Solon

Some years after the massacre of Cylon’s supporters (probably) the Athenians turned in a severe crisis to a man called Solon, evidently an older politician with a reputation for circumspection. Since all sides trusted him, the authority to reform Athens as he saw fit was vested in him - for one year. In principle he held an “elective” tyranny (see chap. 7). More information about Solon and his reforms survived than about Cylon for one simple reason: Solon wrote poetry about his reforms, and writers such as Plutarch and the author of the PseudoAristotelian Constitution of Athens (i. e., the Ath. Pol.; see Box 8.1) quoted liberally from these poems when describing Solon’s achievements. What Solon’s poems directly attest is what is most certainly known about the period, and discussion should proceed in the first instance from them. In the second instance it should proceed from what Plutarch and the author of the Ath. Pol. say about or on the basis of Solon’s poetry for they had the full text in front of them even if they quoted only selected bits.

Finally, as with Cylon, there is some question as to Solon’s date. If one views the so-called Archon List (see Box 8.3) as accurate for the early sixth century, then the matter is clear: Solon was archon in 594 BC. On the other hand, Herodotus (I 29-30) synchronized Solon’s travels in the ten years after his reforms with the reigns of Amasis of Egypt (570 to 526 BC) and Croesus of Lydia (traditionally 561-547). Based on this evidence, the earliest possible date for Solon’s travels, then, is 571-561, which places his reforms in circa 572. Most scholars incline to follow the Archon List, though the matter is far from certain.