SOLON.* DIDYMUS, the grammarian, in his answer to Asclepiades concerning the laws of Solon, cites the testimony of one Philocles, by which he would prove Solon the son of Euphorion, contrary to the opinion of others that have written of him. For they all with one voice declare that Execestides was his father; a man of moderate fortune and power, but of the noblest family in Athens, being descended from Codrus. His mother, according to Heraclides of Pontus, was cousin-german to the mother of Pisistratus. This tie of kindred at first united Solon and Pisistratus in a very intimate friendship, which was drawn closer (if we may believe some writers) by the regard which the former had for the beauty and excellent qualities of the latter. Hence we may believe it was, that when they differed afterwards about matters of state, this dissension broke not out into any harsh or ungenerous treatment of each other; but their first union kept some hold of their hearts, some sparks of the flame still remained, and the tenderness of former friendship was not quite forgotten. Solon's father having hurt his fortune, as Hermippus tells us, by in lulging his great and munificent spirit, though the son might have been supported by his friends, yet as he was of a family that had long been assisting to others, he was ashamed to accept of assistance himself; and therefore in his younger years applied himself to merchandise. Some, however, say that he travelled rather to gratify his curiosity and extend his knowledge than to * Solon flourished about the year before Christ 597. Pisistratus was remarkably courteous, affable, and liberal. He had always two or three slaves near him with bags of silver coin: when he saw any man look sickly, or heard that any died insolvent, he relieved the one, and buried the others at his own expense. If he perceived people melancholy, he inquired the cause; and if he found it was poverty, he furnished them with what might enable them to get bread, but not to live idly. Nay, he left even his gardens and orchards open, and the fruit free to the citizens. His looks were easy and sedate, his language soft and modest. In short, if his virtues had been genuine, and not dissembled, with a view to the tyranny of Athens, he would (as Solon told him) have been the best citizen in it. Aristotle reckons Solon himself among the inferior citizens, and quotes his own works to prove it. The truth is, that Solon was never rich, it may be, because he was always honest. In his youth he was mightily addicted to poetry. And Plato (in Timeo) says, that if he had finished all his poems, and particularly the History of the Atlantic Island, which he brought out of Egypt, and had taken time to revise and correct them as others did, neither Homer, Hesiod, nor any other ancient poet, would have been more famous. It is evident both from the life and writings of this great man, that he was a person not only of exalted virtue, but of a pleasant and agreeable temper. He considered men as men; and keeping both their capacity for virtue, and their proneness to evil in his view, he adapted his laws so as to strengthen and support the one, and to check and keep under the other. His institutions are as remarkable for their sweetness and practicability, as those of Lycurgus are for harshness and forcing human nature. raise an estate. For he professed his love of wisdom, and when far advanced in years made this declaration, I grow old in the pursuit of learning. He was not too much attached to wealth, as we may gather from the following verses: Yet The man that boasts of golden stores, in another place he says: The flow of riches, though desired, Lest vengeance follow in their train. Indeed, a good man, a valuable member of society, should neither set his heart upon superfluities, nor reject the use of what is necessary and convenient. And in those times, as Hesiodt informs us, no business was looked upon as a disparagement, nor did any trade cause a disadvantageous distinction. The profession of merchandize was honourable, as it brought home the produce of barbarous countries, engaged the friendship of kings, and opened a wide field of knowledge and experience. Nay, some merchants have been founders of great cities; Protus, for instance, that built Marseilles, for whom the Gauls about the Rhone had the highest esteem. Thales also, and Hippocrates the mathematician, are said to have had their share in commerce; and the oil that Plato disposed of in Egypt; defrayed the expense of his travels. If Solon was too expensive and luxurious in his way of living, and indulged his poetical vein in his description of pleasure too freely for a philosopher, it is imputed to his mercantile life. For as he passed through many and great dangers, he might surely compensate them with a little relaxation and enjoyment. But that he placed himself rather in the class of the poor than the rich, is evident from these lines: For vice, though Plenty fills