ABSTRACT
Even during his term of office Solon had met with criticism and hostility. Refusing to become a tyrant, as some of his supporters suggested, he tried to safeguard his work by imposing an oath on the archons of each year to maintain his legislation (AP 7, 1. Hdt. 1, 29). He himself went travelling abroad – for ten years, we are told.1 His hope that the Athenians would settle down and give his constitution and legislation a period of trial was soon to be disappointed, though the freedom of the peasantry was never again endangered. After a few years of calm, political and social issues combined to start civil strife again. Though it is a mistake to say that Solon achieved nothing, his attempt at creating a peaceful society had certainly failed. The office of first archon provided the position of power on which the struggle turned, which shows that individual noblemen were fighting against the very principles of Solon’s constitution. The assembly had not yet gained the strength to impose its own decisions, and we do not hear of any political activity by the Areopagus. The little we know of these years comes from AP, and it does not allow us to fill the gaps between the few events mentioned.2
