Solon Writes Back: Another Reading of Díkē in Ancient Hellenic Poets (original) (raw)
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Lorenzo Gagliardi & Laura Pepe (eds.), Dike. Essays on Greek Law in Honor of Alberto Maffi , 2019
Diogenes Laertius is one of the major sources for the laws of Solon, with no less than 14 (usually small) references: frs. 4a, 38g, 66/1e, 89/1b, 104b, 123c, 131–5, 144c, 145, and 149 LEÃO & RHODES. Similarly to the other principal sources, he also provides important information about several poems composed by Solon (frs. 2, 3, 9, 10, 11 and 20 WEST), whose preservation is in two cases owed to him alone (frs. 10 and 20). Notwithstanding, Diogenes tends to be rather underappreciated as a provider of historically accurate and valuable data. This paper intends to analyse more in detail each one of those pieces of information, in order to examine the degree of reliability of Diogenes in what pertains to the poetic and the legal work of the most famous sophos from antiquity.
A Failed Tyrant? Solon’s Place in Athenian History
in: From Homer to Solon. Continuity and Change in Archaic Greece, Leiden, 2022
Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
Poetry and Biography in the Athenaion Politeia: The Case of Solon
Classical Journal , 2013
Ancient biographies of poets are thought to take much of their information from the subjects’ poems. The relationship between poetry and biography is more complex, and I take as a case study the information about Solon in Ath. Pol. 5–12. Aristotle does use Solon’s poetry as a means of establishing the past, but it is more often the case that he reads other traditions into the poetry than that he extrapolates new traditions from the poetry alone. Aristotle also uses his historical knowledge to interpret and comment on the poems in a kind of exegesis.
Early Greek Poetry, Social Mobility, and Solon's Reforms [FINAL PROOFS]
in: V. Pirenne-Delforge and M. Węcowski (eds), Politeia and Koinōnia. Studies in Ancient History in Honour of Josine Blok, Leiden–Boston, 29–45. , 2023
For all the changes in scholarly theories and paradigms that deserve separate treatment, vertical social mobility is a rather neglected subject in archaic Greek history, at best limited to the phenomenon of 'arrivisme' among archaic elites. My present antidōron for Josine's friendship and remarkable scholarship is intended to show that social mobility and, as a result, fluidity of social hierarchies, could have been a basic existential experience of archaic Greek civic communities with far-reaching consequences for our idea of archaic Greek history and some of its crucial episodes.
Solon of Athens: The man, the myth, the tyrant?
2013
I argue that, despite Solon's reputation as an enemy of tyranny, his approach to solving the political discord in Athens in 594 B.C. very closely resembles the way that archaic Greek tyrants succeeded at dealing with similar problems in other city-states. Because tyrants were often popular figures with widespread support, I suggest that Solon's anxiety to avoid the label of tyrant stemmed from the political unrest and bloodshed that arose from the attempted tyranny of Cylon in 632 BC, followed by the harsh and unsuccessful legislation of Drakon in 621. In the dissertation, I first establish that there are two traditions about Solon's motives and actions, indicated by many contradictions in our sources. In one version, Solon appears as a moderate politician who paved the way for the rise of democracy, in part because of his refusal to become a tyrant. In the other, Solon's actions were at times indistinguishable from those of contemporary tyrants, which later sources explain by referring to Solon's assertions in his own poetry to "prove" that these stories were false. I then analyze Solon's poetry, noting that Solon both linguistically distances himself from the concept of tyranny and emphasizes that he does, in fact, possess autocratic powers. The result is a kind of verbal dance, wherein he reminds people: "I am not, nor do1 I wish to be a tyrant; but I could be, and if I were...." Finally, I examine various tyrants who, like Solon, had reputations as legislators. I consider Solon's agricultural reforms, known as the seisachtheia, concentrating in particular on the abolition of debt-slavery, the cancellation of debt, and Solon's refusal to redistribute land. I find that debt cancellation in particular is one of the most common measures used by tyrants as a means of gathering political support from the demos. I also proffer the notion that doing away with debt-slavery may have done more damage than good, concluding that, despite his protests to the contrary, Solon was a tyrant in all but name.