her horn; And virtue sinks in want and scorn; Yet never, sure, shall Solon change His truth for wealth's most easy range! Since virtue lives, and truth shall stand, While wealth eludes the grasping hand. He seems to have made use of his poetical talent at first, not for any serious purpose, but only for amusement, and to fill up his hours of leisure; but afterwards he inserted moral sentences, and interwove many political transactions in his poems, not for the sake of record This passage of Solon's, and another below, are now found among the sentences of Theognis. Lib. Ob. and Di. ver. 309. It was usual to trade into Egypt with the oil of Greece and Judea. It is said in the prophet Hosea, (c. xii. v. 1.) Ephraim carrieth oil into Egypt. ing or remembering them, but sometimes by J of another he had with Thales. Anacharsis way of apology for his own administration, went to Solon's house at Athens, knocked at and sometimes to exhort, to advise, or to censure the citizens of Athens. Some are of opinion, that he attempted to put his laws too in verse, and they give us this beginning: Supreme of gods, whose power we first address From cloudy vapours falls the treasur'd snow, the door, and said, he was a stranger who desired to enter into engagements of friendship and mutual hospitality with him. Solon answered, Friendships are best formed at home. Then do you, said Anacha sis, who are at home, make me your friend, and receive me his repartee, Solon gave him a kind welcome, into your house. Struck with the quickness of and kept him some time with him, being then employed in public affairs, and in modelling his laws. When Anacharcis knew what Solon was about, he laughed at his undertaking, and at the absurdity of imagining he could restrain written laws, which in all respects resembled the avarice and injustice of his citizens by spiders webs, and would, like them, only entangle and hold the poor and weak, while the To this, Solon replied, Men keep their agreerich and powerful easily broke through them. Upon the whole, Thales seems to have been the only philosopher who then carried his speculations beyond things in common use, while the rest of the wise men maintained their charac-ments when it is an advantage to both parties ter by rules for social life. unseen. not to break them; and he would so frame his They are reported to have met at Delphi, laws, as to make it evident to the Athenians, and afterwards at Corinth upon the invitation that it would be more for their interest to of Periander, who made provision for their enobserve than to transgress them. The event, tertainment. But what contributed most to however, shewed that Anacharsis was nearer their honour was their sending the tripod from the truth in his conjecture, than Solon was in one to another, with an ambition to outvie his hope. Anacharsis having seen an assemeach other in modesty. The story is this: bly of the people at Athens, said he was surWhen some Coans were drawing a net, cer- prised at this, that in Greece wise men pleadtain strangers from Miletus bought the draught ed causes, and fools determined them. It proved to be a golden tripod, Miletus, he expresse 1 some wonder that he did When Solon was entertained by Thales at which Helen, as she sailed from Troy, is said to have thrown in there, in compliance with an not marry and raise a family. To this, Thales ancient oracle. A dispute arising at first be- gave no immediate answer; but some days tween the strangers and the fishermen about after he instructed a stranger to say, that he the tripod, and afterwards extending itself to came from Athens ten days before. Solon inthe states to which they belonged, so as almost quiring, What news there was at Athens, the to engage them in hostilities, the priestess of man, according to his instructions, said, None, Apollo took up the matter, by ordering that the except the funeral of a young man, which was wisest man they could find should have the attended by the whole city. For he was the tripod. And first it was sent to Thales at honour, and of the highest reputation for virson (as they told me) of a person of great Miletus, the Coans voluntarily presenting that to one of the Milesians, for which they would What a miserable man is he, said Solon: but tue, who was then abroad upon his travels. have gone to war with them all. Thales de- what was his name? I have heard his name, clared that Bias was a wiser man than he, so answered the stranger, but do not recollect it. it was brought to him. He sent it to another, All I remember is, that there was much talk as wiser still. After making a farther circuit, of his wisdom and justice. Solon, whose apit came to Thales the second time. And at prehensions increased with every reply, was last, it was carried from Miletus to Thebes, now much disconcerted and mentioned his and dedicated to the Ismenian Apollo. Theophrastus relates, that the tripod was first sent son that was dead? The stranger answering