It was Hesiod, the founder of Greek didactic poetry, who about 700 B. C. described the Golden Age and the subsequent ages of society. Hesiod protested mildly against the social injustice in his time.[V-1] In the following century, Anaximander, the philosopher, and Theognis, the elegiac poet,[V-2] discussed the value to society of providing that children should be well born and well trained--the fundamental concepts of current eugenics and euthenics. Solon, the Athenian lawgiver, about 590 B. C., began to put into legislative practice certain ideas of social reform, thereby preventing revolution. At that time it was customary to sell persons into slavery who could not pay their debts--a procedure which Solon ended. The cost of living was very high, consequently Solon forbade the export of food products and thereby reduced prices for the consumer. He introduced a measure which today would be considered revolutionary, namely, the limiting of the amount of land which an individual might hold. For the classification of people on the basis of wealth, he substituted a classification on the basis of income. He lessened the severity of the laws of Draco, and in other ways increased the freedom of the individual. Although Solon’s régime was followed by a tyranny, Solon is credited with initiating certain essential ideas of democracy. After the Tyrants, Athens under the leadership of men like Cleisthenes became “a pure democracy.” Cleisthenes democratized the Athenian Constitution. For the four phylae he substituted ten phylae, or units of government, thus securing a new and better distribution of authority. He is credited with introducing ostracism as a mode of punishment; he, it is alleged, was the first individual to be ostracised by his government. The fifth century precursors of Plato and Aristotle were numerous. Aeschylus (525–456 B. C.), the first of the famous Athenian tragic poets, described in general terms the evolution of civilized society.[V-3] The artistic historian, Herodotus, developed through his imagination a world point of view. From an almost unlimited store of legendary and ethnological materials, he elaborated a planetary theme which had its beginning in the Trojan War and its culmination in the conflict between Eastern and Western civilizations. The basic social principle in the writings of Herodotus is that downfall awaits the insolent autocrats of earth. Herodotus describes the customs and habits of the peoples[V-4] whom he visited on his numerous foreign travels in such a detailed and elaborate fashion that he has been styled the world’s first descriptive sociologist.