EDWARD'S LECTURE NOTES:
More notes at http://tanguay.info/learntracker
C O U R S E
The Ancient Greeks
Andrew Szegedy-Maszak, Wesleyan University
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C O U R S E L E C T U R E Solon Against Political, Economic, and Moral Decline Notes taken on March 21, 2015 by Edward Tanguay |
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circumstances that make a state ripe for a tyranny
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entrenched, old elite who control:
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1. most of the good land
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2. political and legal processes
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this was the situation in Corinth with Cypselus [KIP-sel-us] and his son Periander
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a paradigm of how tyranny
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background to Solon
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in Athens
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domination of clans who called themselves the Eupatrids
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established tight control over resources of the state
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beginning of 6th century BC, economic crisis
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sources of this are from later
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large class of farmers who were impoverished and in a debt-bondage
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tremendous social tension
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Solon
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paradigm of law-giver
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member of the seven sages
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one of the founders of the Athenian civic identity
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a middle citizen
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594 BCE Solon's reforms
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sources
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account in Herodotus
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constitution of Athens
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Plutarch's Life of Solon
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600 years after his death
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Solon's wrote his own poetry
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Solon
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middle citizen
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may have been a merchant who traveled widely
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this was unlikely, as he was clearly a member of he elite and they wouldn't have chosen a merchant
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but a merchant would have been able to travel from place to place and observe other peoples' customs
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reforms
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widespread
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economic reforms
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hectemor, "sixth partner" debtor
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annually, the debtor owed one sixth of his land and crops to the creditor
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horos
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boundary stone's that marked off property
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seisachtheia
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"shaking off of burdens"
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cancellation of debt
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creditors wanted this because it staved off revolution
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there was the idea that land could not change hands since it belonged to your ancestors and your offspring, and you were just holding it temporarily
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no internal slavery
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no Athenian could hold another Athenian as a slave
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from then on, slaves were only from somewhere else
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political reforms
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four property classes
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1. Pentacosiomedimnoi
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property produced 500 measures of grapes and other crops
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traditionally, wealthy landowners
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2. Hippeis
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300 measures
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"horsemen" or "knights"
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was more expensive to outfit yourself as a knight than a hoplite
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3. Zeugitae
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"yokemen"
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200 measures
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relatively well-to-do farmers who could afford Hoplite armor
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4. Thetes
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"none of the above"
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subsistence farmers
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replacing the criteria of birth with wealth
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linked this to access to political office
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e.g. only Pentacosiomedimnoi could have top positions
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but all citizens had the right to participate in the assembly
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"the council of 400"
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mentioned but unsure it existed
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allowed for social mobility
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Aristotle in the Constitution of Athens saw a dedicatory statue, said, "I dedicate this on having risen from the Thetic class to the class of knights"
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the possibility to make money an rise through the ranks
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new economic reality
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right of legal intervention
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any citizen could hold another
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right to transfer a legal case from a magistrate to jury court
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how Solon promoted his reforms
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he was a poet
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in a symposium
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formalized drinking party for the elite
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recitation of poetry
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I gave everybody what they are entitled to, not too much, not too little
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repeatedly refers to himself as a boundary stone
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or a wolf surrounded by hunters, fending them off
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had himself the opportunity to make himself tyranny, but passed it up
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the first three-dimension, fully vivid character that we have seen so far
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becomes a figure of enormous importance of Athenian ideology
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later thinkers return to his ideas