Solonian law compelled every citizen to choose a side during civil strife
Evidence
Agamben recently commented on the constitutive dimension of stasis by recalling the extraordinary law attributed to Solon that required “all citizens, on penalty of being stripped of their citizenship, to take side in times of stasis,” to become enemies (I quote here from Kalimtzis’s summary of Aristotle on stasis. — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 1008
Categorization
Category: Factual Claims
- DEFINE: Clarifies stasis as ‘civil strife/enmity’ that was constitutionally constitutive of the Greek polis.
- SEED: The Solon law forcing citizens to pick a side could anchor an essay on how states militarize neutrality during internal conflict.