From 684 B.C. to 624 B.C., the aristocratic party exercised unlimited control over the Athenian state, and during the entire sixty years used their great power to crush out even a semblance of free institutions. The thirst for power among them was equalled only by their greed for gain; hence while wielding the former, they gratified their cupidity by gathering into their own coffers almost the entire wealth of the nation. With the machinery of legislation turned against them, the middle and lower classes were soon robbed even of their means of support. Most of the land was mortgaged, and the persons of the owners held by the Eupatrids for debt. Men sold their children and their sisters to satisfy the demands of creditors,[168] and such was the inequality existing between various classes that dissensions arose on every hand, and a general state of confusion, disorder, and discontent prevailed. Thus may be observed some of the processes by which the early principles of fraternity, liberty, and justice were overthrown. [168] _Ibid._ At length the sufferings of the people caused by the injustice and rapacity of their rulers became unbearable, and by means of various signs of discontent, notably that of a popular demand for written laws, it became evident that a crisis had been reached. The Eupatrids, pretending to heed the popular demand, elected Draco, one of their number, to the office of archon, with the understanding that a code of written laws defining the rights of the several classes be prepared. As the Greeks of the Draconian and Solonic age were but a few centuries removed from a time when individual liberty and equality had constituted the cardinal principles upon which society was founded, we may believe that that spirit of personal independence and self-respect which had been inherited from gentile institutions, although it had perhaps slumbered, had never been crushed; therefore, a condition of subjection or slavery, although for a time endured, could not be willingly accepted as a settled fact. As the laws prepared by Draco tended only to aggravate the abuses of which the people complained, it is quite evident that no reform was intended; the Eupatrids, however, had mistaken the temper of the people, and the fact soon became manifest, even to the members of the governing classes themselves, that certain concessions must be made to the popular demand for justice. An idea of the rapacity, greed, dishonesty, and cupidity which prevailed at this stage of Greek life may be obtained from the writings of Theognis, a poet of Grecian Mega, who lived about five hundred and seventy years B.C. Among his Maxims appear the following: