Solon
(legendary,
died 539 B.C.E.)
By
Plutarch
Translated by John Dryden
Didymus, the grammarian, in his
answer to Asclepiades concerning Solon's Tables of Law, mentions
a passage of one Philocles, who states that Solon's father's
name was Euphorion, contrary to the opinion of all others who have
written concerning him; for they generally agree that he was the son of Execestides, a man of moderate wealth and power in the city, but
of a most noble stock, being descended from Codrus; his mother,
as Heraclides Ponticus affirms, was cousin to Pisistratus's
mother, and the two at first were great friends, partly because
they were akin, and partly because of Pisistratus's noble
qualities and beauty. And they say Solon loved him; and that is
the reason, I suppose, that when afterwards they differed about the
government, their enmity never produced any hot and violent passion, they remembered their old kindnesses, and retained-
"Still in its embers living the strong fire" of their love and dear affection. For that Solon was not proof against beauty, nor of
courage to stand up to passion and meet it-
"Hand to hand as in the ring," we may conjecture by his poems, and one of his laws, in which there are practices forbidden to
slaves, which he would appear, therefore, to recommend to
freemen. Pisistratus, it is stated, was similarly attached to
one Charmus; he it was who dedicated the future of Love in the
Academy, where the runners in the sacred torch race light their
torches. Solon, as Hermippus writes, when his father had ruined
his estate in doing benefits and kindnesses to other men, though he
had friends enough that were willing to contribute to his relief, yet was ashamed to be beholden to others, since he was descended from a
family who were accustomed to do kindnesses rather than receive
them; and therefore applied himself to merchandise in his youth;
though others assure us that he travelled rather to get learning
and experience than to make money. It is certain that he was a
lover of knowledge, for when he was old he would say, that he-
"Each day grew older, and learnt something new;" and yet no admirer of riches, esteeming as equally wealthy the man-
"Who hath both gold and silver in his hand,
Horses and mules, and acres of wheat-land,
And him whose all is decent food to eat,
Clothes to his back and shoes upon his feet,
And a young wife and child, since so 'twill be,
And no more years than will with that agree;"
and in
another place-
"Wealth I would have, but wealth by wrong procure
I would not; justice, e'en if slow, is sure."
And it is perfectly possible for a good man and a statesman, without being solicitous for
superfluities, to show some concern for competent necessaries.
In his time, as Hesiod says,- "Work was a shame to
none," nor was distinction made with respect to trade, but
merchandise was a noble calling, which brought home the good things
which the barbarous nations enjoyed, was the occasion of friendship with
their kings, and a great source of experience. Some merchants have built
great cities, as Protis, the founder of Massilia, to whom the Gauls, near the
"Some wicked men are rich, some good are poor,
We will not change our virtue for their store:
Virtue's a thing that none can take away;
But money changes owners all the day."
At first he used his poetry only in trifles, not for any serious purpose,
but simply to pass away his idle hours; but afterwards he introduced moral sentences and state matters, which he did, not to record them
merely as an historian, but to justify his own actions, and
sometimes to correct, chastise, and stir up the Athenians to
noble performances. Some report that he designed to put his laws
into heroic verse, and that they began thus:-
"We humbly beg a blessing on our laws
From mighty jove, and honour, and applause."
In philosophy, as most of the wise men then, he chiefly esteemed the
political part of morals; in physics, he was very plain and antiquated, as appears by this:-
"It is the clouds that make the snow and hail,
And thunder comes from lightning without fail;
The sea is stormy when the winds have blown,
But it deals fairly when 'tis left alone."
And, indeed, it is probable that at that time Thales alone had raised philosophy above mere
practice into speculation; and the rest of the wise men were so
called from prudence in political concerns. It is said, that
they had an interview at Delphi, and another at
Solon went, they say, to Thales, at
However, it is irrational and poor-spirited not to seek conveniences for fear of losing them, for upon the same account we should not
allow ourselves to like wealth, glory, or wisdom, since we may
fear to be deprived of all these; nay, even virtue itself, than
which there is no greater nor more desirable possession, is
often suspended by sickness or drugs. Now Thales, though
unmarried, could not be free from solicitude unless he likewise felt
no care for his friends, his kinsman, or his country; yet we are told be adopted Cybisthus, his sister's son. For the soul, having a
principle of kindness in itself, and
being born to love, as well as perceive, think, or remember,
inclines and fixes upon some stranger, when a man has none of
his own to embrace. And alien or illegitimate objects insinuate themselves into his affections, as into some estate that lacks lawful heirs;
and with affection come anxiety and care; insomuch that you may
see men that use the strongest language against the
marriage-bed and the fruit of it, when some servant's or
concubine's child is sick or dies, almost killed with grief,
and abjectly lamenting. Some have given way to shameful and desperate sorrow at the loss of a dog or horse; others have borne the death
of virtuous children without any extravagant or unbecoming
grief, have passed the rest of their lives like men, and
according to the principles of reason. It is not affection, it
is weakness that brings men, unarmed against fortune by reason,
into these endless pains and terrors; and they indeed have not even
the present enjoyment of what they dote upon, the possibility of the future loss causing them continual pangs, tremors, and distresses.
