Note 16 — Chapter I · INTRODUCTION

Even abolition of debts and redivision of lands were not unknown in Greek history. Grote (History of Greece, III, 105 f. and notes) denies this, but the heliastic oath, which he cites (Dem. Adv. Timoc. 746, and Dio Chrysost. Or. xxxi. 332), proves that such measures were agitated, or there would be no reason for protective measures. Cf. infra, Plato (Laws, 736E), who takes this for granted. Cf. Solon’s Fragments; Isoc. (Panath. 259) says that it would be hard to find a Greek state, except Sparta, that has not fallen into “the accustomed accidents,” viz., στάσιν, σφαγάς, φυγὰς ἀνόμους, ἁρπαγὰς χρημάτων, χρεῶν ἀποκοπάς, γῆς ἀναδασμόν, etc.