Axones and Solon's Bureaucratic Reforms


The above is a crude interpretation of Athenian Axones, on which the reforms instituted by Solon in the early 6th century BCE were inscribed for public viewing. Solon’s reforms represented a significant change in the economic and bureaucratic structure of Athens.


In particular, Solon’s eradication of the Athenian hektemoroi system and subsequent institution of an income-based social structure led to substantial changes in the administration of economic policy. Under the hektemoroi system, free Athenian farmers paid a 1/6th tax to wealthy landowners. According to classicist Alain Bresson, this system resulted in poorer Athenians owing massive debts to richer citizens (notably, hektemoroi taxes were owed by citizens to citizens as opposed to by citizens to the government) and an increase in poor Athenians becoming enslaved to pay off debts. 


In eliminating the hektemoroi system, Solon also eliminated the possibility of debt-induced slavery for Athenian citizens. He also instituted a new system of taxation and government representation based on wealth instead of nobility at birth, which simultaneously altered the makeup of the Athenian voting body and increased government revenue. 


Solon’s reforms greatly altered the administration of Athenian economic policy and forever changed the social makeup of the polis. The public display of new policies on axones decreased the amount of bureaucracy necessary to inform the public of the changes; it was a way of simplifying – and perhaps idolizing – the delivery of Solon’s reforms to a society that would be forever changed by them. 


Bresson, Alain. The Making of the Ancient Greek Economy: Institutions, Markets, and Growth in the City-States. Princeton University Press, 2016.

 Agora (Athen) (hellenica.de)

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