We must not provide against the loss of wealth by poverty, or of friends by refusing all
acquaintance, or of children by having none, but by morality and reason. But of this too much.
Now, when the Athenians were tired with a tedious and difficult war
that they conducted against the Megarians for the island Salamis and made a law that it should be death for any man, by writing or
speaking, to assert that the city ought to endeavour to recover
it, Solon, vexed at the disgrace, and perceiving thousands of
the youth wished for somebody to begin, but did not dare to
stir first for fear of the law, counterfeited a distraction, and
by his own family it was spread about the city that he was mad.
He then secretly composed some elegiac verses, and getting them
by heart, that it might seem extempore, ran out into the market-place with a cap upon his head, and, the people gathering about him, got
upon the herald's stand, and sang that elegy which begins thus-
"I am a herald come from Salamis the fair,
My news from thence my verses shall declare."
The poem is called Salamis; it contains an hundred verses very elegantly written; when it had
been sung, his friends commended it, and especially Pisistratus
exhorted the citizens to obey his directions; insomuch that
they recalled the law, and renewed the war under Solon's
conduct. The popular tale is, that with Pisistratus he sailed
to Colias, and, finding the women, according to the custom of the
country there, sacrificing to Ceres, he sent a trusty friend to Salamis, who should pretend himself a renegade, and advise them, if they
desired to seize the chief Athenian women, to come with him at
once to Colias; the Megarians presently sent off men in the
vessel with him; and Solon, seeing it put off from the island,
commanded the women to be gone, and some beardless youths,
dressed in their clothes, their shoes and caps, and privately
armed with daggers, to dance and play near the shore till the
enemies had landed and the vessel was in their power. Things being thus
ordered, the Megarians were lured with the appearance, and, coming to
the shore, jumped out, eager who should first seize a prize, so that not one of them escaped; and the Athenians set sail for the island
and took it.
Others say that it was not taken this way, but that he first received this oracle from Delphi:-
"Those heroes that in fair Asopia rest,
All buried with their faces to the west,
Go and appease with offerings of the best; and that Solon, sailing by
night to the island, sacrificed to the heroes Periphemus and Cychreus, and then taking five hundred Athenian volunteers (a law having
passed that those that took the island should be highest in the
government), with a number of fisher-boats and one thirty-oared
ship, anchored in a bay of Salamis that looks towards Nisaea;
and the Megarians that were then in the island, hearing only an
uncertain report, hurried to their arms, and sent a ship to
reconnoiter the enemies. This ship Solon took, and, securing the
Megarians, manned it with Athenians, and gave them orders to sail to the island with as much privacy as possible; meantime he, with the
other soldiers, marched against the Megarians by land, and
whilst they were fighting, those from the ship took the city.
And this narrative is confirmed by the following solemnity, that was afterwards observed: An Athenian ship
used to sail silently at first to the island, then, with noise
and a great shout, one leapt out armed, and with a loud cry ran
to the promontory Sciradium to meet those that approached upon
the land. And just by there stands a temple which Solon
dedicated to Mars. For he beat the Megarians, and as many as
were not killed in the battle he sent away upon conditions.
The Megarians, however, still contending, and both sides having received
considerable losses, they chose the Spartans for arbitrators. Now,
many affirm that Homer's authority did Solon a considerable kindness, and that, introducing a line into the Catalogue of Ships, when the
matter was to be determined, he read the passage as follows:-
"Twelve ships from
And ranked his men where the Athenians fought."
The Athenians, however, call this but an idle story, and report that Solon made it appear
to the judges, that Philaeus and Eurysaces, the sons of Ajax,
being made citizens of Athens, gave them the island, and that
one of them dwelt at Brauron in Attica, the other at Melite; and
they have a township of Philaidae, to which Pisistratus
belonged, deriving its name from this Philaeus. Solon took a
farther argument against the Megarians from the dead bodies, which, he said, were not buried after their fashion, but according to the
Athenian; for the Megarians turn the corpse to the east, the
Athenians to the west. But Hereas the Megarian denies this, and
affirms that they likewise turn the body to the west, and also
that the Athenians have a separate tomb for everybody, but the
Megarians put two or three into one. However, some of Apollo's
oracles, where he calls Salamis Ionian, made much for Solon. This
matter was determined by five Spartans, Critolaidas, Amompharetus, Hypsechidas,
Anaxilas, and Cleomenes.
For this, Solon grew famed and powerful; but his advice in favour of
defending the oracle at Delphi, to give aid, and not to suffer the Cirrhaeans to profane it, but to maintain the honour of the god, got him most
repute among the Greeks; for upon his persuasion the
Amphictyons undertook the war, as amongst others, Aristotle
affirms, in his enumeration of the victors at the Pythian
games, where he makes Solon the author of this counsel. Solon,
however, was not general in that expedition, as Hermippus states, out
of Evanthes the Samian; for Aeschines the orator says no such thing, and, in the Delphian register, Alcmaeon, not Solon, is named as
commander of the Athenians.
