Solon
<p ><b>Solon</b> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English" >/</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ˈ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >s</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >oʊ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >l</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ɒ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >n</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >,</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ˈ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >s</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >oʊ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >l</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ə</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >n</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English" >/</a>; <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_language" title="Greek language" >Greek</a>: <a href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%A3%CF%8C%CE%BB%CF%89%CE%BD" class="extiw" title="wikt:Σόλων" >Σόλων</a>; c. 638 – c. 558 BC) was an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_Athens" title="Classical Athens" >Athenian</a> <a href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/statesman" class="extiw" title="wikt:statesman" >statesman</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law" title="Law" >lawmaker</a>, and poet. He is remembered particularly for his efforts to legislate against political, economic, and moral decline in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaic_period_in_Greece" title="Archaic period in Greece" class="mw-redirect" >archaic</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athens" title="Athens" >Athens</a>. His reforms failed in the short term, yet he is often credited with having laid the foundations for Athenian democracy.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solon#cite_note-1" >[1]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solon#cite_note-2" >[2]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-E.Harris.2C_1997_3-0" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solon#cite_note-E.Harris.2C_1997-3" >[3]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solon#cite_note-4" >[4]</a></sup>
Knowledge of Solon is limited by the lack of documentary and archeological evidence covering <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athens" title="Athens" >Athens</a> in the early 6th century BC.<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solon#cite_note-5" >[5]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solon#cite_note-6" >[6]</a></sup> He wrote poetry for pleasure, as patriotic <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda" title="Propaganda" >propaganda</a>, and in defense of his constitutional reforms. His works only survive in fragments. They appear to feature <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpolation_(manuscripts)" title="Interpolation (manuscripts)" >interpolations</a> by later authors and it is possible that fragments have been wrongly attributed to him (see <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solon#Solon_the_reformer_and_poet" >Solon the reformer and poet</a>).<sup class="noprint Inline-Template" >[<i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No_original_research" title="Wikipedia:No original research" >original research?</a></i>]</sup> Ancient authors such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herodotus" title="Herodotus" >Herodotus</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutarch" title="Plutarch" >Plutarch</a> are the main source of information, yet they wrote about Solon long after his death, at a time when history was by no means an academic discipline. Fourth century orators, such as<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeschines" title="Aeschines" >Aeschines</a>, tended to attribute to Solon all the laws of their own, much later times.<sup id="cite_ref-V.Ehrenberg.2C_1973_7-0" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solon#cite_note-V.Ehrenberg.2C_1973-7" >[7]</a></sup> Archaeology reveals glimpses of Solon's period in the form of fragmentary inscriptions but little else. For some scholars, our "knowledge" of Solon and his times is largely a fictive construct based on insufficient evidence<sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solon#cite_note-8" >[8]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solon#cite_note-9" >[9]</a></sup> while others believe a substantial body of real knowledge is still attainable.<sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solon#cite_note-10" >[10]</a></sup> Solon and his times are interesting to students of history as a test of the limits and nature of historical argument.<sup id="cite_ref-11" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solon#cite_note-11" >[11]</a></sup>
<sup id="cite_ref-11" class="reference" > </sup>
</p>