句型转换My(your,his,her) name's Ging.Is this your(my,his,her) pencil?This is my(your,his,her) sisther.Whewe's my(your,his,her) backpack?Do you(I) have a socc ball?Does he(she) eave nis racket?1.变为一般疑问句（肯定否定回答）2.变_百度作业帮
句型转换My(your,his,her) name's Ging.Is this your(my,his,her) pencil?This is my(your,his,her) sisther.Whewe's my(your,his,her) backpack?Do you(I) have a socc ball?Does he(she) eave nis racket?1.变为一般疑问句（肯定否定回答）2.变为特殊疑问句（肯定否定回答）3.变为复数（单数）4.变为否定句能变得都变，不能变的说一下
1、一般疑问 Is （your,his,her) name Ging?are you Ging?.Yes,she/he is.Yse,i am/ No,i am not(she/he isn't)特殊疑问句 What's your/her/his name?My/Her/His name is Ging.2.Whose pencil is it?3.一般疑问句 Is this your/her/his sister?Yes,she si /No,she isn't特殊疑问句 Who is your/her/his sister?This is my/his/her sister.4、一般疑问句 Is this your/his/her backpack?Yes,it is No,it isn'tThese are my sisters.5、Where are my backpacks?6、Don't you have a soccer ball?7、Does't he have a pair of rackets?
其他类似问题
1、Is your/his/her name is Ging?2、Whose pencil it is?3、These are my sisters.4、Where are my backpacks?5、Don't you have a soccer ball?6、Does't he have a pair of rackets?
是都变还是有的变有的不变啊，同学你也不说清楚,还有同学，拼错了1、一般疑问 Is （your,his,her) name Ging? Yse,i am.Yes,she/he is / No, i am not(she/he isn't)特殊疑问句 What's your/her/his
name? My/Her/His name is Ging.2.第二个我茫然了，...
扫描下载二维码The Internet Classics Archive | Solon by Plutarch
By Plutarch
Commentary: A few comments have been posted about
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(legendary, died 539 B.C.E.)
By Plutarch
Written 75 A.C.E.
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 wr 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 C 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 S
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 C 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 rath and therefore
applied himself to merc 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 " 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 " and in another
"Wealth I would have, but wealth by wrong procure
I 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 Rhone, were much attached. Some report also, that Thales and Hippocrates
and that Plato defrayed the charges of his travels
by selling oil in Egypt. Solon's softness and profuseness, his popular
rather than philosophical tone about pleasure in his poems, have been ascribed
for, having suffered a thousand dangers, it was natural
they should be recompensed with some gratifica but
that he accounted himself rather poor than rich is evident from the
"Some wicked men are rich, some good are poor,
We will not change our virtue for their store:
Virtue's a thing tha
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 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
"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 poli 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 li
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
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 Corinth, by the procurement of Periander, who made a meeting
for them, and a supper. But their reputation was chiefly raised by sending
the tripod to them all, by their modest refusal, and complaisant yielding
to one another. For, as the story goes, some of the Coans fishing with
a net, some strangers, Milesians, bought the
net brought up a golden tripod, which, they say, Helen, at her return from
Troy, upon the remembrance of an old prophecy, threw in there. Now, the
strangers at first contesting with the fishers about the tripod, and the
cities espousing the quarrel so far as to engage themselves in a war, Apollo
decided the controversy by commanding to present
and first it was sent to Miletus to Thales, the Coans freely presenting
him with that for which they fought against the whole body of the M
but Thales declaring Bias the wiser person, from him
and so, going round them all, it came to T
and, at last, being carried from Miletus to Thebes, was there dedicated
to Apollo Ismenius. Theophrastus writes that it was first presented to
Bias at P and next to Thales at Miletus, and so through all it returned
to Bias, and was afterwards sent to Delphi. This is the general report,
only some, instead of a tripod, say this present was a cup sent by C
others, a piece of plate that one Bathycles had left. It is stated, that
Anacharsis and Solon, and Solon and Thales, were familiarly acquainted
and some have delivered part for, they say, Anacharsis,
coming to Athens, knocked at Solon's door, and told him, that he, being
a stranger, was come to be his guest, and contract a
and Solon replying, "It is better to make friends at home," Anacharsis
replied, "Then you that are at home make friendship with me." Solon, somewhat
surprised at the readiness of the repartee, received him kindly, and kept
him some time with him, being already engaged in public business and the
com which, when Anacharsis understood, he laughed
at him for imagining the dishonesty and covetousness of his countrymen
could be restrained by written laws, which were like spiders' webs, and
would catch, it is true, the weak and poor, but easily be broken by the
mighty and rich. To this Solon rejoined that men keep their promises when
neither side can get anything by
and he would so
fit his laws to the citizens, that all should understand it was more eligible
to be just than to break the laws. But the event rather agreed with the
conjecture of Anacharsis than Solon's hope. Anacharsis, being once at the
Assembly, expressed his wonder at the fact that in Greece wise men spoke
and fools decided.