Now the Cylonian pollution had a long while disturbed the commonwealth, ever since the time when Megacles the archon persuaded the
conspirators with Cylon that took sanctuary in Minerva's temple
to come down and stand to a fair trial. And they, tying a
thread to the image, and holding one end of it, went down to
the tribunal; but when they came to the temple of the Furies,
the thread broke of its own accord, upon which, as if the goddess
had refused them protection, they were seized by Megacles and the other
magistrates as many as were without the temples were stoned, these that
fled for sanctuary were butchered at the altar, and only those escaped who made supplication to the wives of the magistrates. But they
from that time were considered under pollution, and regarded
with hatred. The remainder of the faction of Cylon grew strong
again, and had continual quarrels with the family of Megacles;
and now the quarrel being at its height, and the people
divided, Solon, being in reputation, interposed with the chiefest of
the Athenians, and by entreaty and admonition persuaded the polluted to submit to a trial and the decision of three hundred noble
citizens. And Myron of Phlya being their accuser, they were
found guilty, and as many as were then alive were banished, and
the bodies of the dead were dug up, and scattered beyond the
confines of the country. In the midst of these distractions,
the Megarians falling upon them, they lost Nisaea and
The Athenians, now the Cylonian sedition was over and the polluted gone
into banishment fell into their old quarrels about the government, there
being as many different parties as there were diversities in the country.
The Hill quarter favoured democracy, the Plain, oligarchy, and those
that lived by the
Then the wisest of the Athenians, perceiving Solon was of all men the
only one not implicated in the troubles, that he had
not joined in the exactions of the rich and was not involved in
the necessities of the poor, pressed him to succour the
commonwealth and compose the differences. Though Phanias the
Lesbian affirms, that Solon, to save his country' put a trick
upon both parties, and privately promised the poor a division of the
lands, and the rich security for their debts. Solon, however, himself says, that it was reluctantly at first that he engaged in state affairs,
being afraid of the pride of one party and the greediness of
the other; he was chosen archon, however, after Philombrotus,
and empowered to be an arbitrator and lawgiver; the rich
consenting because he was wealthy, the poor because he was
honest. There was a saying of his current before the election,
that when things are even there never can be war, and this pleased
both parties, the wealthy and the poor; the one conceiving him to
mean, when all have their fair proportion; the others, when all are absolutely equal. Thus, there being great hopes on both sides, the
chief men pressed Solon to take the government into his own
hands, and, when he was once settled, manage the business
freely and according to his pleasure; and many of the commons,
perceiving it would be a difficult change to be effected by law
and reason, were willing to have one wise and just man set over
the affairs; and some say that Solon had this oracle from Apollo-
"Take the mid-seat, and be the vessel's guide;
Many in Athens are upon your side."
But chiefly his familiar
friends chid him for disaffecting monarchy only because of the
name, as if the virtue of the ruler could not make it a lawful
form; Euboea had made this experiment when it chose Tynnondas,
and Mitylene, which had made Pittacus its prince; yet this
could not shake Solon's resolution; but, as they say, he
replied to his friends, that it was true a tyranny was a very fair spot, but it had no way down from it; and in a copy of verses to Phocus
he writes"-
that I spared my land,
And withheld from usurpation and from violence my hand,
And forbore to fix a stain and a disgrace on my good name,
I regret not; I believe that it will be my chiefest fame."
From which it
is manifest that he was a man of great reputation before he gave his laws. The several mocks that were put upon him for refusing the
power, he records in these words:-
"Solon surely was a dreamer, and a man of simple mind;
When the gods would give him fortune, he of his own will declined;
When the net was full of fishes, over-heavy thinking it,
He declined to haul it up, through want of heart and want of wit.
Had but I that chance of riches and of kingship, for one day,
I would give my skin for flaying, and my house to die away."
Thus he makes the many and the low people speak of him. Yet, though he refused the government, he was not too mild in the affair; he
did not show himself mean and submissive to the powerful, nor
make his laws to pleasure those that chose him. For where it
was well before, he applied no remedy, nor altered anything,
for fear lest-
"Overthrowing altogether and disordering the state," he should be too weak to new-model and recompose it to a tolerable
condition; but what he thought he could effect by persuasion
upon the pliable, and by force upon the stubborn, this he did,
as he himself says-
"With force and justice working both in one." And, therefore, when he was afterwards asked if he had left the Athenians the best laws
that could be given, he replied, "The best they could
receive." The way which, the moderns say, the Athenians
have of softening the badness of a thing, by ingeniously giving
it some pretty and innocent appellation, calling harlots, for
example, mistresses, tributes customs, a garrison a guard, and
the jail the chamber, seem originally to have been Solon's contrivance, who called cancelling debts Seisacthea, a relief, or
disencumbrance. For the first thing which he settled was, that
what debts remained should be forgiven, and no man, for the
future, should engage the body of his debtor for security.
