Megarians, and lost Nisaea, and were again driven out of Salamis. The
city was also a prey to superstitious terrors, and apparitions were
seen, so that the prophets, after inspecting their victims, said that
the city was polluted and under a curse, and that it required
purification. Upon this they sent for Epimenides the Phaestian, of
Crete, who is reckoned among the seven wise men of Greece, by some of
those who do not admit Periander into their number. He was thought to
enjoy the favour of Heaven, and was skilled in all the lore of the
sacred mysteries, and in the sources of divine inspiration; wherefore he
was commonly reported to be the child of the nymph Balte, and to be one
of the old Curetes of Crete revived. He came to Athens and was a friend
to Solon, assisting him greatly in his legislation. He remodelled their
religious rites, and made their mourning more moderate, introducing
certain sacrifices shortly after the funeral, and abolishing the harsh
and barbarous treatment which women were for the most part subject to
before in times of mourning. Above all, by purifications and atoning
sacrifices, and the erection of new temples, he so sanctified and
hallowed the city as to make the minds of the people obedient to the
laws, and easily guided into unity and concord. It is said that he saw
Munychia, and viewed it carefully for some time in silence. Then he said
to the bystanders, "How blind is man to the future. The Athenians would
eat this place up with their teeth if they knew what misfortunes it will
bring upon them?" A prophetic saying of the same kind is attributed to
Thales. He bade his friends bury him in a low and neglected quarter of
Miletus, telling them that one day it would be the market-place of the
city. Epimenides was greatly honoured by the Athenians, and was offered
large sums of money by them, and great privileges, but he refused them
all, and only asked for a branch of the sacred olive-tree, which he
received and went his way.
XIII. When the troubles about Kylon were over, and the accursed men cast
out of the country, the Athenians relapsed into their old dispute about
the constitution. The state was divided into as many factions as there
were parts of the country, for the Diakrii, or mountaineers, favoured
democracy; the Pedioei, oligarchy; while those who dwelt along the
seashore, called Parali, preferred a constitution midway between these
two forms, and thus prevented either of the other parties from carrying
their point. Moreover, the state was on the verge of revolution, because
of the excessive poverty of some citizens, and the enormous wealth of
others, and it appeared that the only means of putting an end to these
disorders was by establishing an absolute despotism. The whole people
were in debt to a few wealthy men; they either cultivated their farms,
in which case they were obliged to pay one-sixth of the profit to their
creditors, and were called Hektemori, or servants, or else they had
raised loans upon personal security, and had become the slaves of their
creditors, who either employed them at home, or sold them to foreigners.
Many were even compelled to sell their own children, which was not
illegal, and to leave the country because of the harshness of their
creditors.
The greater part, and those of most spirit, combined together, and
encouraged one another not to suffer such oppression any longer, but to
choose some trustworthy person to protect their interests, to set free
all enslaved debtors, redistribute the land, and, in a word, entirely
remodel the constitution.
XIV. In this position of affairs, the most sensible men in Athens
perceived that Solon was a person who shared the vices of neither
faction, as he took no part in the oppressive conduct of the wealthy,
and yet had sufficient fortune to save him from the straits to which the
poor were reduced. In consequence of this, they begged him to come
forward and end their disputes. But Phanias of Lesbos says that Solon
deceived both parties, in order to save the state, promising the poor a
redistribution of lands, and the rich a confirmation of their
securities. However, Solon himself tells us that it was with reluctance
that he interfered, as he was threatened by the avarice of the one
party, and the desperation of the other. He was chosen archon next after
Philombrotus, to act as an arbitrator and lawgiver at once, because the
rich had confidence in him as a man of easy fortune, and the poor
trusted him as a good man. It is said also that a saying which he had
let fall some time before, that "equality does not breed strife," was
much circulated at the time, and pleased both parties, because the rich
thought it meant that property should be distributed according to merit
and desert, while the poor thought it meant according to rule and
measure. Both parties were now elate with hope, and their leaders urged
Solon to seize the supreme power in the state, of which he was
practically possessed, and make himself king. Many even of the more
moderate class of politicians, who saw how weary and difficult a task it
would be to reform the state by debates and legislative measures, were
quite willing that so wise and honest a man should undertake the sole
management of affairs. It is even said that Solon received an oracle as
follows:
"Take thou the helm, the vessel guide,
Athens will rally to thy side."
His intimate friends were loudest in their reproaches, pointing out that
it was merely the name of despot from which he shrunk, and that in his
case his virtues would lead men to regard him as a legitimate hereditary
sovereign; instancing also Tunnondas, who in former times had been
chosen by the Euboeans, and, at the present time, Pittakus, who had been
chosen king of Mitylene. But nothing could shake Solon's determination.
He told his friends that monarchy is indeed a pleasant place, but there
is no way out of it; and he inserted the following verses in answer to
Phokus, in one of his poems:
"But if I spared
My country, and with dread tyrannic sway,
Forbore to stain and to pollute my glory;
I feel no shame at this; nay rather thus,
I think that I excel mankind."
From which it is clear that he possessed a great reputation even before
he became the lawgiver of Athens.
In answer to the reproaches of many of his friends at his refusal to
make himself despot, he wrote as follows:
"Not a clever man was Solon, not a calculating mind,
For he would not take the kingdom, which the gods to him inclined,
In his net he caught the prey, but would not draw it forth to land,
Overpowered by his terrors, feeble both of heart and hand;
For a man of greater spirit would have occupied the throne,
Proud to be the Lord of Athens, though 'twere for a day alone,
Though the next day he and his into oblivion were thrown."
XV. This is the way in which he says the masses, and low-minded men,
spoke of him. He, however, firmly rejecting the throne, proceeded
quietly to administer public affairs, in laying down his laws without
any weak yielding to the powerful, or any attempt to court popularity.
