The Effectiveness of Solon’s Reforms in Athens

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The Effectiveness of Solon’s Reforms
Different scholars have different views regarding the success of Solon's reforms. The life of Solon was the main inspiring factor of the 6th lawmaker before the formation of the constitution of Athenians. The Plutarch's texts contain references form the poems of Solon, highlighting the various problems that he was seeking to resolve in order to lead to a better world as compared to what the anthems were facing. They also highlight the solutions that he implemented and how effective they turned out to be. Some of the scholars argue on the viewpoint that solons reforms were the basis for democracy while others claim that the reforms were short lived. Therefore, this paper will incorporate the historical sources and the various modern analysis of solons work to come up with a text of the extent to which solons reforms were effective as well as the impact that they had on the Greek. In addition, Solon was focused on the creation of reforms to solve the financial, judicial and social issues that were facing the people of Athens.
In regard to the financial issues, Solon aimed at the creation of debt relief. Given the huge differences between the rich and the poor, the population was faced with a lot of obsession for money. Therefore, this led to the rich taking advantage of the less privileged by hiring them as slaves to make extraordinary profits at the expense of the poor. In addition, the less privileged had to become slaves for the rich in order to survive. The rich were living an extravagance life and, this put a lot of pressure on the people for the lower classes thus, resulting in most of them being sold into slavery due to the debt bondage. Solon argued out that it was the foolishness of the people and their love for money that they were ready to destroy what was once a great city. Therefore, this is an indication that the poor were willing to do anything that made their financial ends meet even if it made stealing from the rich. In turn, this could result in a city characterized by fear and theft. As well, the fact that the rich were also out to exploit the poor further illustrates how unjust they were in destroying the city.
Therefore, the above problems led to Solon's aim of the debt relief. Debt bondage was one of the main problems in Attica. The poor had accumulated a lot of debts with the rich and, in order to settle them, they were sold into slavery. As well, the rich creditors used this opportunity to poses the lands of the poor as a way of offsetting the financial obligations that they had defaulted. Before the existence of the Solon law, people used themselves as security to get loans from the rich. Therefore, when they were unable to pay, the creditors were willing to employ any way possible that could result in their payment (Raaflaub 2014). As a result, Solon came up with a law that prohibited people from using themselves as security for securing loans. This means that the measures that were being used to collect back the money in the event whereby the debtor had defaulted would no longer be applicable. He came up with the idea of "shaking off o burdens" whereby, both public and private debts would cancel off. As well, the law ensured that the land which had been possessed by the rich creditors as a result of the poor owners being unable to repay their debts was released back to them. Also, the Athenians who had been enslaved abroad were returned to their home country. Solon shows how sure he was in the success of his reform by claiming that he did all through his power and was able to persevere to the end as he had promised. However, some scholars argue out that solon did not clear the issue of debt bondage but only abolished the slavery that was as a result of debts. As well, this means that the abolition of the slave trade would reduce the pressure that the lower class individuals had and thus, reduce the hostility that they were facing in the society. Therefore, Solon led to a lot of changes in slavery and reduced the issue of debt bondage people could no longer take loans by using themselves as the security.
The people were also having judicial issues and, therefore, Solon led to reforms in the constitution in an attempt to solve the issues that the people were having (Horn 216). The reforms transformed the political authority structure by creating a fixed government that was ruled by the law. Before the introduction of the Solon law, the government of the people was formed through hereditary. This meant that the people from the lower classes in society had very few chances of becoming part of the government. They were characterized by poverty, and the government was meant for the rich who had a lot of influence in the society. As well, the poor ended up not being represented in the government and, given the fact that they had no one to fight for their rights or present their needs in the society, then they continued to be poor. This kept on enlarging the gap between the rich and the poor. The background of an individual had a lot of influence on their status in society. In addition, the Metics had a few political rights as compared to the rest of the Athenians and, especially, those from the lowest classes in the society (Klooster 2018). Therefore, the law of Solon was aimed at a government that was ruled by law and whereby, every citizen had a political role to play in the society. Solon came up with a programme whereby, the Athenian community would be divided into four classes that would be based on their agricultural production. However, some scholars argue out that this would turn out as a way of classifying the different rights of the citizens and still maintaining the class of the poor individuals. It is obvious that the rich would have plenty of agricultural produce as compared tp the poor and, therefore, they would belong to different classes and, hence not solving the issue of the class divisions. However, Solon's aim was to introduce a government that was governed by law and, this was a great move to begin the reform. Therefore, these classes played a great role in determining what the society expected of each member. As well, the people from the lowest class in the society had a responsibility and were also allowed to vote. Hence, the fact that every citizen was expected to take part in all the civic activities means that Solon had successfully reduced the issue of class differences. Solon was not able to completely make it possible for every member of the society to be able to hold a position in the government offices because he would have faced a lot of hostility form the people. Therefore, his strategy of ensuring that every citizen was involved in matters concerning the government and, especially voting, created some level of equality while maintaining peace at the same time.
The top their classes were given the responsibility of archonship and other office positions while, on the other hand, the people from the lowest classes were responsible for voting and serving positions in the jury. Solon introduced the use of lots to carry out elections. As a result, this ensured the process of the selection of top leaders was fair and did not bring out chaos. This process meant that the people from the top most classes would have a fair share of power while those...