and to have first shown this spirit towards their husbands, ruling
uncontrolled over their households, and afterwards in public matters,
where they freely expressed their opinions upon the most important
subjects. On the other hand, Numa preserved that respect and honour due
from men to matrons which they had met with under Romulus, who paid them
these honours to atone for having carried them off by force, but he
implanted in them habits of modesty, sobriety, and silence, forbidding
them even to touch wine, or to speak even when necessary except in their
husbands' presence. It is stated that once, because a woman pleaded her
own cause in the Forum, the Senate sent to ask the oracle what this
strange event might portend for the state.
A great proof of the obedience and modesty of the most part of them is
the way in which the names of those who did any wrong is remembered.
For, just as in Greece, historians record the names of those who first
made war against their own kindred or murdered their parents, so the
Romans tell us that the first man who put away his wife was Spurius
Carvilius, nothing of the kind having happened in Rome for two hundred
and thirty years from its foundation; and that the wife of Pinarius,
Thalaea by name, was the first to quarrel with her mother-in-law Gegania
in the reign of Tarquinius Superbus--so well and orderly were marriages
arranged by this lawgiver.
IV. The rest of their laws for the training and marriage of maidens
agree with one another, although Lykurgus put off the time of marriage
till they were full-grown, in order that their intercourse, demanded as
it was by nature, might produce love and friendship in the married pair
rather than the dislike often experienced by an immature child towards
her husband, and also that their bodies might be better able to support
the trials of child-bearing, which he regarded as the sole object of
marriage; whereas the Romans gave their daughters in marriage at the age
of twelve years or even younger, thinking thus to hand over a girl to
her husband pure and uncorrupt both in body and mind. It is clear that
the former system is best for the mere production of children, and the
latter for moulding consorts for life. But by his superintendence of the
young, his collecting them into companies, his training and drill, with
the table and exercises common to all, Lykurgus showed that he was
immensely superior to Numa, who, like any commonplace lawgiver, left the
whole training of the young in the hands of their fathers, regulated
only by their caprice or needs; so that whoever chose might bring up his
son as a shipwright, a coppersmith, or a musician, as though the
citizens ought not from the very outset to direct their attention to one
object, but were like people who have embarked in the same ship for
various causes, who only in time of danger act together for the common
advantage of all, and at other times pursue each his own private ends.
Allowance must be made for ordinary lawgivers, who fail through want of
power or of knowledge in establishing such a system; but no such excuse
can be made for Numa, who was a wise man, and who was made king of a
newly-created state which would not have opposed any of his designs.
What could be of greater importance than to regulate the education of
the young and so to train them that they might all become alike in their
lives and all bear the same impress of virtue? It was to this that
Lykurgus owed the permanence of his laws; for he could not have trusted
to the oaths which he made them take, if he had not by education and
training so steeped the minds of the young in the spirit of his laws,
and by his method of bringing them up implanted in them such a love for
the state, that the most important of his enactments remained in force
for more than five hundred years; for the lives of all Spartans seem to
have been coloured by these laws. That which was the aim and end of
Numa's policy, that Rome should be at peace and friendly with her
neighbours, ceased immediately upon his death; at once the double-gated
temple, which he kept closed as if he really kept war locked up in it,
had both its gates thrown open and filled Italy with slaughter. His
excellent and righteous policy did not last for a moment, for the people
were not educated to support it, and therefore it could not be lasting.
But, it may be asked, did not Rome flourish by her wars? It is hard to
answer such a question, in an age which values wealth, luxury, and
dominion more than a gentle peaceful life that wrongs no one and
suffices for itself. Yet this fact seems to tell for Lykurgus, that the
Romans gained such an enormous increase of power by departing from
Numa's policy, while the Lacedaemonians, as soon as they fell away from
the discipline of Lykurgus, having been the haughtiest became the most
contemptible of Greeks, and not only lost their supremacy, but had even
to struggle for their bare existence. On the other hand, it was truly
glorious for Numa that he was a stranger and sent for by the Romans to
be their king; that he effected all his reforms without violence, and
ruled a city composed of discordant elements without any armed force
such as Lykurgus had to assist him, winning over all men and reducing
them to order by his wisdom and justice.
