Lawgiver of Athens, a founder of democracy
A statesman and lawgiver of ancient Athens, counted among the "Seven Sages of Greece." In the sixth century BC, with rich-poor conflict sharpened to the brink of civil war, Solon was called to reform. He abolished the old system by which debt could reduce a man to slavery, and re-divided citizens’ ranks and political rights by property rather than birth, laying the ground for Athens’s later democracy. After legislating, he chose to leave Athens and travel for ten years, so the new laws could run on their own without his interference.
Solon knew well that as long as he stayed in Athens, people would keep coming to beg him to amend the laws or make exceptions. To let the new laws truly stand, unshaken by any one person’s will, he had the Athenians swear not to change them for ten years, and then set out to travel for ten years himself. This restraint — "having made the rules, step aside and let the rules run" — became a most precious lesson in the later spirit of the rule of law.
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