Plutarch says Solon's friends borrowed to buy estates before his debt cancellation, and Solon cleared his name by writing off five talents owed to him

Before Solon, poor Athenian farmers borrowed on the security of their own bodies. Debtors who defaulted could be enslaved, and some were sold abroad. Marker stones called horoi stood on the land of those in debt. Solon was made archon, traditionally in 594 BC. He cancelled debts, banned loans secured on a person, freed those enslaved for debt and brought back some who had been sold abroad. His own poems say he pulled up the marker stones. He refused the demand to divide the land. Plutarch says Solon told three friends, Conon, Cleinias and Hipponicus, that he would cancel debts but not redistribute land. They borrowed large sums from the rich, bought great estates, and then refused to repay when the law came in. Athenians called them the debt-cutters. Solon was blamed. Plutarch says he cleared himself because his own law cost him five talents owed to him. The Athenian Constitution, attributed to Aristotle, reports the charge that Solon told the notables in advance and calls it false. Plutarch says the reform pleased neither side: the rich lost their securities and the poor did not get land. Athenians later held a public sacrifice they named Seisachtheia. Plutarch does not say the friends lost the estates they had bought.