Solon shakes off the burdens

Before Solon, Athens' poor farmed rich men's land for a sixth of the crop and all borrowing was secured on the debtor's own person, so defaulters and their children could be seized as slaves. As archon around 594 BC Solon cancelled debts public and private, freed those enslaved for debt and forbade loans on the person, the seisachtheia or 'shaking-off of burdens'; Aristotle records the charge that friends he told in advance borrowed to buy land and founded old fortunes.

The mechanism

RELEASE

How it was checked

• EvidenceT5 INDEPENDENT SECULAR; Status: ADDED 2026-09-19
• Letter eraTHE PROPHETS AND THE ROAD 776 BC to 4 BC
• SourcesRECORD — Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians 2 and 6 (trans. H. Rackham), Perseus Digital Library; Britannica, 'Solon' · checked 19 September: Plutarch, Life of Solon 13-15 (trans. B. Perrin), LacusCurtius: an independent second ancient account; Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians 6, Perseus