear appeals
against magistrates’ verdicts or to impose penalties in the assembly: ‘This, they
say, was the key to the future strength of the masses; for when the people control
the ballot box, they are likewise masters of the constitution’ (The Athenian
Constitution, 9.1).
However, discontent at Athens was rife, not only between classes but also
between regions, to an extent that three distinct groupings developed, centred upon
the hill, the coast and the plain. The leader of the hill party of least privileged citizens,
Peisistratus, managed to establish himself as tyrant, sole ruler, of Athens in 561. He
was driven out, but with the help of mercenaries re-established himself and ruled from
546 until his death in 527. He made peace with the leading families and retained the
forms of Solon’s constitution ensuring that his own supporters held office. His rule
was a period of economic success and cultural expansion. A native Attic coinage,
making possible a new economic freedom, may be dated to about this time. In foreign
policy, he consolidated Athenian interests in settlements around the Hellespont
designed to promote trade and ensure the supply of Pontic grain. He had been
involved in the worsting of Athens’ neighbour and commercial rival, Megara, but
otherwise did not involve Athens in foreign wars. In his time, black-figure Attic pottery
was exported throughout the Mediterranean. He renewed the Great Panathenaic
festival, where it is reported rhapsodes recited the Homeric poems. The Athenians
did not look back to his rule as to a reign of cruelty; the word tyrant, meaning a single
and not necessarily hereditary ruler (Oedipus is called a ‘tyrant’ of Thebes), did not
necessarily have the pejorative overtones it has acquired since. He was succeeded
by his son Hippias, who was finally expelled from Athens in 510 by exiled aristocrats
50 THE GREEKS