Solon (c. 630 – c. 560 BC) was an Athenian poet, legislator, and philosopher, considered one of the Seven Sages of Greece. He lived in a time of great social and economic instability in Athens, marked by the growing debt of peasants and the concentration of power in the hands of the aristocracy. His reforms aimed to alleviate the crisis and establish a more just basis for Athenian society, promoting what would be the embryo of democracy.