Heavy infantry in ancient Greece.
"Solon, the 'Liberator', listened to the complaints of the peasants of Attica who were forced to pay heavy rents to the Eupatrids, and were threatened with servitude for debt. He did away with the horoi, which 'enslaved' the land and forbade a man to mortgage himself or his children. However, despite the reputation which he later acquired in the tradition, he did not really create democracy, and it is almost certain that the assembly of citizens, if it existed at all at that time, was composed only of those among the Athenians who were capable of providing their own armour as hoplites, or heavy infantry."
Claude Mossé, The Ancient World of Work
[translated by Janet Lloyd] (1969).
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