Though some, as Androtion, affirm that the debts were not cancelled,
but the interest only lessened, which sufficiently pleased the people;
so that they named this benefit the Seisacthea, together with the enlarging
their measures and raising the value of their money; for he made a
pound, which before passed for seventy-three drachmas, go for a hundred; so that, though the number of pieces in the payment was equal, the
value was less; which proved a considerable benefit to those
that were to discharge great debts, and no loss to the
creditors. But most agree that it was the taking off the debts
that was called Seisacthea, which is confirmed by some places
in his poem, where he takes honour to himself, that-
"The mortgage-stones that covered her, by me
Removed,- the land that was a slave is free: that some who had been seized for their debts he had brought back from other countries, where-
"-so far their lot to roam,
They had forgot the language of their home; and some he had set at liberty-
"Who here in shameful servitude were held."
While he was designing this, a most vexatious thing happened; for when
he had resolved to take off the debts, and was considering the proper form and fit beginning for it, he told some of his friends, Conon,
Clinias, and Hipponicus, in whom he had a great deal of
confidence, that he would not meddle with the lands, but only
free the people from their debts; upon which they, using their
advantage, made haste and borrowed some considerable sums of
money, and purchased some large farms; and when the law was enacted, they kept the possessions, and would not return the money; which
brought Solon into great suspicion and dislike, as if he
himself had not been abused, but was concerned in the
contrivance. But he presently stopped this suspicion, by
releasing his debtors of five talents (for he had lent so much), according to the law; others, as Polyzelus the Rhodian, say fifteen; his
friends, however, were ever afterward called Chreocopidae,
repudiators.
In this he pleased neither party, for the rich were angry for their money, and the poor that the land was not divided, and, as
Lycurgus ordered in his commonwealth, all men reduced to
equality. He, it is true, being the eleventh from Hercules, and
having reigned many years in Lacedaemon, had got a great
reputation and friends and power, which he could use in modelling
his state; and applying force more than persuasion, insomuch that
he lost his eye in the scuffle, was able to employ the most effectual means for the safety and harmony of a state, by not permitting any
to be poor or rich in his commonwealth. Solon could not rise to
that in his polity, being but a citizen of the middle classes;
yet he acted fully up to the height of his power, having
nothing but the good-will and good opinion of his citizens to
rely on; and that he offended the most part, who looked for
another result, he declares in the words-
"Formerly they boasted of me vainly; with averted eyes
Now they look askance upon me; friends no more, but enemies."
And yet had any
other man, he says, received the same power-
"He would not have forborne, nor let alone,
But made the fattest of the milk his own."
Soon, however, becoming sensible of the good that was done, they laid by their grudges,
made a public sacrifice, calling it Seisacthea, and chose Solon
to new-model and make laws for the commonwealth, giving him the
entire power over everything, their magistracies, their
assemblies, courts, and councils; that he should appoint the
number, times of meeting, and what estate they must have that could
be capable of these, and dissolve or continue any of the present constitutions,
according to his pleasure.
First, then, he repealed all Draco's laws, except those concerning homicide,
because they were too severe, and the punishment too great; for death
was appointed for almost all offences, insomuch that those that were convicted of idleness were to die, and those that stole a cabbage
or an apple to suffer even as villains that committed sacrilege
or murder. So that Demades, in after time, was thought to have
said very happily, that Draco's laws were written not with ink
but blood; and he himself, being once asked why be made death
the punishment of most offences, replied, "Small ones
deserve that, and I have no higher for the greater crimes."
Next, Solon, being willing to continue the magistracies in the hands
of the rich men, and yet receive the people into the other part of the
government, took an account of the citizens' estates, and those that were worth five hundred measures of fruit, dry and liquid, he
placed in the first rank, calling them Pentacosiomedimni; those
that could keep an horse, or were worth three hundred measures,
were named Hippada Teluntes, and made the second class; the
Zeugitae, that had two hundred measures, were in the third; and
all the others were called Thetes, who were not admitted to any
office, but could come to the assembly, and act as jurors; which
at first seemed nothing, but afterwards was found an enormous privilege, as almost every matter of dispute came before them in this latter
capacity. Even in the cases which he assigned to the archon's
cognisance, he allowed an appeal to the courts. Besides, it is
said that he was obscure and ambiguous in the wording of his
laws, on purpose to increase the honour of his courts; for
since their differences could not be adjusted by the letter, they would have to bring all their causes to the judges, who thus were in a
manner masters of the laws. Of this equalisation he himself
makes mention in this manner:-
"Such power I gave the people as might do,
Abridged not what they had, now lavished new,
Those that were great in wealth and high in place
My counsel likewise kept from all disgrace.
Before them both I held my shield of might,
And let not either touch the other's right."
And for the greater security of the weak commons, he gave general liberty of indicting for an
act of injury; if any one was beaten, maimed, or suffered any
violence, any man that would and was able might prosecute the
wrong-doer; intending by this to accustom the citizens, like
members of the same body, to resent and be sensible of one
another's injuries. And there is a saying of his agreeable to
his law, for, being asked what city was best modelled, "That," said he, "where those that are not injured try and punish the
unjust as much as those that are."
