Solons solutions

1
Solons solutions

• Seisachtheia shaking-off of burdens
  (cancellation of debt) and elimination of
  debt-slavery
• Law-giver, he gave to the Athenians
• Four classes based on wealth
• Pentakosiomedimnoi gt 500 bushelmen aristocrats
• Hippeis horsemen 500 gt x gt 300 cavalry
• Zeugitai yokemen 300 gt x gt 200 hoplites
• Thetes rowers 200 gt x oarsmen
• Sortition for holding the archonship. Archonship
  open to top two classes. Result?
• Boule (council) of 400, 100/tribe prepared
  business for the ekklesia (assembly)
• Areopagus (Hill of Ares) ex-archons, power to
  punish and protect the polis
• Legal redress for wrongs done against oneself
• Right of appeal to a dikasterion (jury-court)
• Returned exiles to the polis
• Solon ? Egypt, Athens ? anarchia (lack of
  archon) factionalism, dissent, tension

2
Solonian political changes

• Political power based on wealth not birth
• Political decisions no longer in hands of
  Areopagus only boule (council) of 400
  (100/tribe) and hence the demos (people)
• Post-Solonian Athens discontent, civil war, the
  rise of a tyrannos

3
For Wednesday

• Was the Peisistratid tyranny inevitable, or did
  the Athenians have any other choice?
• When the tyranny came to an end, what choices did
  the Athenians have?

4
Athenian tyrannos Rise of the Peisistratids
Land and Resources

• topography of Attica (Landsat)
• reconstruction of Athens (Sikyon.com)
• Archaic Athens images
• composite plan (Acropolis, Athens)
• model (classical Athens)

5
Peisistratus rise to power

• anarchia, 590/89 and 586/5 BCE
• Damasias, 582/1-580/79 BCE
• Sources for Peisistratus
• Herodotus, Thucydides, Atthidographers, Archon
  lists, Athenaion Politeia "Constitution of the
  Athenians"
• Map of Attica
• Factions
• "men of the plain" pediakoi including Philaidai
  and Lykourgos (conservative)
• "men of the coast" paraloi including
  Alkmaionidai and Megakles (moderate)
• "men of the hills" hyperakrioi or diakrioi
  including Peisistratus (appeal to the masses)
• Peisistratos as demotikotakos "friend to
  democracy"
• Peisistratos home at Brauron, owns land in
  Thrace at Strymon River

6
Peisistratus tyrannies

• 561/0 BCE with the club-bearers
• 556/5 BCE with Phye of Paiania
• 546/5 BCE with Battle of Pallene - 528/7 BCE

7
Peisistratus patronage

• City Dionysia - 534/3 BCE (Dionysos and Satyrs)
• Greater/Lesser Panathenaia - 566BCE(?)
  (Panathenaic Amphora one obverse one reverse)
• Codification of Iliad and Odyssey
• Temple of Athena on Akropolis (ca. 529 BCE)
• Reconstruction
• Temple of Olympian Zeus
• Fountainhouses (510 BCE Vase)

8
Tyranny The Next Generation

• Hippias, 528-510 BCE
• Hipparchos, 528-514 BCE
• Tyrannicides Harmodius and Aristogeiton, 514 BCE
• Overthrow of Hippias 511/0 BCE

9
Assessment of Solon and Peisistratids

• What did Solon do for Athens?
• What did Peisistratus do for Athens?
• What did his sons do for Athens?
• On balance, how do you view the political system
  of Athens in the 6th century BCE?