Sólon: por uma história econômica na Atenas do século VI a.C.

Abstract

By the VI century B.C., Athens was facing a conflict genaretad by the irregular land ditribution between the eupatridai (members of aristocracy) and the hectemoroi (small farmers). We interpret that this demographic phenom engender an structural reaction antagonism in social relations of Athens. Added to the struggle between the land owners and the peasants, we believe that, according with the historiography, athenian population group wasn t affected by the same growth process of the other Greek poleis. This context raises a singular expansion movement as well as a late identity construction among the athenian in the archaic period. The peasants were not land owners and had to pay the sixth part of the production to the aristocrats. The lack of payment could submit the peasants to slavery by debts. In order to minimize the conflicts, Solon allegedly removed the stone markers, called horoi. However, this action - when superimposed on the multiple meanings of the word horos - provides distinct interpretations that inferred political, economical, religious and social aspects. The lack of resources led farmers to be sold as slaves abroad. The threat of slavery was a resource to repressthose on debt that, to escape debt and slavery miasma, preferred exile. To develop equality (isonomia), Solon, by a Constitution, broke with the aristocratic tradition, dividing the ho polis community into four census classes according to the production capacity and to the detriment of heredity, based on land ownership by eupatridai. This measure establishes a timocratic government establishing a social reform and a political maneuver, accounted for by the military positions. The cancellation of debts (seisachteia) was completed by the withdrawal of horoi and repatriation of slaves. The condition of birth keep the eupatridai in power and authority, even with the loss of income of storage with the end of debt bondage. The history shows that Solon abolished the condition of slaves and made possible the payment of debts by hectemoroi. The legislator renews the economic system of weights and measures, enabling the detached payment of agricultural production and uses a system of values "deflates" the debt incurred instead of increasing it. This economic change favors the emergence of a maritime commercial activity, which is established as an alternative and an enabling mechanism of prosperity, especially for those of limited resources. However, a reinterpretation of political and social representation of Solon is necessary. By addressing prisms as its operating strategos and the urbanization of the Kerameikos, reorganized for the production of ceramics, marked by the presence of foreigners (metics), and the rules of prostitution practices. The existence of commercial practices that go beyond the vicinity of the oikos relate to the old economy and played a prominent role in the documentation through Aristotle. The economic precept in ancient societies is still the subject of debate among researchers, in which the construction of an economic mindset does not dissociate from other social activities, making it necessary to identify the existence of the economic role in the context of social production Athenian.