SOLON

SOLON was born in the 7th century BC. At 20, he became a hero because of his courage and his talent for military strategy. Later, he saved Athens from civil war by substituting a “ State of Law” to the traditional revenge cycle. Amazingly, he invented the first political “Constitution” in history as a foundation for the first “State of Law”. Moreover, he had an in-depth understanding of individual and collective motivations. He defined for every citizen a right and an obligation to participate in two major institutions : the “Assembly of all citizens” and the “Court of Law” where the judgments were made following testimonies, rational arguments and demonstrations rather than religious criteria or superstitions. His inventions proved to be the best protection against the tyranny of a person or of a group and they prepared the Athenians to live, in the following century, the greatest experience of participatory democracy in history. His portrait is represented at the entrance of the U.S. Congress.