The historian Roger Just states the main principle of the "epiklerate" was that no man could become the guardian of the property without also becoming the husband of the "epikleros". Just uses this principle to claim that any man adopted by the father of an "epikleros" was required to marry the "epikleros". Just states that the forcible divorce and remarriage of an "epikleros" was based on this principle, arguing that if the father of the "epikleros" had not adopted the first husband, the husband was not really the heir. Just sees the development of the "epiklerate" as flowing from Solon's desire to keep the number of Athenian households constant. According to Just, before Solon's legislation, the "epikleros" was just treated as part of the property, but that Solon's reforms transformed the "epikleros" into a transmitter of the property and her son the automatic heir to her father's estate.