SOLON, THE LAW-GIVER OF
ATHENS.

We have told how Sparta came to have an aris-
tocratic government, under the laws of Lycurgus.
We have now to tell how Athens came to have a
democratic government, under the laws of Solon.
These formed the types of government for later
Greece, some of whose nations became aristocracies,
following the example of Sparta; others became
democracies, and formed their governments on the
model of that of Athens.

As before Lycurgus the Spartan commonwealth
was largely without law, so was Athens before
Solon. In those days the people of Attica—of
which Athens was the capital city—were divided
into three factions,—the rich, the middle class, and
the poor. As for the poor, they were in a condition
of misery, being loaded down with debt, and many
of them in a state of slavery to the rich, who owned
nearly all the land.

At that period what law existed was very severe
against debtors. The debtor became the slave of
his creditor, and was held in this state until he
could pay his debt, either in money or in labor.
And not only he, but his younger sons and his un-
married daughters and sisters, were reduced to
slavery. Through the action of this severe law

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