Solon went, they say, to Thales, at Miletus, and wondered that
Thales took no care to get him a wife and children. To this, Thales made
no an but a few days after procured a stranger to
pretend that he had left A and Solon inquiring what
news there, the man, according to his instructions, replied, "None but
a young man's funeral, which the for he was the son,
they said, of an honourable man, the most virtuous of the citizens, who
was not then at home, but had been travelling a long time." Solon replied,
"What a miserable man is he! But what was his name?" "I have heard it,"
says the man, "but have now forgotten it, only there was a great talk of
his wisdom and his justice." Thus Solon was drawn on by every answer, and
his fears heightened, till at last, being extremely concerned, he mentioned
his own name, and asked the stranger if that young man was called Solon's
and the stranger assenting, he began to beat his head, and to do and
say all that is usual with men in transports of grief. But Thales took
his hand, and, with a smile, said, "These things, Solon, keep me from marriage
and rearing children, which are too great for even your
however, be not concerned at the report, for it is a fiction." This Hermippus
relates, from Pataecus, who boasted that he had Aesop's
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
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, 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 tha and with
affection c 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 lo 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 endle 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
"I am a herald come from Salamis the fair,
My news from thence my verses shall declare." The poem is called S
it contains an hundred verses ve when it had been
sung, his friends commended it, and especially Pisistratus exhorted the
citizens to 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 C
the Megarians presently sent off men in 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 and the Athenians set sail for the island and
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 o 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 N 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 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 Salamis stout Ajax brought,
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 M 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 A
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 gre 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 G 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 S 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
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 M 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 S besides, the city was disturbed with superstitious fears
and strange appearances, and the priests declared that the sacrifices intimated
some villainies and pollutions that were to be expiated. Upon this, they
sent for Epimenides the Phaestian from Crete, who is counted the seventh
wise man by those that will not admit Periander into the number. He seems
to have been thought a favourite of heaven, possessed of knowledge in all
the supernatural and ritu and, therefore, the men
of his age called him a new Curies, and son of a nymph named Balte. When
he came to Athens, and grew acquainted with Solon, he served him in many
instances, and prepared the way for his legislation. He made them moderate
in their forms of worship, and abated their mourning by ordering some sacrifices
presently after the funeral, and taking off those severe and barbarous
ceremonies which the wom but the greatest benefit
was his purifying and sanctifying the city, by certain propitiatory and
expiatory lustrations, and foundations of sacred buildings, by that means
making them more submissive to justice, and more inclined to harmony. It
is reported that, looking upon Munychia, and considering a long while.
he said to those that stood by, "How blind is man in future things! for
did the Athenians foresee what mischief this would do their city, they
would even eat it with their own teeth to be rid of it." A similar anticipation
is ascribed to T they say he commanded his friends to bury him in
an obscure and contemned quarter of the territory of Mileteus, saying that
it should some day be the market-place of the Milesians. Epimenides, being
much honoured, and receiving from the city rich offers of large gifts and
privileges, requested but one branch of the sacred olive, and, on that
being granted, returned.
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 Seaside stood for a mixed sort of government, and
so hindered either of the other parties from prevailing. And the disparity
of fortune between the rich and the poor, at that time, also reached its
so that the city seemed to be in a truly dangerous condition, and
no other means for freeing it from disturbances and settling it to be possible
but a despotic power. All the people were
and either
they tilled their land for their creditors, paying them a sixth part of
the increase, and were, therefore, called Hectemorii and Thetes, or else
they engaged their body for the debt, and might be seized, and either sent
into slavery at home,
some (for no law forbade it)
were forced to sell their children, or fly their country to avoid the cruelty
but the most part and the bravest of them began to
combine together and encourage one another to stand to it, to choose a
leader, to liberate the condemned debtors, divide the land, and change
the government.
