At the end of the 7th century-beginning of the 6th century BC, certain Athenians had been forced to cede their land to wealthy landowners, to whom they had to pay rent in the form of yielding part of the produced goods. As Solon himself informs us, Draco's legislation allowed the citizen, when needed, to pledge himself. But in case the agreement's conditions were violated, he risked to be enslaved and sold far from his city (Pausanias, Attica 16.1, Solon, extract 36, Aristotle, Athenaion Politeia 12). The economic situation of several poor Athenian citizens, who had no political power, was constantly deteriorating and a lot of them had already been sold as slaves. This situation led to an economic and social crisis, which Solon tried to defuse, when he was elected archon in 594/3 BC. One of his primary economic reforms was the seisachtheia and the categorization of political privileges on the basis of each citizen's property.

With "seisachtheia" Solon managed, as he claims himself, to "shake off" the burden of debts of poor farmers' shoulders. Certain scholars have associated this measure with the hektemoroi. Others maintain that it is related to all those who had borrowed and cultivated the land of wealthy and powerful people by pledging their personal freedom ("pledging the body as security").

After the "seisachtheia", the next step was to divide the Athenian citizens in social classes on the basis of their income which derived from their production of grain, olive oil and wine (Aristotle, Athenaion Politeia 7, Plutarch, Life of Solon 18.1-3). Athens' population was thus divided in four classes, each of which had specific political privileges. The participation in each class was determined by each citizen's property, which was based on an invariable unit measuring the annual agricultural produce of grain or wine, the "medimnos" and the "metretes". Athenian citizens belonged to the pentakosiomedimnoi (500 medimnoi or more), the triakosiomedimnoi or hippeis (300 medimnoi or more), and the diakosiomedimnoi or zeugitai (200 medimnoi or more). Lastly, those whose annual property rose to less than 200 medimnoi or nothing at all, belonged to the thetes.
As a result, the nobility was gradually replaced by an aristocracy of wealthy people, since the participation in the new class now depended on economic changes. Any Athenian who was economically successful could be placed among the members of the privileged ruling class. On the other hand, those who lost somehow their property would no longer belong to this class. Authority belonged to those who owned more landed property.

Apart from the two measures mentioned above, there are references in the sources concerning certain economic resolutions by Solon, but they are not considered reliable. Plutarch reports in "Life of Solon" that the Athenians of his time maintained a tradition, according to which Solon had established a much lower price for wheat than what was in force up until then. In one of his speeches, the more recent orator Lysias refers to the notion of interest and associates its imposition with Solon. It is considered very likely that by means of interest, Solon tried to counterbalance the consequences of the "seisachtheia". One's possibility to enslave those who were indebted to him was taken away, but instead the creditor had the right to extract interest.

The most important consequence of Solon's economic reforms was that they relieved the landless citizens of the fear of possible enslavement (Pausanias, Attica 16.1). As a result, the majority of Athenian farmers became independent owners of small plots of land.

| introduction | agriculture | trade | state organization | Archaic Period

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