[2][3][4] Solon's efforts to legislate against political, economic and moral decline[5] resulted in his constitutional reform overturning most of Draco's laws.

[13] When Athens and its neighbor and rival in the Saronic Gulf, Megara, were contesting the possession of Salamis, Solon was made leader of the Athenian forces.

[14] The same poem was said by Diogenes Laërtius to have stirred Athenians more than any other verses that Solon wrote: Let us go to Salamis to fight for the island We desire, and drive away from our bitter shame!

[b] Solon was described by Plutarch as having been temporarily awarded autocratic powers by Athenian citizens on the grounds that he had the wisdom to sort out their differences for them in a peaceful and equitable manner.

[21] Some modern scholars believe these powers were in fact granted some years after Solon had been archon, when he would have been a member of the Areopagus and probably a more respected statesman by his peers.

[25] After completing his work of reform, Solon surrendered his extraordinary authority and traveled abroad for ten years, so that the Athenians could not induce him to repeal any of his laws.

[35] A character in two of Plato's dialogues, Timaeus and Critias, claims Solon visited Neith's temple at Sais and received from the priests there an account of the history of Atlantis.

"[42] Ammianus Marcellinus, however, told a similar story about Socrates and the poet Stesichorus, quoting the philosopher's rapture in almost identical terms: ut aliquid sciens amplius e vita discedam,[43] meaning "in order to leave life knowing a little more".

This same account is substantially taken up about three centuries later by the author of the Aristotelian Athenaion Politeia but with an interesting variation: ... there was conflict between the nobles and the common people for an extended period.

A still more significant variation in the ancient historical account appears in the writing of Plutarch in the late 1st – early 2nd century AD: Athens was torn by recurrent conflict about the constitution.

[54] The effects of regionalism in a large territory could be seen in Laconia, where Sparta had gained control through intimidation and resettlement of some of its neighbours and enslavement of the rest.

Solon's laws were inscribed on axones, large wooden slabs or cylinders attached to a series of axles that stood upright in the Prytaneion.

Depending on how we interpret the historical facts known to us, Solon's constitutional reforms were either a radical anticipation of democratic government, or they merely provided a plutocratic flavour to a stubbornly aristocratic regime, or else the truth lies somewhere between these two extremes.

[e] Before Solon's reforms, the Athenian state was administered by nine archons appointed or elected annually by the Areopagus on the basis of noble birth and wealth.

[73][74] By giving common people the power not only to elect officials but also to call them to account, Solon appears to have established the foundations of a true republic.

[g] There is consensus among scholars that Solon lowered the requirements – those that existed in terms of financial and social qualifications – which applied to election to public office.

The Solonian constitution divided citizens into four political classes defined according to assessable property[71][80] a classification that might previously have served the state for military or taxation purposes only.

[89] Solon's reforms can thus be seen to have taken place at a crucial period of economic transition, when a subsistence rural economy increasingly required the support of a nascent commercial sector.

[103] The visible symbol of this perversion of the natural and social order was a boundary marker called a horos, a wooden or stone pillar indicating that a farmer was in debt or under contractual obligation to someone else, either a noble patron or a creditor.

[4] The reforms included: The removal of the horoi clearly provided immediate economic relief for the most oppressed group in Attica, and it also brought an immediate end to the enslavement of Athenians by their countrymen.

According to a surviving fragment from a work ("Brothers") by the comic playwright Philemon,[126] Solon established publicly funded brothels at Athens in order to "democratize" the availability of sexual pleasure.

[127] While the veracity of this comic account is open to doubt, at least one modern author considers it significant that in Classical Athens, three hundred or so years after the death of Solon, there existed a discourse that associated his reforms with an increased availability of heterosexual contacts.

[129][130] According to various authors, ancient lawgivers (and therefore Solon by implication) drew up a set of laws that were intended to promote and safeguard the institution of pederasty and to control abuses against freeborn boys.

In particular, the orator Aeschines cites laws excluding slaves from wrestling halls and forbidding them to enter pederastic relationships with the sons of citizens.

It has been suggested that the tradition presenting a peaceful and happy coexistence between Solon and Pisistratus was cultivated during the latter's dominion, in order to legitimize his own rule, as well as that of his sons.

[139] Solon's presumed pederastic desire was thought in antiquity to have found expression also in his poetry, which is today represented only in a few surviving fragments.

Solon's poetry can be said to appear 'self-righteous' and 'pompous' at times[146] and he once composed an elegy with moral advice for a more gifted elegiac poet, Mimnermus.

πολλοὶ γὰρ πλουτεῦσι κακοί, ἀγαθοὶ δὲ πένονται: ἀλλ' ἡμεῖς αὐτοῖς οὐ διαμειψόμεθα τῆς ἀρετῆς τὸν πλοῦτον: ἐπεὶ τὸ μὲν ἔμπεδον αἰεί, χρήματα δ' ἀνθρώπων ἄλλοτε ἄλλος ἔχει.

[9] Here translated by the English poet John Dryden, Solon's words define a 'moral high ground' where differences between rich and poor can be reconciled or maybe just ignored.

χαῦνα μὲν τότ' ἐφράσαντο, νῦν δέ μοι χολούμενοι λοξὸν ὀφθαλμοῖς ὁρῶσι πάντες ὥστε δήϊον.