Solon (638?-559?bc), Athenian statesman and legislator, considered the founder of Athenian democracy. Born of a noble family, as a young man he engaged in foreign trade, gaining valuable experience. During his lifetime, a crisis occurred in social and economic conditions in Greece. An agricultural depression had taken hold, and many free Athenian small farmers who could not pay their debts were sold into slavery. In 594 bc Solon was elected archon, or chief magistrate, to reform the oppressive conditions.

Solon immediately forbade borrowing on the security of the person of the debtor and canceled all current mortgages and debts. He also encouraged those who could not live by farming to take up other occupations, thereby giving impetus to trades and professions. Equally important were Solon's constitutional reforms. He retained the older division of people into classes according to wealth: the pentacosiomedimni, that is, those whose annual income equaled 500 medimni (1 medimnus = 1.5 bushels or 8.5 gallons) of grain, wine, or oil; the hippeis, or knights, who could supply a war-horse for military service and whose income amounted to 300 medimni; and the zeugitae, or teamsters, who could supply a yoke of oxen and had an income of 200 medimni. To these classes he added as a fourth class the thetes, who in general were without property. Political offices were open only to members of the first three classes, but to the thetes he gave the right to take part in the public assembly. This step was important in the development of popular government, because the selection of the assembly out of the entire citizen body gave the people control over the administration. A new council, composed of 400 members, was formed to prepare proposals for the general assembly. The council assumed many of the legislative functions formerly held by the council of the Areopagus. On each of the four classes Solon also imposed certain duties. The three highest provided the land army of Attica, while the thetes, as rowers in the triremes (ancient ships with three banks of rowers), formed the most important part of the navy, later to prove the salvation of Greece and the mainstay of the Athenian Empire.

Solon's regulations ranged over every province of life, including marriage, adoption, clothing, farming, and the calendar. Although many details of his legislation are obscure and disputed, Solon undoubtedly emancipated the individual and took the first decisive step toward complete and true democracy. The keynote of his reforms was moderation, and he believed that each class should receive privileges in proportion to the public burdens it was able to bear. The reforms met with dissatisfaction, however, being too democratic to please the wealthier aristocrats and not democratic enough to suit the people. In fact, tradition indicates that Solon met with such opposition that, following his year in office, he withdrew from Athens for a period of approximately ten years.

Solon occupies a prominent position also as the first Athenian poet. The extant fragments of his verse, however, are less valuable as poetry than as statements of his political aims.