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 gre
he was chosen archon, however, after Philombrotus, and empowered to be
an arb 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
the one conceiving him
to mean, when all have t 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 accor
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
and some say that Solon had this oracle from
"Take the mid-seat, and be the vessel'
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 m Euboea had made this
experiment when it chose Tynnondas, and Mitylene, which had made Pittacus
yet this could not shake Solon' but, as they say,
he replied to his friends, that it was true a tyranny was a very fair spot,
but it had and in a copy of verses to Phocus he
that I spared my land,
And withheld from usurpation and from violence my
And forbore to fix a stain and a disgrace on my good
I 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
When the gods would give him fortune, he of his own will
When the net was full of fishes, over-heavy thinking
He declined to haul it up, through want of heart and want of
Had but I that chance of riches and of kingship, for one
I would give my skin for flaying, and my house to die
Thus he makes the many and the low people speak of him. Yet, though
he refused the government, he was not to 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 but
what he thought he could effect by persuasion upon the pliable, and by
force upon the stubborn, this he did, as he himself
"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
so that they named this benefit the Seisacthea, together with the
enlarging their measures and raising the
for he made
a pound, which before passed for seventy-three drachmas,
so that, though the number of pieces in the payment was equal, the value
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,
"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,
"-so far their lot to roam,
They had forgot the la and some he had set at
"Who here in shameful servitude were held."
While he was designing this, a most vexa 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 peo upon
which they, using their advantage, made haste and borrowed some considerable
sums of money, and purcha and when the law was enacted,
they kept the possessions, and would
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
others, as Polyzelus the Rhodian, 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
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 o yet he acted fully up to the
height of his power, having nothing but the good-will and good opinion
of his and that he offended the most part, who looked
for another result, he declares in the words-
"Formerly they
with averted
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, 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
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 no 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
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 P those that could keep an
horse, or were worth three hundred measures, were named Hippada Teluntes,
and m the Zeugitae, that had two hundred measures,
and all the others were called Thetes, who were not
admitted to any office, but could come to the assembly,
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
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
"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
if any one was beaten, maimed, or suffered any violence, any man
that would and was able might prosecute the wrong- 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 A which seems to be confirmed, because
Draco makes no mention of the Areopagites, but in all causes of blood refers
to the E 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 wh 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 of this the
reader must judge.
Amongst his other laws, one is very peculiar and surprising, which
disfranchises all who stand
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
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 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
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
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 e and
that the husband of an heiress shall consort wit for
though there be no children, yet it is an honour and due affection which
an husband ought to pay to a virtuous, it takes off all petty
differences, and will not permit their little quarrels to proceed to a
In all other marriages he forbade the wife
was to have three suits of clothes, a little inconsiderable household stuff,
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
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
Another commendable law of Solon's is that which forbids men to
sp 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-
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
him none could be made, but all the wealth and estate of the deceased belonged
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, affe 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 p 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 un when they walked
abroad, no more than three articles of dre an obol's
wor and no baske 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
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
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 r 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 wom 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 d if he enticed her,
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
unless there being little money then in Athens, scarcity made those
mulcts the more grievous punishment. In the valuation for sacrifices, a
sheep and a bushel were both es the victor in the
Isthmian games was to have for reward the conqueror
in the Olympian, he that brought a wolf, for
a whelp, the former sum, as Demetrius the Phalerian asserts, was the
value of an ox, the latter, of a sheep. The prices which Solon, in his
sixteenth table, sets on choice victims, were n yet
they, too, are very low in comparison of the present. The Athenians were,
from the beginning, great enemies to wolves, their fields being better
for pasture than corn. Some affirm their tribes did not take their names
from the sons of Ion, but from the different sorts of occupation that they
the soldiers were called Hoplitae, the craftsmen Ergades, and,
of the remaining two, the farmers Gedeontes, and the shepherds and graziers
Aegicores.
