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Solon So is known for The Tuxedo (2002), Shanghai Noon (2000) and The Forbidden Kingdom (2008).
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Solon, (born c. 630 bce—died c. 560 bce), Athenian statesman, known as one of the Seven Wise Men of Greece (the others were Chilon of Sparta, Thales of Miletus, Bias of Priene, Cleobulus of Lindos, Pittacus of Mytilene, and Periander of Corinth). Solon ended exclusive aristocratic control of the government, substituted a system of control by the we...
In Solon’s lifetime, the Greeks had not yet begun to write history or biography. It was not until the 5th century that accounts of his life and works began to be put together, on the evidence of his poems (of which the 300 or so lines preserved by quotation probably represent only a small proportion), his law code, oral tradition, and inference from existing institutions. Although certain details have a legendary ring, the main features of the story seem to be reliable.
Solon was of noble descent but moderate means. As the tradition states and his travels and economic measures suggest, he may have been a merchant. He first became prominent about 600 bce, when the Athenians were disheartened by ill success in a war with their neighbours of Megara for possession of the island of Salamis. By publicly reciting a poem that made the issue a matter of national honour and that called on the Athenians to “arise and come to Salamis, to win that fair island and undo our shame,” Solon induced them to resume the war, which they eventually won.
Solon had already held office as archon (annual chief ruler) about 594 bce. It was probably about 20 years later that he was given full powers as reformer and legislator. His first concern was to relieve the immediate distress caused by debt. He redeemed all the forfeited land and freed all the enslaved citizens, probably by fiat. This measure, known popularly as the “shaking off of burdens,” was described by Solon in one of his poems:
These things the black earth…could best witness for the judgment of posterity; from whose surface I plucked up the marking-stones [probably signs of the farmers’ indebtedness] planted all about, so that she who was enslaved is now free. And I brought back to Athens…many who had been sold, justly or unjustly, or who had fled under the constraint of debt, wandering far afield and no longer speaking the Attic tongue; and I freed those who suffered shameful slavery here and trembled at their masters’ whims.
He also prohibited for the future all loans secured on the borrower’s person. But he refused to go to the length demanded by the poor, which was to redistribute the land. Instead, he passed measures designed to increase the general prosperity and to provide alternative occupations for those unable to live by farming: e.g., trades and professions were encouraged; the export of produce other than olive oil was forbidden (so much grain had been exported that not enough remained to feed the population of Attica); the circulation of coined money (invented in Solon’s lifetime) was stimulated by the minting of a native Athenian coinage on a more-suitable standard than that of the coins of neighbours, which had been used hitherto; and new weights and measures were introduced. The rapid spread of the new coinage and of Athenian products, particularly olive oil and pottery, throughout the commercial world of the times, attested by archaeology, shows that these measures were effective. Poverty, though not eliminated, was never again in Attica the crying evil that it had been before Solon’s reforms.
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Solon’s new political constitution abolished the monopoly of the eupatridae and substituted for it government by the wealthy citizens. He instituted a census of annual income, reckoned primarily in measures of grain, oil, and wine, the principal products of the soil, and divided the citizens into four income groups, accordingly. (Those whose income...
Solon ( Greek: Σόλων; c. 630 – c. 560 BC) [1] was an archaic Athenian statesman, lawmaker, political philosopher, and poet. He is one of the Seven Sages of Greece and credited with laying the foundations for Athenian democracy.
Solon So is known for The Tuxedo (2002), Shanghai Noon (2000) and New Police Story (2004).
Mar 10, 2016 · Solon (c. 640 – c. 560 BCE) was an Athenian statesman, lawmaker, and poet, who is credited with restructuring the social and political organisation of Athens and thereby laying the foundations for Athenian democracy.
- Mark Cartwright
May 1, 2016 · Solon the Athenian was a great philosopher and one of the seven sages of ancient Greece. However, he’s mainly remembered for being the legislator who laid the foundation for Athenian democracy with his reforms and efforts to legislate against political, economic, and moral decline.
so· lon ˈsō-lən. -ˌlän. Synonyms of solon. 1. : a wise and skillful lawgiver. 2. : a member of a legislative body. Synonyms. lawgiver. lawmaker. legislator. See all Synonyms & Antonyms in Thesaurus. Examples of solon in a Sentence. one of the most politically adept solons in the state legislature.
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