Western Civilization I / Unit 3 WC1 0212 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Athens Before Solon: Wealth, Debt, Debt-Slavery
Captions available
The idea
Athens, democracy's birthplace, kept many slaves and grew rich by trade. By about six hundred B.C.E. aristocrats owned the land, indebted farmers were sold into debt-slavery, and hoplites resented the aristocratic monopoly on office.
In practice
The anchor's six hundred thousand people in Attica, a high figure, attributed.
Where people slip
The crisis was distribution, not poverty. Wealth outran the constitution.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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