HISTORY 36B Lecture Notes - Lecture 29: Debt Bondage, Hippeis, Hoplite
Document Summary
Driven by aristocratic families who took over the majority of land. Those with smaller amount of land faced the problem of inheritance. Could be divided so many times over generations. Families with barely enough land or no land. Politics and economy in the 6th century bce. Aristocrats main employer for those without land or in need of more. Renting land to those in need, but with any bad harvest, slippery slope to large amounts of debt. Number of poor increasing vs. small number of wealthy families. Money paid by an aristocrat to the city of athens. Athenians commission solon to solve this problem. Notes that many good people are poor. Defended the rights of the elite and their large control of public affairs. Sixth partners, perhaps they owed a sixth of their produce to the wealthy landowners to pay debts, or pay this portion for protection. Debt was so bad that some had even sold members of their family.