own name; asking, Whether it was not Solon's to Bias at Priene; that Bias sent it back again in the affirmative, he began to beat his head, to Thales at Miletus; that so having passed and to do and say such things as are usual to through the hands of the seven, it came round to Bias again, and at last was sent to the tem-taking him by the hand, said, with a smile, men in a transport of grief. Then Thales, ple of Apollo at Delphi. This is the most current account; yet some say the present was not a tripod, but a bowl sent by Crœsus; and others, that it was a cup which one Bathycles had left for that purpose. We have a particular account of a conversation which Solon had with Anacharsis,* and These things, which strike down so firm a man as Solon, kept me from marriage and from encies: for such it certainly was, for Anacharsis to Scythia, contrary to the laws of his country. Though carry the Grecian worship, the rites of Cybele, into he performed those rites privately in a woody part of the country, a Scythian happened to see him, and ac quainted the king with it, who came immediately, and shot him with an arrow upon the spot. Herodot. 1. iv. c. 76. The Scythians, long before the days of Solon, had been celebrated for their frugality, their temperance, and justice. Anacharsis was one of these Scythians, and a prince of the blood. He went to Athens about the forty-seventh olympiad, that is, 590 years before Christ. His good sense, his knowledge, and great experience, made him pass for one of the seven wise men. But the greatest and wisest men have their inconsist-weep. son, is uncertain, Solon being desired not to weep, * Whether on this occasion, or on the real loss of a much humanity and good sense, And for this cause I since weeping would avail nothing; he answered, with Aaving children. But, take courage, my good friend, for not a word of what has been told you is true. Hermippus says, he took this story from Patacus, who used to boast he had the soul of Æsop. house into the city, that he was out of his Hear and attend: from Salamis I came Solon had done, his friends began to express But after all, to neglect the procuring of what is necessary or convenient in life, for fear of losing it, would be acting a very mean and absurd part; by the same rule a man might refuse the enjoyment of riches, or honour, or wisdom, because it is possible for him to be deprived of them. Even the excellent quali- This composition is entitled Salamis, and conties of the mind, the most valuable and pleas-sists of a hundred very beautiful lines. When ing possession in the world we see destroyed by poisonous drugs, or by the violence of some disease. Nay, Thales himself could not be secure from fears, by living single, unless he would renounce all interest in his friends, his relations, and his country. Instead of that, however, he is said to have adopted his sister's son, named Cybisthus. Indeed the soul has not only a principle of sense, of understanding, of memory, but of love; and when it has nothing at home to fix its affection upon, it unites itself, and cleaves to something abroad. Strangers, or persons of spurious birth often insinuate themselves into such a man's heart, as into a house or land that has no lawful heirs, and, together with love, bring a train of cares and apprehensions for them. It is not uncommon to hear persons of a morose temper, who talk against marriage and a family, uttering the most abject complaints, when a child which they have had by a slave or a concubine, happens to sicken or die. Nay, some have expressed a very great regret upon the death of dogs and horses; whilst others have borne the loss of valuable children, without any affliction, or at least without any indecent sorrow, and have passed the rest of their days with calmness and composure. It is certainly weakness, not affection, which brings infinite troubles and fears upon men who are not fortified by reason against the power of fortune; who have no enjoyment of a present good, because of their apprehensions, and the real anguish they find in considering that, in time, they may be deprived of it. No man, surely, should take refuge in poverty, to guard against the loss of an estate; nor remain in the unsocial state of celibacy, that he may have neither friends nor children to lose; he should be armed by reason against all events. But, perhaps, we have been too diffuse in these sentiments. When the Athenians, tired out with a long and troublesome war against the Megarensians for the isle of Salamis, made a law, that no one for the future, under pain of death, should, either by speech or writing, propose that the city should assert its claim to that island; Solon was very uneasy at so dishonourable a decree, and seeing great part of the youth desirous to begin the war again, being restrained from it only by fear of the law, he feigned himself insane; and a report spread from his * When the Athenians were delivered from their