Solon c.638-559BC
Athenian lawgiver

He was born into an aristocratic Athenian family, and was elected archon in 594BC, in a time of economic distress, and was appointed to reform the constitution. He set free all people who had been enslaved for debt (by the so-called Seisachtheia), reformed the currency, admitted a fourth class (Thetes) to the citizenship, and set up a Boul� (council) of 400. He sought a compromise between democracy and oligarchy, and repealed the more stringent laws of Draco except those relating to murder. He wrote elegiac and iambic poetry, some of which survives, as a vehicle for his political and social observations; in particular he praised the concept of Eunomia (good Order), which he sought in his reforms. He is said to have travelled for 10 years after the completion of his work (although an alleged meeting with Croesus of Lydia is probably unhistorical). He died soon after his kinsman Pisistratus seized power.