biography
pronunciation:
[sohlon]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (7th–6th-c BC)
|
| biography:
| Athenian statesman, law-giver, and poet. As chief archon, he enacted many economic, constitutional, and legal reforms, and paved the way for the development of democracy at Athens, and her emergence as a great trading state. Enslavement for debt was abolished, a new currency instituted, and citizenship granted to foreign craftsmen settling in Athens. Wealth rather than birth was made the criterion for participation in political life, and Draco's inhumane legal code was largely repealed. |
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