BY THE ARCHAEOLOGIST EDITOR GROUP

In ancient Athens, Solon's legal regulation of debt was known as the Seisachtheia.

This was Solon's first legislation, but not, as some of the ancient authors claim, for the complete cancellation of debts, which Solonian laws prevented, but only for the relief of debtors beset by usurers.

To this end, he reduced the silver drachma by a quarter and a bit more, so that 100 new drachmas contained as much silver as 72.5 old ones. He reduced the debts of the poor to such an extent that it was said that he abolished mortgages on the lands, since this made it easier to repay the debts. However, he left the determination of the interest rate free and forbade the barbaric custom of "indebtedness on one's own body". He declared honorable those who had been convicted of dishonor by debt or for any other reason, except murder and tyranny.

The term comes from ancient Greek and is composed of "seio" (shake) and "achthos" (burden, debt). It essentially meant "to shake off the burdens".

Current regulation before the Seisachteia

Prior to Solon's prohibition of seisachtheia, debt bondage was in effect in Athens: a citizen who could not repay his creditors lost his freedom.

The legislation of Solon

Solon's legislative measures were very bold but also drastic. They were based on the principle of just inequality rather than absolute equality, trying to prevent unrest and the disintegration of the Athenian political community while maintaining social organization and the primacy of that organization in the province of power.

The Seisachtheia was among the reparation measures taken by Solon

Specifically, the existing debts of private individuals to private individuals and to the city were abolished; lending secured by the "body" (personal freedom) of the borrower and his family members was abolished; and those Athenians who had become slaves due to debts were freed. Athenians who had been sold abroad in the meantime were returned to the city.

It is known that Solon ended the dependence of the poor peasants in Attica with the "Seisachtheia". What is not known and remains controversial in research is the procedure by which he restored those who had fallen victim to the arbitrariness of the rich, precisely because there were no written provisions (Solon also says so in one of his poems).

The measure is sometimes associated with the dependent peasants who cultivated the land of the privileged with the agreement to give them 1/6 of the production instead of rent, while sometimes it is associated with all those who borrowed and cultivated the land of the rich and powerful with their personal freedom as a pledge.

The seisachtheia was not created to abolish slavery but to free slaves from their debts. Solon's reforms allowed for two exceptions: The guardian of an unmarried woman who had lost her virginity had the right to sell her into slavery, and a citizen could abandon an unwanted newborn.