Athens and the birth of democracy

The process of Athenian democratization began with the reforms of Solon, elected archon in 594/593 BCE to resolve a severe social crisis caused by peasant debt. Solon decreed the seisachtheia, the cancellation of debts that had driven many citizens into slavery, banned debt bondage, and established a classification of citizenship based on wealth (timocracy) rather than lineage alone, opening access to magistracies to new social groups.