When he had constituted the Areopagus of those who had been yearly archons,
of which he himself was a member therefore, observing that the people,
now free from their debts, were unsettled and imperious, he formed another
council of four hundred, a hundred out of each of the four tribes, which
was to inspect all matters before they were propounded to the people, and to take care that nothing but what had been first examined
should be brought before the general assembly. The upper
council, or Areopagus, he made inspectors and keepers of the
laws, conceiving that the commonwealth, held by these two
councils, like anchors, would be less liable to be tossed by
tumults, and the people be more quiet. Such is the
general statement, that Solon instituted the Areopagus; which
seems to be confirmed, because Draco makes no mention of the
Areopagites, but in all causes of blood refers to the Ephetae;
yet Solon's thirteenth table contains the eighth law set down
in these very words: "Whoever before Solon's archonship were
disfranchised, let them be restored, except those that, being
condemned by the Areopagus, Ephetae, or in the Prytaneum by the
kings, for homicide, murder, or designs against the government,
were in banishment when this law was made; and these words seem
to show that the Areopagus existed before Solon's laws, for who
could be condemned by that council before his time, if he was the first
that instituted the court? unless, which is probable,
there is some ellipsis, or want of precision in the language,
and it should run thus:- "Those that are convicted of such
offences as belong to the cognisance of the Areopagites,
Ephetae, or the Prytanes, when this law was made," shall
remain still in disgrace, whilst others are restored; of this the reader
must judge.
Amongst his other laws, one is very peculiar and surprising, which disfranchises
all who stand neuter in a sedition; for it seems he would not
have any one remain insensible and regardless of the public good, and securing his private affairs, glory that he has no feeling of the
distempers of his country; but at once join with the good party
and those that have the right upon their side, assist and
venture with them, rather than keep out of harm's way and watch
who would get the better. It seems an absurd and foolish law
which permits an heiress, if her lawful husband fail her, to
take his nearest kinsman; yet some say this law was well contrived against those who, conscious of their own unfitness, yet, for the sake of
the portion, would match with heiresses, and make use of law to
put a violence upon nature; for now, since she can quit him for
whom she pleases, they would either abstain from such
marriages, or continue them with disgrace, and suffer for their
covetousness and designed affront; it is well done, moreover, to
confine her to her husband's nearest kinsman, that the children may be of the same family. Agreeable to this is the law that the bride
and bridegroom shall be shut into a chamber, and eat a quince
together; and that the husband of an heiress shall consort with
her thrice a month; for though there be no children, yet it is
an honour and due affection which an husband ought to pay to a
virtuous, chaste wife; it takes off all petty differences, and
will not permit their little quarrels to proceed to a rupture.
In all other marriages he forbade dowries to be given; the wife was
to have three suits of clothes, a little inconsiderable household stuff, and that was all; for he would not have marriages contracted for
gain or an estate, but for pure love, kind affection, and birth
of children. When the mother of Dionysius desired him to marry
her to one of his citizens, "Indeed," said he,
"by my tyranny I have broken my country's laws, but cannot
put a violence upon those of nature by an unseasonable
marriage." Such disorder is never to be suffered in a
commonwealth, nor such unseasonable and unloving and
unperforming marriages, which attain no due end or fruit; any
provident governor or lawgiver might say to an old man that takes a young wife what is said to Philoctetes in the tragedy-
"Truly, in a fit state thou to marry! and if he
find a young man, with a rich and elderly wife, growing fat in
his place, like the partridges, remove him to a young woman of
proper age. And of this enough.
Another commendable law of Solon's is that which forbids men to speak
evil of the dead; for it is pious to think the deceased sacred, and just, not to meddle with those that are gone, and politic, to
prevent the perpetuity of discord. He likewise forbade them to
speak evil of the living in the temples, the courts of justice,
the public offices, or at the games, or else to pay three
drachmas to the person, and two to the public. For never to be
able to control passion shows a weak nature and ill-breeding; and
always to moderate it is very hard, and to some impossible. And laws must look to possibilities, if the maker designs to punish few in
order to their amendment, and not many to no
purpose.
He is likewise much commended for his law concerning wills; before him
none could be made, but all the wealth and estate of the deceased belonged to his family; but he by permitting them, if they had no children
to bestow it on whom they pleased, showed that he esteemed
friendship a stronger tie than kindred, affection than
necessity; and made every man's estate truly his own. Yet he
allowed not all sorts of legacies, but those only which were
not extorted by the frenzy of a disease, charms, imprisonment, force,
or the persuasions of a wife; with good reason thinking that being seduced
into wrong was as bad as being forced, and that between deceit and
necessity, flattery and compulsion, there was little difference, since both may equally suspend the exercise of reason.
He regulated the walks, feasts, and mourning of the women and took away
everything that was either unbecoming or immodest; when they walked abroad, no more than three articles of dress were allowed them; an
obol's worth of meat and drink; and no basket above a cubit
high; and at night they were not to go about unless in a
chariot with a torch before them. Mourners tearing themselves
to raise pity, and set wailings, and at one man's funeral to lament
for another, he forbade. To offer an ox at the grave was not
permitted, nor to bury above three pieces of dress with the body,
or visit the tombs of any besides their own family, unless at the very
funeral; most of which are likewise forbidden by our laws, but this is further added in ours, that those that are convicted of
extravagance in their mournings are to be punished as soft and
effeminate by the censors of women.