LIFE OF SOLON.
I. Didymus the grammarian, in the book about Solon's laws which he wrote
in answer to Asklepiades, quotes a saying of one Philokles, that Solon
was the son of Euphorion, which is quite at variance with the testimony
of all other writers who have mentioned Solon: for they all say that he
was the son of Exekestides, a man whose fortune and power were only
moderate, but whose family was of the noblest in Athens; for he was
descended from Kodrus the last Athenian king. Herakleides of Pontus
relates that the mother of Solon was first cousin to the mother of
Peisistratus. The two boys, we are told, were friends when young, and
when in after years they differed in politics they still never
entertained harsh or angry feelings towards one another, but kept alive
the sacred flame of their former intimate friendship. Peisistratus is
even said to have dedicated the statue of Love in the Academy where
those who are going to run in the sacred torch-race light their torches.
II. According to Hermippus, Solon, finding that his father had by his
generosity diminished his fortune, and feeling ashamed to be dependent
upon others, when he himself was come of a house more accustomed to give
than to receive, embarked in trade, although his friends were eager to
supply him with all that he could wish for. Some, however, say that
Solon travelled more with a view to gaining experience and learning than
to making money. He was indeed eager to learn, as he wrote when an old
man,
"Old to grow, but ever learning,"
but disregarded wealth, for he wrote that he regarded as equally rich
the man who owned
"Gold and broad acres, corn and wine;
And he that hath but clothes and food,
A wife, and youthful strength divine."
Yet elsewhere he has written, but
"I long for wealth, not by fraud obtained,
For curses wait on riches basely gained."
There is no reason for an upright statesman either to be over anxious
for luxuries or to despise necessaries. At that period, as Hesiod tells
us, "Work was no disgrace," nor did trade carry any reproach, while the
profession of travelling merchant was even honourable, as it civilised
barbarous tribes, and gained the friendship of kings, and learned much
in many lands. Some merchants founded great cities, as, for example,
Protis, who was beloved by the Gauls living near the Rhone, founded
Marseilles. It is also said that Thales the sage, and Hippocrates the
mathematician, travelled as merchants, and that Plato defrayed the
expenses of his journey to Egypt by the oil which he disposed of in that
country.
III. Solon's extravagance and luxurious mode of life, and his poems,
which treat of pleasure more from a worldly than a philosophic point of
view, are attributed to his mercantile training; for the great perils of
a merchant's life require to be paid in corresponding pleasures. Yet it
is clear that he considered himself as belonging to the class of the
poor, rather than that of the rich, from the following verses:
"The base are rich, the good are poor; and yet
Our virtue for their gold we would not change;
For that at least is ours for evermore,
While wealth we see from hand to hand doth range."
His poetry was originally written merely for his own amusement in his
leisure hours; but afterwards he introduced into it philosophic
sentiments, and interwove political events with his poems, not in order
to record them historically, but in some cases to explain his own
conduct, and in others to instruct, encourage, or rebuke the Athenians.
Some say that he endeavoured to throw his laws into an epic form, and
tell us that the poem began--
"To Jove I pray, great Saturn's son divine,
To grant his favour to these laws of mine."
Of ethical philosophy, he, like most of the sages of antiquity, was most
interested in that branch which deals with political obligations. As to
natural science, his views are very crude and antiquated, as we see from
the following verses:
"From clouds the snow and hail descend,
And thunderbolts the lightnings send;
The waves run high when gales do blow,
Without the wind they're still enow."
Indeed, of all the sages of that time, Thales alone seems to have known
more of physics than was necessary to supply man's every-day needs; all
the others having gained their reputation for political wisdom.
IV. These wise men are said to have met at Delphi, and again at Corinth,
where they were entertained by the despot Periander. Their reputation
was greatly increased by the tripod which was sent to all of them and
refused by all with a gracious rivalry. The story goes that some men of
Cos were casting a net, and some strangers from Miletus bought the haul
of them before it reached the surface.
