Starting from the terrifying prospect of the bankruptcy of modern Greece, the idea of the illustrious Athenian legislator Solon leaped forth from the oblivion of the past. Approximately half a century was not enough to erase from the memory of a young student the indelible word seisachtheia and along with it the thousands of scattered 'stones', the 'signs of debt', in the fields of ancient Attica, which the Athenians were abandoning chaotically and in fear, unable to repay their odious debts, in order not to be captured and sold as slaves along with their children to foreigners.

Resorting to the philosophical thought of ancient Greek thinkers is the main purpose of this essay, and the historical review of the past will confirm abundantly that economic phenomena are cyclical, as human nature remains unchanged. And as the learned Schumpeter mentions, the economic problems of antiquity and their management were not different but similar to our own, and 'the history of economic analysis begins only with the Greeks'.

Therefore, I dedicate this work to the Greeks who believe in a spiritual heritage grounded in the moral values of humanity and not in the dictates of the goddess Atë, of the 'madness imposed by the divine'.

[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]