A major feature of Archaic Greece was a drastic increase in the codification and publication of written law codes on stone or other objects. The most famous incidence is the publication of Solon's laws on the mysterious axones and kyrbeis after his extraordinary appointment as archon in 594/3 bce. Though these wide-ranging laws only survive in fragments found in much later authors, we know from these sources that Solon's laws were hugely influential. They were even re-published by a board of anagrapheis in 411/0 almost two centuries after their original inception, showing how integral they were to Athenian legal matters. The laws were wide-ranging, covering public and private offences (including homicide), economy and trade regulations, social issues, politics, sexual morality and more. Unfortunately, all our information on Solon comes from authors writing centuries after his death. Herodotus gives us our first extended treatment of Solon, but focuses on his poetry and persona as a wise man, as does Plato in the Timaeus, which blends myth and history in his account of Solon's visit to Egypt. We get most of our information on the law code from later authors and works, such as the Athenaion Politeia, orators such as Demosthenes (18.6; 19.252–4; 20.103; 57.32; 22.25; 24.103–6, 113–15), Aeschines (1.16–17; 3.257) and Isocrates (15.232, 313, 252; 42.1; 43.62–7; 7.17, 59; 61.49–50). Plutarch give us more information on his actual laws, but the question of reliability plagues all our sources.

Up to this point, one has had to consult the two volumes of E. Ruschenbusch's 1966 Solonos Nomoi for a comprehensive examination of the laws. These volumes only provide the Greek or Latin texts, with no translations and very little commentary. Ruschenbusch began work on a German translation and commentary in a revision of his work, Solon: Das Gesetzeswerk – Fragmente. Unfortunately, however, he died in 2007 before completing these emendations, leaving his colleague K. Bringmann to finish and publish his work posthumously (2010). Ruschenbusch's volumes have many issues, particularly on questions of authenticity. He omits many laws that he considered not to be genuine or of no importance with little or no explanation of why, often leaving us to guess why he considered certain fragments to be spurious or insignificant. This is especially problematic, since many other scholars do consider these laws to be reliable. Ruschenbusch also neglects much valuable work on Greek Law in general (such as the important work of M. Gagarin, R. Stroud and E. Harris) and Solon's laws in particular. Leão and Rhodes go a long way towards remedying these omissions, incorporating 37 fragments not found in Ruschenbusch's volumes. They also include 22 fragments that Ruschenbusch decided were not reliable and, contra Ruschenbusch, adjudge three (possibly four; fr. 23d seems to be only partially genuine) as authentic.

In his introduction Ruschenbusch accepts the standard background of Solon's laws. He focuses on the survival of the laws in fragments in later authors, the relationship between the kyrbeis and axones and their status as objects, the lack of change in the text of the laws, the date of their destruction, the scope and organisation of the laws, and their transmission and use as a contemporary body of law. He also discusses the use of many of these laws in orators and comedians. Leão and Rhodes take less of the standard background for granted, beginning with the publication of the laws of Draco and Solon, followed by the subsequent use of their laws. Additionally, they include eminently readable translations and up-to-date scholarship. They also provide concise yet comprehensive commentary placing Solon's life and laws in the larger context of early sixth-century Greece. The volume covers laws and punishments for offences such as homicide, public and private offences, economic reforms, and religious and political institutions, as well as expanding on the difficulties in determining the authenticity of Solon's laws. In some instances Leão and Rhodes closely follow Ruschenbusch's commentary on the less significant fragments; even so, their discussion of the larger body of Athenian law, including homicide laws, the credibility of laws found in the orators, laws on theft, slander, rape and adultery, the law against tyranny and family law, are highly detailed and contextualise the laws in a way that Ruschenbusch does not. Their commentary on Solon's puzzling law against neutrality is particularly useful and detailed (pp. 63–6).

Leão and Rhodes's new edition of Solon's laws is a major contribution to scholarship on Solon. While many important works on Solon's poetry have been published in the last two decades, in particular M. Noussia-Fantuzzi's Solon the Athenian: the Poetic Fragments (2010) and E. Irwin's Solon and Early Greek Poetry: the Politics of Exhortation (2005), most of the works on Solon's laws are limited to articles or chapters in edited volumes, such as in J.H. Blok and A.P.M.H. Lardinois's excellent volume Solon of Athens: New Historical and Philological Approaches (2006). Leão and Rhodes fill this gap admirably.

One quibble with the book is the complicated system of cross-referencing. It mostly follows the categorisation and organisation of Ruschenbusch/Bringmann, except where the editors have included new fragments. For example, additions to Ruschenbusch's numbering include a slash (e.g. Fr.4/1a), which is slightly cumbersome and involves some confusing cross-referencing. However, given that Ruschenbusch's numbering system has been standard for the last 50 years, inclusion of this notation is perhaps unavoidable. They also limit their apparatus criticus to a degree even more than that of Ruschenbusch, confining themselves to places where the meaning of a particular word is affected, and in places where they have revised the text. Since this book is poised to replace Ruschenbusch's volumes as the go-to text for Solon's laws, more detail in this respect would have been welcome.

Without a doubt, Leão and Rhodes have eclipsed Ruschenbusch as the definitive critical edition of Solon's laws. Its comprehensive introduction, clear translations, commentary, extensive bibliography and even comparative Latin texts makes it a much-needed and welcome addition to legal scholarship in Archaic and Classical Greece.