Daily History Challenge · No. 16 · Tuesday 14 July 2026 · Chain
Puzzle No. 16: Chain
The anchor was Solon's reforms at Athens (594 BCE). Every challenger is listed below with its year.
The anchor
Around 594 BCE the Athenians appointed the statesman and poet Solon as archon with extraordinary powers to resolve a grave social and economic crisis. Rampant debt had reduced many farmers to debt-bondage, threatening civil war between rich and poor. Solon's central measure, the seisachtheia or 'shaking off of burdens', cancelled outstanding debts, freed those enslaved for debt, restored mortgaged land by removing the boundary markers (horoi), and banned loans secured on the borrower's own person. He reorganised the citizen body into four property classes that determined political rights and military obligations, opened the law courts to appeals by ordinary citizens, and allowed any Athenian, not only the injured party, to bring certain prosecutions. While Solon stopped short of full democracy, leaving real power with the wealthier classes, his reforms established the principle that the laws of the polis bound rich and poor alike and that citizenship carried civic rights. By averting tyranny-by-default and broadening participation in justice, Solon laid essential foundations on which Cleisthenes would later build Athenian democracy. He then reportedly left Athens for a decade so the new laws could take root.
The 10 challengers, in order of date
Before Solon's reforms at Athens
After Solon's reforms at Athens
After Solon's reforms at Athens
After Solon's reforms at Athens
After Solon's reforms at Athens
After Solon's reforms at Athens
After Solon's reforms at Athens
After Solon's reforms at Athens
After Solon's reforms at Athens
After Solon's reforms at Athens