CLASSICS 1M03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Eupatridae, Hippeis, Solonian Constitution
13 May 2016
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Document Summary
Spartan unity and stability on the basis of helot serfdom. Athenian disunity and crisis due to impoverishment athenian farmers. Solon: archon in 594/3: given emergency powers to deal with this crisis, describes himself as standing in the middle; standing in the middle of the elite and the rest of society and providing the equal distribution of power. All native males, including thetes, to enjoy certain protections and powers: abolished obligations of hektermoroi, freed enslaved athenians, and banned debt-slavery, assembly final authority in passage of laws and decrees, and also now final court of appeal. Gave this assembly a judicial and legislative power. He entitled all citizens to bring public charges. Offences that were deemed not private offences committed against one another but offences that harmed the whole community: any citizen may bring a public prosecution. Eligibility for election to magistracies divided between zeugitai, hippeis, and pentakosiomedimnot; thetes excluded: class distinction.
