Solon the Reformer and his Republic
In 632 B.C, the opportunist Cylon tried to establish himself as tyrant of Athens, and failed.
By 600, Athens was in disarray. The last decades had seen the Athenian pottery trade fall behind their Corinthian competition, and its aristocratic class become more ruthless. Poor farmers were becoming serfs of the rich when they could not pay their debts, and the landless were enslaved and sold abroad. Territorial groups could not be controlled by the weak central government so the Polis split into factions.
The time was right, once again, for a tyrant to emerge. A man was put forward by his followers in their quest for a tyrant leader, but he defied them instead. That man took it upon himself to try to fix the polis single-handed -- to create a republic instead of a democracy. That man was Solon.