Social crisis in Athens of Solon and the establishment of justice based on the law

Abstract

The first part of the article discusses the social crisis in Athens faced by Solon during his archonship in 594/3 BC. After focusing on theoretical considerations of Aristotle and Plutarch’s accounts of the crisis, we aim to review different approaches of modern scholarship to the social and economic situation in Athens. On the second part we argue to what extent can Solon’s poems, particularly the fr. 36W, show a political response to economic relationships between social groups that somehow takes the social conflict between individuals and social groups into the realm of the polis. The written law intends to mediate the individual or class interests that, ultimately, have led to stasis, or social conflict. In conclusion we draw attention to the importance of these events to the modern debate on the relation between power, violence and law.

http://dx.doi.org/10.14195/2183-1718_66_4