itizens he made his ownership of a vessel an excuse for foreign travel, and set sail, after obtaining from the Athenians leave of absence for ten years."4 This would point to another version of events which would have seen Solon creating his legislation during his archonship and then travelling. If Herodotus' account on the travels of Solon can be trusted then this would seem surely to point to that fact that he laid down his laws during his archonship and ten travelled abroad for ten years to escape the people of Athens for a time. A strong argument for the fact that he may have done it during his archonship is that if the situation was as bad as. Aristotle says " and the many being enslaved to the few, the people rose against the notables. [2] The party struggle being violent and the parties remaining arrayed in opposition to one another for a long time "5 If the situation was actually so bad in Athens that they were this close to open rebellion by the lower classes then when Solon was given power to create new laws, he would have no reason to wait any length of time. Aristotle however, wrote quite some time after the fact and his evidence on this can be called into question. In another document he claims that Solon visited Croesus and this is not accepted as historical fact at all showing that Aristotle can be somewhat confused on certain events and one would certainly look to apply that to him here as well. There is one argument that would give the victory to those who propose that he wrote during his term as archon; however, it cannot be proved one way or another since the evidence has been lost. Aristotle says " they jointly chose Solon as arbitrator and Archon, and entrusted the government to him "6 It is unclear whether the phrase "entrusted the government to him" means simply that they gave him power to create laws that they may adopt or to create laws and institute them in his own power. Some historians ...