fears by the death of Epaminondas, they began to squander away upon shows and plays the money that had been assigned for the pay of the army and navy, and at the same time they made it death for any one to propose a reformation. In that case, Demosthenes did not, like Solon, attack their error, under a pretence of Others deny that it was recovered in this manner, and tell us, that Apollo, being first consulted at Delphi, gave this answer: Go, first propitiate the country's chiefs Upon this, Solon crossed the sea by night, and offered sacrifices in Salamis, to the heroes Periphemus and Cichreus. Then taking five hundred Athenian volunteers, who had obtained a decree that, if they conquered the island, the government of it should be invested in them, he sailed with a number of fishing vessels and one galley of thirty oars for Salamis, where he cast anchor at a point which looks towards Eubœa. The Megarensians that were in the place, having heard a confused report of what had happened, betook themselves in a disorderly manner to arms, and sent a ship to discover the enemy. As the ship approached too near, Solon took it, and, securing the crew, put in insanity, but boldly and resolutely spoke against it, and by the force of his eloquence brought them to correct it. * None wore caps but the sick. the Greeks to arm for the honour of the god. At this motion it was that the Amphictyons declared war; as Aristotle, among others, testifies, in his book concerning the Pythian games, where he attributes that decree to Solon. He was not, however, appointed general in that Samian. For schines the orator says no such thing; and we find in the records of Delphi, that Alcmeon, not Solon, commanded the Athenians on that occasion. their place some of the bravest of the Athenians, with orders to make the best of their way to the city, as privately as possible. In the mean-time, with the rest of his men, he attacked the Megarensians by land; and while these were engaged, those from the ship took the city. A custom which obtained after-war, as Hermippus relates from Euanthes the vrards, seems to bear witness to the truth of this account. For an Athenian ship, once a year, passed silently to Salamis, and the inhabitants coming down upon it with noise and tumult, one man in armour leaped ashore, and ran shouting towards the promontory of Sciradium, to meet those that were advancing by land. Near that place is a temple of Mars, erected by Solon; for there it was that he defeated the Megarensians, and dismissed, upon certain conditions, such as were not slain in battle. However, the people of Megara persisted in their claim till both sides had severely felt the calamities of war, and then they referred the affair to the decision of the Lacedæmonians. Many authors relate that Solon availed himself of a passage in Homer's catalogue of ships, which he alleged before the arbitrators, dexterously inserting a line of his own; for to this verse, Ajax from Salamis twelve ships commands, he is said to have added, And ranks his forces with the Athenian power.* But the Athenians look upon this as an idle story, and tell us, that Solon made it appear to the judges, that Philæus and Eurysaces, sons of Ajax, being admitted by the Athenians to the freedom of their city, gave up the island to them, and removed, the one to Brauron, and the other to Melite in Attica: likewise, that the tribe of the Philaida, of which Pisistratus was, had its name from that Philæus. He brought another argument against the Megarensians, from the manner of burying in Salamis, which was agreeable to the custom of Athens, and not to that of Megara; for the Megarensians inter the dead with their faces to the east, and the Athenians turn theirs to the west. On the other hand, Hereas of Megara insists, that the Megarensians likewise turn the faces of the dead to the west; and, what is more, that, like the people of Salamis, they put three or four corpses in one tomb, whereas the Athenians have a separate tomb for each. But Solon's cause was farther assisted by certain oracles of Apollo, in which the island was called Ionian Salamis. This matter was determined by five Spartans; Critolaides, Amompharetus, Hypsechidas, Anaxilas, and Cleomenes. Solon acquired considerable honour and authority in Athens by this affair; but he was much more celebrated among the Greeks in general, for negociating succours for the temple at Delphi, against the insolent and injurious behaviour of the Cirrhæans,† and persuading *This line could be no sufficient evidence; for there are many passages in Homer which prove that the ships of Ajax were stationed near the Thessalians. The inhabitants of Cirrha, a town seated in the bay of Corinth, after having by repeated incursions wasted the territory of Delphi, besieged the city itself, from a desire of making themselves masters of the riches The execrable proceedings against the accomplices of Cylon had long occasioned great troubles in the Athenian