The net brought up a golden tripod, the same which, it is said, Helen
threw into the sea at that spot, in accordance with some ancient oracle,
when she was sailing away from Troy. A dispute arose at first between
the strangers and the fishermen; afterwards it was taken up by their
respective cities, who even came to blows about it. Finally they
consulted the oracle at Delphi, which ordered it to be given to the
wisest. Now it was first sent to Miletus, to Thales, as the men of Cos
willingly gave it to that one man, although they had fought with all the
Milesians together about it. Thales said that Bias was wiser than
himself, and sent it to him; and by him it was again sent to another
man, as being wiser yet. So it went on, being sent from one to another
until it came to Thales a second time, and at last was sent from Miletus
to Thebes and consecrated to Apollo Ismenius. As Theophrastus tells the
story, the tripod was first sent to Bias at Priéne, and secondly to
Thales at Miletus, and so on through all of the wise men until it again
reached Bias, and was finally offered at Delphi. This is the more common
version of the story, although some say that it was not a tripod but a
bowl sent by Croesus, others that it was a drinking-cup left behind by
one Bathykles.
V. Anacharsis is said to have met Solon, and afterwards Thales in
private, and to have conversed with them. The story goes that Anacharsis
came to Athens, went to Solon's door, and knocked, saying that he was a
stranger and had come to enter into friendship with him. When Solon
answered that friendships were best made at home, Anacharsis said, "Well
then, do you, who are at home, enter into friendship with me." Solon,
admiring the man's cleverness, received him kindly, and kept him for
some time in his house. He was at this time engaged in politics, and was
composing his laws. Anacharsis, when he discovered this, laughed at
Solon's undertaking, if he thought to restrain the crimes and greed of
the citizens by written laws, which he said were just like spiders'
webs; for, like them, they caught the weaker criminals, but were broken
through by the stronger and more important.
To this Solon answered, that men keep covenants, because it is to the
advantage of neither party to break them; and that he so suited his laws
to his countrymen, that it was to the advantage of every one to abide by
them rather than to break them. Nevertheless, things turned out more as
Anacharsis thought than as Solon wished. Anacharsis said too, when
present at an assembly of the people, that he was surprised to see that
in Greece wise men spoke upon public affairs, and ignorant men decided
them.
VI. When Solon went to Thales at Miletus, he expressed his wonder at his
having never married and had a family. Thales made no answer at the
time, but a few days afterwards arranged that a man should come to him
and say that he left Athens ten days before. When Solon inquired of him,
whether anything new had happened at Athens, the man answered, as Thales
had instructed him, that "there was no news, except the death of a
young man who had been escorted to his grave by the whole city. He was
the son, they told him, of a leading citizen of great repute for his
goodness, but the father was not present, for they said he had been
travelling abroad for some years." "Unhappy man," said Solon, "what was
his name?" "I heard his name," answered the man, "but I cannot remember
it; beyond that there was much talk of his wisdom and justice." Thus by
each of his answers he increased Solon's alarm, until he at last in his
excitement asked the stranger whether it were not Solon's son that was
dead. The stranger said that it was. Solon was proceeding to beat his
head and show all the other marks of grief, when Thales stopped him,
saying with a smile, "This, Solon, which has the power to strike down so
strong a man as you, has ever prevented my marrying and having children.
But be of good courage, for this tale which you have been told is
untrue." This story is said by Hermippus to have been told by Pataikos,
he who said that he had inherited the soul of Aesop.
