Solon and Democracy
Despite the restriction on office holding by the lowest income class, Solon's
classification scheme supported further development of conditions leading to democracy
because it allowed for upward social mobility: if a man managed to increase his income,
he could move up the scale of eligibility for office. The absence of direct taxes on
income made it easier for entrepreneurial citizens to better their lot. From Solon's
reforms, Athenian male citizens gained a political and social system far more open to
individual initiative and change than that of Sparta.
Equally important to restoring stability in a time of acute crisis was Solon's ruling
that
any male citizen could bring charges on a wide variety of offenses against
wrongdoers on behalf of any victim of a crime.1 Furthermore, he provided for the
right of
appeal2 to the assembly by persons
who believed a magistrate had rendered unjust judgments against them. With these two
measures, Solon made the administration of justice the concern of ordinary citizens and
not just of still predominately aristocratic magistrates. He balanced these judicial
reforms favoring the people, however, by granting broader powers to the
“Council which meets on the Hill of the god of war Ares,” the
Areopagus (meaning “Ares' hill”). Archons became
members of the
Areopagus3 after their year in office. This body of
ex-archons could, if the members chose, exercise great power because at
this period it judged the most serious judicial cases, in particular accusations against
archons themselves. Solon probably also expected the Areopagus to use its
power to protect his reforms.