state. The conspirators had taken sanctuary in Minerva's temple; but Megacles, then Archon, persuaded them to quit it, and stand trial, under the notion that if they tied a thread to the shrine of the goddess, and kept hold of it, they would still be under her protection. But when they came over against the temple of the furies, the thread broke of itself; upon which Megacles and his colleagues rushed upon them and seized them, as if they had lost their privilege. Such as were out of the temple were stoned; those that fled to the altars were cut in pieces there; and they only were spared who made application to the wives of the magistrates. From that time those magistrates were called execrable, and became objects of the public hatred. The remains of Cylon's faction afterwards recovered strength, and kept up the quarrel with the descendants of Megacles. The dispute was greater than ever, and the two contained in the temple of Apollo. Advice of this being sent to the Amphictyons, who were the states general of Greece, Solon advised that this matter should rant of Sicyon, was sent commander in chief against be universally resented. Accordingly, Clysthenes, tythe Cirrhæans; Alemaon was general of the Athenian quota; and Solon went as counsellor or assistant to Clysthenes. When the Greek army had besieged Cirrha some time, without any great appearance of success, Apollo was consulted, who answered, that they should not be able to reduce the place, till the Delphi. This answer struck the army with surprise, from which Solon extricated them by advising Clysthenes to consecrate the whole territories of Cirrha to the Delphic Apollo, whence it would follow that the sea must wash the sacred coast. Pausanias (in Phocisis) mentions another stratagem, which was not wor thy of the justice of Solon. Cirrha, however, was taken, and became henceforth the arsenal of Delphi. waves of the Cirrhæan sea washed the territories of * There was, for a long time after the democracy took place, a strong party against it, who left no measures untried, in order, if possible, to restore their ancient form of government. Cylon, a man of quality, and son-in-law to Theagenes, tyrant of Megara, repined at the sudden change of the magistrates, and hated the thoughts of asking that as a favour, which he apprehended to be due to his birthright. He formed, therefore, a design to seize the citadel, which he put in practice in the forty-fifth olympiad, when many o cles, who was at that time chief archon, with the other the citizens were gone to the olympic games. Mega magistrates and the whole power of Athens, immediately besieged the conspirators there, and reduced them to such distress, that Cylon and his brother fled, and left the meaner sort to shift for themselves. Such as escaped the sword, took refuge, as Plutarch relates, in Minerva's temple; and though they deserved death for conspiring against the government, yet, as the magistrates put them to death in breach of the privilege of sanctuary, they brought upon themselves the indignation of the superstitious Athenians, who deemed such a breach a greater crime than treason. parties more exasperated, when Solon, whose authority was now very great, and others of the principal Athenians, interposed and by entreaties and arguments persuaded the persons called execrable to submit to justice and a fair trial, before three hundred judges selected from the nobility. Myron, of the Phylensian ward, carried on the impeachment, and they were condemned: as many as were alive were driven into exile, and the bodies of the dead dug up and cast out beyond the borders of Attica. Amidst these disturbances, the Megarensians, renewed the war, took Nisæthe from the Athenians, and recovered Salamis once more. About this time the city was likewise afflicted with superstitious fears and strange appearances: and the soothsayers declared that there were certain abominable crimes which wanted expiation, pointed out by the entrails of the victims. Upon this they sent to Crete for Epimenides the Phastian, who is reckoned the seventh among the wise men, by those that do not admit Periander into the number. He was reputed a man of great piety, beloved by the gods, and skilled in matters of religion, particularly in what related to inspiration and the sacred mysteries, therefore the men of those days called him the son of the nymph Balte, and one of the Curetes revived. When he arrived at Athens, he contracted a friendship with Solon, and privately gave him considerable assistance, preparing the way for the reception of his laws. For he taught the Athenians to be more frugal in their religious worship, and more moderate in their mourning, by intermixing certain sacrifices with the funeral solemnities, and abolishing the cruel and barbarous customs that had generally prevailed among the women before. What is of still greater consequence, by expiations, lustrations, and the erecting of temples and shrines he