VII. It is a strange and unworthy feeling that prompts a man not to
claim that to which he has a right, for fear that he may one day lose
it; for by the same reasoning he might refuse wealth, reputation, or
wisdom, for fear of losing them hereafter. We see even virtue, the
greatest and most dear of all possessions, can be destroyed by disease
or evil drugs; and Thales by avoiding marriage still had just as much to
fear, unless indeed he ceased to love his friends, his kinsmen, and his
native land. But even he adopted his sister's son Kybisthus; for the
soul has a spring of affection within it, and is formed not only to
perceive, to reflect, and to remember, but also to love. If it finds
nothing to love at home, it will find something abroad; and when
affection, like a desert spot, has no legitimate possessors, it is
usurped by bastard children or even servants, who when they have
obtained our love, make us fear for them and be anxious about them. So
that one may often see men, in a cynical temper, inveighing against
marriage and children, who themselves shortly afterwards will be plunged
into unmanly excesses of grief, at the loss of their child by some slave
or concubine. Some have even shown terrible grief at the death of dogs
and horses; whereas others, who have lost noble sons, made no unusual or
unseemly exhibition of sorrow, but passed the remainder of their lives
calmly and composedly. Indeed it is weakness, not affection, which
produces such endless misery and dread to those who have not learned to
take a rational view of the uncertainty of life, and who cannot enjoy
the presence of their loved ones because of their constant agony for
fear of losing them. We should not make ourselves poor for fear of
losing our property, nor should we guard ourselves against a possible
loss of friends by making none; still less ought we to avoid having
children for fear that our child might die. But we have already dwelt
too much upon this subject.
VIII. After a long and harassing war with the Megarians about the
possession of the Island of Salamis, the Athenians finally gave up in
sheer weariness, and passed a law forbidding any one for the future,
either to speak or to write in favour of the Athenian claim to Salamis,
upon pain of death. Solon, grieved at this dishonour, and observing that
many of the younger men were eager for an excuse to fight, but dared not
propose to do so because of this law, pretended to have lost his reason.
His family gave out that he was insane, but he meanwhile composed a
poem, and when he had learned it by heart, rushed out into the
market-place wearing a small felt cap, and having assembled a crowd,
mounted the herald's stone and recited the poem which begins with the
lines--
"A herald I from Salamis am come,
My verse will tell you what should there be done."
The name of this poem is Salamis; it consists of a hundred beautifully
written lines. After he had sung it, his friends began to commend it,
and Peisistratus made a speech to the people, which caused such
enthusiasm that they abrogated the law and renewed the war, with Solon
as their leader. The common version of the story runs thus: Solon sailed
with Peisistratus to Kolias, where he found all the women of the city
performing the customary sacrifice to Demeter (Ceres). At the same time,
he sent a trusty man to Salamis, who represented himself as a deserter,
and bade the Megarians follow him at once to Kolias, if they wished to
capture all the women of the first Athenian families. The Megarians were
duped, and sent off a force in a ship. As soon as Solon saw this ship
sail away from the island, he ordered the women out of the way, dressed
up those young men who were still beardless in their clothes,
headdresses, and shoes, gave them daggers, and ordered them to dance and
disport themselves near the seashore until the enemy landed, and their
ship was certain to be captured. So the Megarians, imagining them to be
women, fell upon them, struggling which should first seize them, but
they were cut off to a man by the Athenians, who at once sailed to
Salamis and captured it.
IX. Others say that the island was not taken in this way, but that first
of all Solon received the following oracular response from Apollo at
Delphi:
"Appease the land's true lords, the heroes blest,
Who near Asopia's fair margin rest,
And from their tombs still look towards the West."
After this, Solon is said to have sailed by night, unnoticed by the
Megarians, and to have sacrificed to the heroes Periphemus and Kychreus.
His next act was to raise five hundred Athenian volunteers, who by a
public decree were to be absolute masters of the island if they could
conquer it. With these he set sail in a number of fishing-boats, with a
triaconter or ship of war of thirty oars, sailing in company, and
anchored off a certain cape which stretches towards Euboea. The
Megarians in Euboea heard an indistinct rumour of this, and at once ran
to arms, and sent a ship to reconnoitre the enemy. This ship, when it
came near Solon's fleet, was captured and its crew taken prisoners. On
board of it Solon placed some picked men, and ordered them to make sail
for the city of Salamis, and to conceal themselves as far as they could.
