A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

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Constitutional Reforms 127
When he had become master of the state, Solon freed Abolition of
debts.
the commons both for the present and for the future by
forbidding loans on the security of the person; and he
enacted laws and made an abolition of debts both private
and public. . . .
He established a constitution and made laws besides,
and the ordinances of Draco they ceased using with the
exception of those concerning homicide. Engraving the
laws on tablets, he set them up in the King's Porch, and
all swore to obey them. The nine archons, taking oath
on a stone, swore that they would dedicate a golden
statue in case they transgressed any of the laws, hence to
the present day they continue to take this oath.
He divided [the population] into four census classes,
just as it had been divided before, into pentacosiomedimni,
knights (hippeis), zeugitse, and thetes. He assigned
the offices to be filled from the pentacosiomedimni, knights
and zeugitae, namely the nine archons, the treasurers,
the commissioners of contracts, the eleven, and the colacretae,
distributing them among the several classes according
to their property ratings. To the thetic class he
granted a share in the assembly and the popular courts
only. A pentacosiomedimnus was one who produced from
his own estate five hundred measures wet and dry together,
a knight three hundred measures, but as some
say, one who could support a horse; and they adduce as
proof the name of the class, with the idea that it was derived
from this circumstance, and they cite the dedicatory
offerings of the ancients, for there stands on the
Acropolis a statue with the following inscription:
"Anthemion, son of Diphilus, dedicated this statue
to the gods when he exchanged the thetic for the knightly
census.
Aristotle,
Const. Ath. 6.
His laws.
lb. 7.
Aristotle
does not say
that all
debts were
abolished;
and Solon's
poems seem
to indicate
that the
abolition applied
only to
securities on
land and
person.
The census
classes.