hallowed and purified the city, and made the people more observant of justice and more inclined to union. When he had seen Munichia, and considered it some time, he is reported to have said to those about him,† How blind is man to futurity! If the Athenians could foresee what trouble that place will give them, they would tear it in pieces with their teeth, rather than it should stand. Something similar to this is related of Thales. For he ordered the Milesians to bury him in a certain refuse and neglected place, and foretold at the same time, that their market-place would one day stand there. As for Epimenides, he was held in admiration at Athens; great honours were paid him, and many valuable presents made: yet he would accept of nothing but a branch of the sacred olive, which they gave him at his request; and with that he departed. When the troubles about Cylon's affair were over, and the sacrilegious persons removed in the manner we have mentioned, the Athenians relapsed into their old disputes concerning the government; for there were as many parties among them as there were different tracts of land in their country. The inhabitants of the mountainous part were, it seems, for a democracy; those of the plains, for an oligarchy; and those of the sea coast contending for a mixed kind of government, hindered the other two from gaining their point. At the same time, the inequality between the poor and the rich occasioned the greatest discord, and the state was in so dangerous a situation, that there seemed to be no way to quell the seditious, or to save it from ruin, but changing it to a monarchy. So greatly were the poor in debt to the rich, that they were obliged either to pay them a sixth part of the produce of the land (whence they were called Hectemorii and Thetes) or else to engage their persons to their creditors, who might seize them on failure of payment. Accordingly some made slaves of them, and others sold them to foreigners. Nay, some parents were forced to sell their own children (for no law forbade it,) and to quit the city, to avoid the severe treatment of those usurers, but the greater number, and men of the most spirit, agreed to stand by each other, and to bear such impositions no longer. They determined to choose a trusty person for their leader to deliver those who had failed in their time of payment, to divide the land and to give an entire new face to the commonwealth. Then the most prudent of the Athenians cast *This Epimenides was a very extraordinary person. their eyes upon Solon, as a man least obnoxDiogenus Laertius tells us, that he was the inventor of the art of lustrating or purifying houses, fields, and ious to either party, having neither been enpersons; which, if spoken of Greece, may be true; But gaged in oppressions with the rich, nor entanMoses had long before taught the Hebrews something of gled in necessities with the poor. Him, therethis nature. (Vide Levit. xvi.) Epimenides took some fore, they entreated to assist the public in this sheep that were all black, and others that were all exigency, and to compose these differences. white; these he led into the Areopagus, and turning Phonias the Lesbian asserts, indeed, that Sothem loose, directed certain persons to follow them, who should mark where they couched, and there sacri- lon, to save the state, dealt artfully with both fice them to the focal deity. This being done, altars parties, and privately promised the poor a diwere erected in all these places, to perpetuate the vision of the lands, and the rich a confirmation memory of this solemn expiation. There were, how-of their securities. At first he was loath to ever, other ceremonies practised for the purpose of lustration, of which Tzetzes, in his poetical chronicle, gives a particular account, but which are too trifling to be mentioned here. take the administration upon him, by reason of the avarice of some and the insolence of others, but was however, chosen archon next after This prediction was fulfilled 270 years after, when Philombrotus, and at the same time arbitrator Antipater constrained the Athenians to admit his gar- and lawgiver; the rich accepting of him readily, rison into that place. Besides this prophecy, Epimenides uttered another during his stay at Athens; for as one of them, and the poor, as a good and hearing that the citizens were alarmed at the progress worthy man. They tell us too, that a saying of of the Persian power at sea, he advised them to make his, which he had let fall some time before, that themselves easy, for that the Persians would not for equality causes no war, was then much remany years attempt any thing against the Greeks, and when they did, they would receive greater loss them-peated, and pleased both the rich and the selves than they would be able to bring upon the states the latter expecting to come to balance by their they thought to destroy. Laert. in Vita et Rimen. numbers and by the measure of divided landa, poor; |