Meanwhile he with the remaining Athenians attacked the Megarian forces
by land; and while the battle was at its hottest, the men in the ship
succeeded in surprising the city.
This story appears to be borne out by the proceedings which were
instituted in memory of the capture. In this ceremony an Athenian ship
used to sail to Salamis, at first in silence, and then as they neared
the shore with warlike shouts. Then a man completely armed used to leap
out and run, shouting as he went, up to the top of the hill called
Skiradion, where he met those who came by land. Close by this place
stands the temple of Ares, which Solon built; for he conquered the
Megarians in the battle, and sent away the survivors with a flag of
truce.
X. However, as the Megarians still continued the war, to the great
misery of both sides, they agreed to make the Lacedaemonians arbitrators
and judges between them. Most writers say that Solon brought the great
authority of Homer's 'Iliad' to his aid, by interpolating in the
catologue of ships the two verses--
"Ajax from Salamis twelve vessels good
Brought, and he placed them where the Athenians stood,"
which he had read as evidence before the court.
The Athenians, however, say that all this is nonsense, but that Solon
proved to the arbitrators that Philaeus and Eurysakes, the sons of Ajax,
when they were enrolled as Athenian citizens, made over the island to
Athens, and dwelt, one at Brauron, in Attica, and the other at Melité;
moreover, there is an Athenian tribe which claims descent from Philaeus,
to which Peisistratus belonged. Wishing, however, yet more thoroughly to
prove his case against the Megarians, he based an argument on the tombs
in the island, in which the corpses were buried, not in the Megarian,
but in the Athenian manner. For the Megarians bury their dead looking
towards the east, and the Athenians towards the west. But Hereas of
Megara denies this, and says that the Megarians also bury their dead
looking towards the west, and moreover, that each Athenian had a coffin
to himself, while the Megarians place two or three bodies in one coffin.
However, Solon supported his case by quoting certain oracles from
Delphi, in which the god addresses Salamis as Ionian. The Spartan
arbitrators were five in number, their names being Kritolaidas,
Amompharetus, Hypsichidas, Anaxilos, and Kleomenes.
XI. Solon's reputation and power were greatly increased by this, but he
became much more celebrated and well-known in Greece by his speeches on
behalf of the temple at Delphi, in which he urged the necessity of
checking the insolent conduct of the people of Kirrha towards the
temple, and of rallying in defence of the god. The Amphiktyons,
prevailed upon by his eloquence, declared war, as we learn from
Aristotle, among other writers, in his book about the winners of the
prize at the Pythian games, in which he attributes this decision to
Solon. However, he was not made general in that war, as Hermippus
relates, quoting from Evanthes of Samos; for Aeschines the orator does
not mention him, and, in the records of Delphi, Alkmaeon, not Solon, is
mentioned as general of the Athenians on that occasion.
XII. Athens had long been suffering from the anger of the gods, which it
had incurred by the treatment of Kylon's party. These conspirators took
sanctuary in Athene's temple, but were induced by Megakles the archon to
quit it and stand their trial. They fastened a thread to the shrine of
the goddess, and kept hold of it so as still to be under her protection.
But as they were coming down from the Acropolis, just beside the temple
of the Furies, the string broke, and Megakles and the other archons,
thinking that the goddess rejected their appeal, seized them. Some of
them were stoned to death outside the temple, and some who had fled for
sanctuary to the altars were slain there. Only those who fell as
suppliants at the feet of the archons' wives were spared. After this the
archons were called accursed, and were viewed with horror; moreover, the
survivors of Kylon's party regained strength, and continued their
intrigues against Megakles and the archons. At the time of which we are
speaking these dissensions had reached their height, and the city was
divided into two factions, when Solon, who was already a man of great
reputation, came forward with some of the noblest Athenians, and by his
entreaties and arguments prevailed upon those magistrates who were
called accursed, to stand trial and be judged by a jury of three hundred
citizens selected from the best families. Myron of Phlya prosecuted, and
the archons were found guilty, and forced to leave the country. The
bodies of such of them as had died were dug up, and cast out beyond the
borders of Attica.