At the end of the 7th century B.C. Athens took part in the 1st Sacred War and became a member of the Delphic Amphictyony. In the same period she found herself in dispute with Mytilene (the cause being the city of Sigeum) and with Megara (over the possession of Salamis). To this latter question is related the first mention of Solon in public affairs. It was traditionally with his elegies that Solon inspired the Athenians and led them on to capture the island.

Solon was elected eponymous archon in 594/3 B.C., and at the same time arbitrator, his task being that of mediator in the agricultural crisis, which brought into confrontation the eupatrid great landowners and the small cultivators. By the 'shaking-off of burdens' he freed the farmers from debt and liberated all who had become hektemoroi or had been sold into slavery far away from Athens. He also introduced the timocratic system, dividing the citizens into four classes according to income. The right to hold office belonged only to members of the first three classes. For the nine archons, each of the four tribes indicated ten candidates by lot, and choice between these was then made by bean lot. It is to him, too, that the founding of the Assembly of Five Hundred is attributed by Aristotle: one hundred members of each tribe took part in the Assembly, their brief being to prepare the preliminary agenda (probouleuma) presented to the Assembly of the Demos. The Areopagus retained responsibility for maintaining the laws and the control of the constitution, and for the trying of any who attempted to overthrow the constitution. He founded, furthermore, the lawcourts of the Eliaia, in which even the thetes had the right to participate. He further decreed that anyone who did not side with one or other bloc in a case of civil strife should lose his civic rights. Certain recent historians argue that the constitutional changes attributed by Aristotle to Solon are projections of 4th century B.C. institutions, and restrict his contribution to the regulation of agricultural debt. Solon himself mentions in his poems that he tried to find the middle road in the farmers' claims for redistribution and in the control of the greed of the powerful; and he is proud of not having taken advantage of his position to become tyrant and impose by force the measures he thought right.