as a movement on the part of the
nobles to obtain a partition of the government, while the common people
were not improved at all by the process. The kings, indeed, in the
ancient time made a better government for the people than did the
nobles. The people at this period were in great trouble. The nobles
had loaned money to their wretched neighbors and, as the law was very
strict, the creditor might take possession of the property and even of
the person of the debtor, making of him a slave.

In this way the small proprietors had become serfs, and the masters
took from them five-sixths of the products of the soil, and would, no
doubt, have taken their lands had these not been inalienable.
Sometimes the debtors were sold into foreign countries as slaves, and
at other times their children were taken as slaves according to the
law. On account of the oppression of the poor by the nobility, there
sprang up a hatred between these two classes.

A few changes were made by the laws of Draco and others, but nothing
gave decided relief to the people. The nine archons, representing the
power of the state, managed nearly all of its affairs, and retained
likewise their seats in the council of nobles. The old national
council formed by the aristocratic members of the community still
retained its hold, and the council of archons, though it divided the
country into administrative districts and sought to secure more
specific {235} management of the several districts, failed to keep down
internal disorders or to satisfy the people. The people were formed
into three classes: the wealthy nobility, or land-owners of the plain,
the peasants of the mountains districts, and the people of the coast
country, the so-called middle classes. The hatred of the nobility by
the peasants of the mountains was intense. The nobles demanded their
complete suppression and subordination to the rule of their own class.
The people of the coast would have been contented with moderate
concessions from the nobility, which would give them a part in the
government and leave them unmolested.

_Constitution of Solon Seeks a Remedy_.--Such was the condition of
affairs when Solon proposed his reforms. He sought to remove the
burdens of the people, first, by remitting all fines which had been
imposed; second, by preventing the people from offering their persons
as security against debt; and third, by depreciating the coin so as to
make payment of debt easy. H