Observing the city to be filled with persons that flocked from all
parts into Attica for security of living, and that most of the country was barren and unfruitful, and that traders at sea import nothing
to those that could give them nothing in exchange, he turned
his citizens to trade, and made a law that no son be obliged to
relieve a father who had not bred him up to any calling. It is
true, Lycurgus, having a city free from all strangers, and
land, according to Euripides-
"Large for large hosts, for twice their number much," and, above all, an abundance of labourers about Sparta, who should not be
left idle, but be kept down with continual toil and work, did
well to take off his citizens from laborious and mechanical
occupations, and keep them to their arms, and teach them only
the art of war. But Solon, fitting his laws to the state of
things, and not making things to suit his laws, and finding the
ground scarce rich enough to maintain the husbandmen, and altogether incapable of feeding an unoccupied and leisured multitude, brought
trades into credit, and ordered the Areopagites to examine how
every man got his living, and chastise the idle. But that law
was yet more rigid which, as Heraclides Ponticus delivers,
declared the sons of unmarried mothers not obliged to relieve
their fathers; for he that avoids the honourable form of union
shows that he does not take a woman for children, but for pleasure, and thus gets his just reward, and has taken away from himself
every title to upbraid his children, to whom he has made their
very birth a scandal and reproach.
Solon's laws in general about women are his strangest; for he permitted any one to kill an adulterer that found him in the act- but if any
one forced a free woman, a hundred drachmas was the fine; if he
enticed her, twenty; except those that sell themselves openly,
that is, harlots, who go openly to those that hire them. He
made it unlawful to sell a daughter or a sister, unless, being
yet unmarried, she was found wanton. Now it is irrational to
punish the same crime sometimes very severely and without remorse,
and sometimes very lightly, and as it were in sport, with a trivial fine; unless there being little money then in
Since the country has but few rivers, lakes, or large springs, and
many used wells which they had dug, there was a law made, that, where there was a public well within a hippicon, that is, four furlongs,
all should draw at that; but when it was farther off, they
should try and procure a well of their own; and if they had dug
ten fathoms deep and could find no water, they had liberty to
fetch a pitcherful of four gallons and a half in a day from
their neighbours'; for he thought it prudent to make provision
against want, but not to supply laziness. He showed skill in his
orders about planting, for any one that would plant another tree was not to set it within five feet of his neighbour's field; but if a
fig or an olive not within nine; for their roots spread
farther, nor can they be planted near all sorts of trees
without damage, for they draw away the nourishment, and in some
cases are noxious by their effluvia. He that would dig a pit or
a ditch was to dig it at the distance of its own depth from his
neighbour's ground; and he that would raise stocks of bees was not to
place them within three hundred feet of those which another had already raised.
He permitted only oil to be exported, and those that exported any other
fruit, the archon was solemnly to curse, or else pay an hundred drachmas himself; and this law was written in his first table, and,
therefore, let none think it incredible, as some affirm, that
the exportation of figs was once unlawful, and the informer
against the delinquents called a sycophant. He made a law,
also, concerning hurts and injuries from beasts, in which he
commands the master of any dog that bit a man to deliver him up with a log about his neck, four and a half feet long; a happy device
for men's security. The law concerning naturalizing strangers
is of doubtful character; he permitted only those to be made
free of Athens who were in perpetual exile from their own
country, or came with their whole family to trade there; this
he did, not to discourage strangers, but rather to invite them to
a permanent participation in the privileges of the government; and, besides, he thought those would prove the more faithful citizens
who had been forced from their own country, or voluntarily
forsook it. The law of public entertainment (parasitein is his
name for it) is also peculiarly Solon's; for if any man came
often, or if he that was invited refused, they were punished,
for he concluded that one was greedy, the other a contemner of
the state.
All his laws he established for an hundred years, and wrote them on
wooden tables or rollers, named axones, which might be turned round in oblong cases; some of their relics were in my time still to be
seen in the Prytaneum, or common hall at Athens. These, as
Aristotle states, were called cyrbes, and there is a passage of
Cratinus the comedian-
"By Solon, and by Draco, if you please,
Whose Cyrbes make the fires that parch our peas."
But some say those are
properly cyrbes, which contain laws concerning sacrifices and the rites of religion, and all the others
axones. The council all jointly swore to confirm the laws, and
every one of the Thesmothetae vowed for himself at the stone in
the market-place, that if he broke any of the statutes, he would
dedicate a golden statue, as big as himself, at
Observing the irregularity of the months, and that the moon does not
always rise and set with the sun, but often in the same day overtakes and gets before him, he ordered the day should be named the Old
and New, attributing that part of it which was before the
conjunction to the old moon, and the rest to the new, he being
the first, it seems, that understood that verse of Homer-
"The end and the beginning of the month," and the following day he called the new moon. After the twentieth he did not count by
addition, but, like the moon itself in its wane, by
subtraction; thus up to the thirtieth.
