ABSTRACT
DURING the troubled times of Solon and Peisistratus economic problems had loomed so large, and so obviously influenced political actions, that they had forced their way even on to the pages of the Greek historians. For the thirty years which followed the expulsion of Hippias we have practically no literary evidence directly concerned with the economic development of Athens. Our knowledge of that development is based on the archaeological record, such as it is, and on deductions drawn from the external activities of the Athenians during this period. In the narrative of these years the power of Persia assumes a role of increasing importance.
