Solon

But most writers agree that the disburdenment was a removal of all debt, and with such the poems of Solon are more in accord For in these he proudly boasts that from the mortgaged lands

1. He took away the record-stones that everywhere were planted
2. Before, Earth was in bondage, now she is free

1. uttering no longer Attic speech,
2. So long and far their wretched wanderings
3. And some who here at home in shameful servitude
4. Were held

This undertaking is said to have involved him in the most vexatious experience of his life. For when he had set out to abolish debts, and was trying to find fitting arguments and a suitable occasion for the step, he told some of his most trusted and intimate friends, namely, Conon, Cleinias, and Hipponicus, that he was not going to meddle with the land, but had determined to cancel debts. They immediately took advantage of this confidence and anticipated Solon’s decree by borrowing large sums from the wealthy and buying up great estates.

Then when the decree was published, they enjoyed the use of their properties, but refused to pay the moneys due their creditors. This brought Solon into great condemnation and odium, as if he had not been imposed upon with the rest, but were a party to the imposition.[*](Cf. Aristot. Const. Ath. 1.) However, this charge was at once dissipated by his well-known sacrifice of five talents. For it was found that he had lent so much, and he was the first to remit this debt in accordance with his law. Some say that the sum was fifteen talents, and among them is Polyzelus the Rhodian. But his friends were ever after called chreocopidae, or debt-cutters.