Now when these laws were enacted, and some came to Solon every day,
to commend or dispraise them, and to advise, if possible, to leave out
or put in something, and many criticized and desired him to explain, and tell the meaning of such and such a passage, he, knowing that
to do it was useless, and not to do it would get him ill-will,
and desirous to bring himself out of all straits, and to escape
all displeasure and exceptions, it being a hard thing, as he
himself says-
"In great affairs to satisfy all sides," as an excuse for travelling,
bought a trading vessel, and, having leave for ten years' absence,
departed, hoping that by that time his laws would have become familiar.
His first voyage was for Egypt, and he lived, as he himself says-
"Near Nilus' mouth, by fair Canopus' shore," and spent some time in study with Psenophis of Heliopolis, and Sonchis the Saite, the
most learned of all the priests; from whom, as Plato says,
getting knowledge of the Atlantic story, he put it into a poem,
and proposed to bring it to the knowledge of the Greeks. From
thence he sailed to
"Long may you live, and fill the Solian throne,
Succeeded still by children of your own;
And from your happy island while I sail,
Let Cyprus send for me a favouring gale;
May she advance, and bless your new command,
Prosper your town, and send me safe to land."
That Solon should discourse with Croesus, some think not agreeable with
chronology; but I cannot reject so famous and well-attested a narrative, and, what is more, so agreeable to Solon's temper, and so worthy
his wisdom and greatness of mind, because, forsooth, it does
not agree with some chronological canons, which thousands have
endeavoured to regulate, and yet, to this day, could never
bring their differing opinions to any agreement. They say,
therefore, that Solon, coming to Croesus at his request, was in the same condition as an inland man when first he goes to see the sea;
for as he fancies every river he meets with to be the ocean, so
Solon, as he passed through the court, and saw a great many
nobles richly dressed, and proudly attended with a multitude of
guards and footboys, thought every one had been the king, till
he was brought to Croesus, who was decked with every possible
rarity and curiosity, in ornaments of jewels, purple, and gold,
that could make a grand and gorgeous spectacle of him. Now when Solon came before him, and seemed not at all surprised, nor gave Croesus
those compliments he expected, but showed himself to all
discerning eyes to be a man that despised the gaudiness and
petty ostentation of it, he commanded them to open all his
treasure houses, and carry him to see his sumptuous furniture
and luxuries, though he did not wish it; Solon could judge of him
well enough by the first sight of him; and, when he returned from viewing all, Croesus asked him if ever he had known a happier man than he.
And when Solon answered that he had known one Tellus, a
fellow-citizen of his own, and told him that this Tellus had
been an honest man, had had good children, a competent estate,
and died bravely in battle for his country, Croesus took him
for an ill-bred fellow and a fool, for not measuring happiness by
the abundance of gold and silver, and preferring the life and death of a private and mean man before so much power and empire. He
asked him, however, again, if, besides Tellus, he knew any
other man more happy. And Solon replying, Yes, Cleobis and
Biton, who were loving brothers, and extremely dutiful sons to
their mother, and, when the oxen delayed her, harnessed themselves
to the wagon, and drew her to Juno's temple, her neighbours all
calling her happy, and she herself rejoicing; then, after sacrificing and feasting, they went to rest, and never rose again, but died in
the midst of their honour a painless and tranquil death. "What," said Croesus, angrily, "and
dost not thou reckon us amongst the happy men at all?" Solon, unwilling
either to flatter or exasperate him more, replied, "The gods, O
king, have given the Greeks all other gifts in moderate degree; and so our wisdom, too, is a cheerful and a homely, not a noble and
kingly wisdom; and this, observing the numerous misfortunes
that attend all conditions, forbids us to grow insolent upon
our present enjoyments, or to admire any man's happiness that
may yet, in course of time, suffer change. For the uncertain
future has yet to come, with every possible variety of fortune; and
him only to whom the divinity has continued happiness unto the end we
call happy; to salute as happy one that is still in the midst of life and hazard, we think as little safe and conclusive as to crown and
proclaim as victorious the wrestler that is yet in the ring."
After this, he was dismissed, having given Croesus some pain,
but no instruction.
