Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Solon, who was elected archon or chief magistrate of Athens in 594 BC: some see him as the father of Athenian democracy. In the first years of the 6th century BC, the city state of Athens was in crisis. The lower orders of society were ravaged by debt, to the point where some were being forced into slavery. An oppressive law code mandated the death penalty for everything from murder to petty theft. There was a real danger that the city could fall into either tyranny or civil war. Solon instituted a programme of reforms that transformed Athens’ political and legal systems, its society and economy, so that later generations referred to him as Solon the Lawgiver. With Melissa Lane Class of 1943 Professor of Politics at Princeton University Hans van Wees Grote Professor of Ancient History at University College London and William Allan Professor of Greek and McConnell Laing Tutorial Fellow in Greek and Latin Languages and Literature at University College, University of Oxford Producer Luke Mulhall
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In the first years of the 6th century BC, the greek city state of Athens was in crisis.
The lower orders of society were ravaged by debt to the point where some of them were being forced into slavery.
An oppressive law code mandated the death penalty for everything from murder to petite theft.
There was a real danger that the city could fall into either tyranny or civil war.
In 594 BC, a man named Solon was elected archon, or chief magistrate.
He instituted a program of reforms that transformed Athens political and legal systems, its society and economy, so that later generations referred to him as Solon the Lawgiver.
Some see him as the father of athenian democracy.
With me to discuss Solon the lawgiver are Hans van Wies, grotesque professor of ancient history at University College London, William Allen, professor of Greek and the Connell Tutorial fellow in greek and latin languages and literature at University College Oxford, and Melissa Lane, the class of 1943 professor of politics at Princeton University.
Melissa Lane, we think Solon was born around 630 BC in Athens.
What was Greece like at the time?
So Solon is born into the middle of the archaic period of greek history.
So that's traditionally dated to begin in 776, towards the start of the 8th century with the first Olympic Games.
And that was a couple of centuries after the mycenaean palace societies had collapsed.
And then the archaic period stretches forward towards the fifth century, which then is followed by the classical period.
So in Solon's time, the polis, the city state, was really taking shape across the greek area, and it was dominated largely in most places by elite families, aristocratic families that drew their wealth largely from the land they enjoyed, symposia, where there would be oral poetry.