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
but when it was farther off, they should try and procure
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' but if a fig or
an o 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' and he that would raise stocks of bees was not
to place them within three hundred feet of those which another had already
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
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
a happy device for men's
security. The law concerning naturalizing strangers is o
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
this he did, not to discourage strangers, but rather to invite them
to a permanent participation in the privileg 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
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
"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, 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
His first voyage was for Egypt, and he lived, as he himself
"Near Nilus' mouth, by fair Canopus' shore," and spent some time
in study with Psenophis of Heliopolis, and Sonchis the Saite, the most
learne 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 Cyprus, where
he was made much of by Philocyprus, one of the kings there, who had a small
city built by Demophon, Theseus's son, near the river Clarius, in a strong
situation, but incommodious and uneasy of access. Solon persuaded him,
since there lay a fair plain below, to remove, and build there a pleasanter
and more spacious city. And he stayed himself, and assisted in gathering
inhabitants, and in fitting it both for defence and c
insomuch that many flocked to Philocyprus, and the other kings imitated
and, therefore, to honour Solon, he called the city Soli, which
was formerly named Aepea. And Solon himself, in his Elegies, addressing
Philocyprus, mentions this foundation in these words:-
"Long may you live, and fill the Solian throne,
Succeeded still by
And from your happy island while I sail,
Let Cyprus send for
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
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 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, thoug Solon could judge of
him well enough by th 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 s 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 gift and so
our wisdom, too, is a cheerful and a homely, not a nob
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 possibl
and him only to whom the divinity has continued happiness unto the end
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 Sardis upon Croesus's
invitation, and very much esteemed, was concerned that Solon was so ill
received, and gave him this advice: "Solon, let your converse with kings
be either short or seasonable." "Nay, rather," replied Solon, "either short
or reasonable." So at this time Croesus despised S but when he was
overcome by Cyrus, had lost his city, was taken alive, condemned to be
burnt, and laid bound upon the pile before all the Persians and Cyrus himself,
he cried out as loud as possibly he could three times, "O Solon!" and Cyrus
being surprised, and sending some to inquire what man or god this Solon
was, who alone he invoked in this extremity, Croesus told him the whole
story, saying, "He was one of the wise men of Greece, whom I sent for,
not to be instructed, or to learn anything that I wanted, but that he should
see and be a wit the loss of which was, it seems,
to be a greater evil than the
for when I had them
they were goods only in opinion, but now the loss of them has brought upon
me intolerable and real evils. And he, conjecturing from what then was,
this that now is, bade look to the end of my life, and not rely and grow
proud upon uncertainties." When this was told Cyrus, who was a wiser man
than Croesus, and saw in the present example Solon's maxim confirmed, he
not only freed Croesus from punishment, but honoured him as long as he
and Solon had the glory, by the same saying, to save one king and
instruct another.
When Solon was gone, the citiz Lycurgus headed
the P Megacles, the son of Alcmaeon, those to the S and Pisistratus
the Hill-party, in which were the poorest people, the Thetes, and greatest
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,
but his old age would not permit him to be as active, and
to speak in public, yet, by privately conferring with the
heads of the factions, he endeavoured to compose the differences, Pisistratus
appearin for he was extremely smooth and engaging
in his language, a great friend to the poor, and moderat
and what nature had not given him, he had
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 th but Solon
quickly discovered his character, and found out his design before any one
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 suc 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 U 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 wor" and
"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
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
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 t 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 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 quie but his accuser did not appear. And he added
other laws, one of which is that the maimed in the wars should be maintained
this Heraclides Ponticus records, and that Pisistratus
followed Solon's example in this, who had decreed it in the case of one
Thersippus, 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, not,
as Plato says, by reason of want of time, but because of his age, and being
discouraged at the g for that he had leisure enough,
such verses testify, as-
"Each day grow older, and" and
"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, but, beginning it late, ended his life before
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 Athens left only the temple of Jupiter Olympius unfinished,
so Plato, amongst all his excellent works, left this only piece about the
Atlantic Island imperfect. Solon lived after Pisistratus seized the government,
as Heraclides Ponticus asserts, but Phanias the Eresian says
for Pisistratus began his tyranny when Comias was archon,
and Phanias says Solon died under Hegestratus, who succeeded Comias. The
story that his ashes were scattered about the island Salamis is too strange
to be easily believed, or be thought anyth and yet
it is given, amongst other good authors, by Aristotle, the
philosopher.