Aesop, who wrote the fables, being then at
When Solon was gone, the citizens began to quarrel; Lycurgus headed the Plain; Megacles, the son of Alcmaeon, those to the Seaside;
and Pisistratus the Hill-party, in which were the poorest
people, the Thetes, and greatest enemies to the rich; insomuch
that, though the city still used the new laws, yet all looked
for and desired a change of government, hoping severally that
the change would be better for them, and put them above the contrary faction. Affairs standing thus, Solon returned, and was reverenced
by all, and honoured; but his old age would not permit him to
be as active, and to speak in public, as formerly; yet, by
privately conferring with the heads of the factions, he
endeavoured to compose the differences, Pisistratus appearing
the most tractable; for he was extremely smooth and engaging in
his language, a great friend to the poor, and moderate in his resentments; and what nature had not given him, he had the skill to imitate; so
that he was trusted more than the others, being accounted a
prudent and orderly man, one that loved equality, and would be
an enemy to any that moved against the present settlement. Thus
he deceived the majority of people; but Solon quickly
discovered his character, and found out his design before any one else;
yet did not hate him upon this, but endeavoured to humble him, and bring
him off from his ambition, and often told him and others, that if any
one could banish the passion for pre-eminence from his mind, and cure him of his desire of absolute power, none would make a more
virtuous man or a more excellent citizen. Thespis, at this
time, beginning to act tragedies, and the thing, because it was
new, taking very much with the multitude, though it was not yet
made a matter of competition, Solon, being by nature fond of
hearing and learning something new, and now, in his old age, living idly, and enjoying himself, indeed, with music and with wine, went
to see Thespis himself, as the ancient custom was, act: and
after the play was done, he addressed him, and asked him if he
was not ashamed to tell so many lies before such a number of
people; and Thespis replying that it was no harm to say or do
so in play, Solon vehemently struck his staff against the
ground: "Ah," said he, "if we honour and commend such play as this, we shall find it some day in our business."
Now when Pisistratus, having wounded himself, was brought into the
market-place in a chariot, and stirred up the people, as if he had been
thus treated by his opponents because of his political conduct, and a great many were enraged and cried out, Solon, coming close to
him, said, "This, O son of Hippocrates, is a bad copy of
Homer's Ulysses; you do, to trick your countrymen, what he did
to deceive his enemies." After this, the people were eager
to protect Pisistratus, and met in an assembly, where one
Ariston making a motion that they should allow Pisistratus fifty clubmen for a guard to his person, Solon opposed it, and said much to the
same purport as what he has left us in his poems-
"You dote upon his words and taking phrase;"
and again-
"True, you are singly each a crafty soul,
But all together make one empty fool."
But observing the poor men bent
to gratify Pisistratus, and tumultuous, and the rich fearful
and getting out of harm's way, he departed, saying he was wiser
than some and stouter than others; wiser than those that did
not understand the design, stouter than those that, though they
understood it, were afraid to oppose the tyranny. Now, the
people, having passed the law, were not nice with Pisistratus about
the number of his clubmen, but took no notice of it, though he enlisted and kept as many as he would, until he seized the Acropolis. When
that was done, and the city in an uproar, Megacles, with all
his family, at once fled; but Solon, though he was now very
old, and had none to back him, yet came into the marketplace
and made a speech to the citizens, partly blaming their
inadvertency and meanness of spirit, and in part urging and exhorting
them not thus tamely to lose their liberty; and likewise then spoke
that memorable saying, that, before, it was an easier task to stop the
rising tyranny, but now the great and more glorious action to destroy it, when it was begun already, and had gathered strength. But all
being afraid to side with him, he returned home, and, taking
his arms, he brought them out and laid them in the porch before
his door, with these words: "I have done my part to
maintain my country and my laws," and then he busied himself
no more. His friends advising him to fly, he refused, but wrote poems,
and thus reproached the Athenians in them:-
"If now you suffer, do not blame the Powers,
For they are good, and all the fault was ours,
All the strongholds you put into his hands,
And now his slaves must do what he commands."
And many telling him that the tyrant would take his life for this, and asking what he
trusted to, that he ventured to speak so boldly, he replied,
"To my old age." But Pisistratus, having got the
command, so extremely courted Solon, so honoured him, obliged
him, and sent to see him, that Solon gave him his advice, and
approved many of his actions; for he retained most of Solon's laws, observed them himself, and compelled his friends to obey. And he
himself, though already absolute ruler, being accused of murder
before the Areopagus, came quietly to clear himself; but his
accuser did not appear. And he added other laws, one of which
is that the maimed in the wars should be maintained at the
public charge; this Heraclides Ponticus records, and that Pisistratus followed Solon's example in this, who had decreed it in the case
of one Thersippus, that was maimed; and Theophrastus asserts
that it was Pisistratus, not Solon, that made that law against
laziness, which was the reason that the country was more
productive, and the city tranquiller.
Now Solon, having begun the great work in verse, the history or fable
of the Atlantic Island, which he had learned from the wise men in Sais,
and thought convenient for the Athenians to know, abandoned it; not, as Plato says, by reason of want of time, but because of his age,
and being discouraged at the greatness of the task; for that he
had leisure enough, such verses testify, as-
"Each day grow older, and learn something new;"
and again-
"But now the Powers, of Beauty, Song, and Wine,
Which are most men's delights, are also mine."
Plato, willing to improve the story of the Atlantic Island, as if it were a fair estate that
wanted an heir and came with some title to him, formed, indeed,
stately entrances, noble enclosures, large courts, such as
never yet introduced any story, fable, or poetic fiction; but,
beginning it late, ended his life before his work; and the
reader's regret for the unfinished part is the greater, as the
satisfaction he takes in that which is complete is extraordinary. For
as the city of
THE END