Such as were good, he did not meddle with, fearing that if he
"Disturbed and overset the state,"
he might not have sufficient power to
"Reconstitute and organise again,"
in the best way. He carried out his measures by persuasion, and, where
he thought he could succeed, by force; in his own words,
"Combining Force and Justice both together."
Being afterwards asked whether he had composed the best possible laws
for the Athenians, he answered, "The best that they would endure." And
the habit of Athenians of later times, who soften down harsh words by
using politer equivalents, calling harlots "mistresses," taxes
"contributions," garrisons of cities "protectors," and the common prison
"the house," was, it seems, first invented by Solon, who devised the
name of "relief from burdens" for his measure to abolish all debts.
This was his first measure; namely, to put an end to all existing debts
and obligations, and to forbid any one in future to lend money upon
security of the person of the debtor. Some writers, among whom is
Androtion, say that he benefited the poor, not by the absolute
extinction of debt, but by establishing a lower rate of interest; and
that this measure was called "Relief from burdens," and together with it
the two other measures for the enlargement of measures and of the value
of money, which were passed about the same time. For he ordered a mina,
which was before constituted of seventy three drachmas, to contain a
hundred, so that, though they paid the same amount, yet the value was
less; thus those who had much to pay were benefited, and still their
creditors were not cheated. But most writers say that the "Relief from
burdens" meant the extinction of all securities whatever, and this
agrees best with what we read in his poems. For Solon prides himself in
these upon having
"Taken off the mortgages, which on the land were laid,
And made the country free, which was formerly enslaved."
While he speaks of bringing back Athenian citizens who had been sold
into slavery abroad,
"In distant lands who roam,
Their native tongue forgot,
Or here endure at home
A slave's disgraceful lot,"
and of making them free men again.
It is said that in consequence of this measure he met with the greatest
trouble of his life. As he was meditating how he might put an end to
debt, and what words and preambles were best for the introduction of
this law, he took counsel with his most intimate friends, such as Konon
and Kleinias and Hipponikus, informing them that he had no intention of
interfering with the tenure of land, but that he intended to abolishing
all existing securities. They instantly took time by the forelock,
borrowed large sums from the wealthy, and bought up a great extent of
land. Presently the decree came forth, and they remained in enjoyment of
these estates, but did not repay their loan to their creditors. This
brought Solon into great discredit, for the people believed that he had
been their accomplice. But he soon proved that this must be false, by
remitting a debt of five talents which he himself had lent; and some
state the sum at fifteen talents, amongst whom is Polyzelus of Rhodes.
However, his friends were for ever afterwards called "The Swindlers."
XVI. By this measure he pleased neither party, but the rich were
dissatisfied at the loss of their securities, and the poor were still
more so because the land was not divided afresh, as they hoped it would
be, and because he had not, like Lykurgus, established absolute
equality.
But Lykurgus was eleventh in direct descent from Herakles, and had
reigned in Lacedaemon for many years, and had his own great reputation,
friends, and interest to assist him in carrying out his reforms: and
although he chose to effect his purpose by violence, so that his eye was
actually knocked out, yet he succeeded in carrying that measure, so
valuable for the safety and concord of the state, by which it was
rendered impossible for any citizen to be either rich or poor. Solon's
power could not reach this height, as he was only a commoner and a
moderate man; yet he did all that was in his power, relying solely upon
the confidence and goodwill of his countrymen.
It is clear that they were disappointed, and expected more from his
legislation, from his own verses--
"Once they speculated gaily, what good luck should them befall,
Now they look upon me coldly, as a traitor to them all."
Yet he says, if any one else had been in his position,
"He ne'er would have desisted from unsettling the laws,
Till he himself got all the cream."
However, not long afterwards, they perceived the public benefits which
he had conferred upon them, forgot their private grievances, and made a
public sacrifice in honour of the Seisachtheia, or "Relief from
burdens." Moreover, they constituted Solon supreme reformer and
lawgiver, not over some departments only, but placing everything alike
in his hands; magistracies, public assemblies, senate, and law-courts.
He had full powers to confirm or abolish any of these, and to fix the
proper qualifications for members of them, and their numbers and times
of meeting.
XVII. First of all, then, he repealed all the laws of Drakon, except
those relating to murder, because of their harshness and the excessive
punishments which they awarded. For death was the punishment for almost
every offence, so that even men convicted of idleness were executed, and
those who stole pot-herbs or fruits suffered just like sacrilegious
robbers and murderers. So that Demades afterwards made the joke that
Drakon's laws were not written with ink, but with blood. It is said
that Drakon himself, when asked why he had fixed the punishment of death
for most offences, answered that he considered these lesser crimes to
deserve it, and he had no greater punishment for more important ones.
XVIII. In the next place, Solon, who wished to leave all magistracies as
he found them, in the hands of the wealthy classes, but to give the
people a share in the rest of the constitution, from which they were
then excluded, took a census of the wealth of the citizens, and made a
first class of those who had an annual income of not less than five
hundred medimni of dry or liquid produce; these he called
Pentakosiomedimni. The next class were the Hippeis, or knights,
consisting of those who were able to keep a horse, or who had an income
of three hundred medimni. The third class were the Zeugitae, whose
property qualification was two hundred medimni of dry or liquid produce;
and the last class were the Thetes, whom Solon did not permit to be
magistrates, but whose only political privilege was the right of
attending the public assemblies and sitting as jurymen in the law
courts. This privilege was at first insignificant, but afterwards became
of infinite importance, because most disputes were settled before a
jury. Even in those cases which he allowed the magistrates to settle, he
provided a final appeal to the people.
Solon moreover is said to have purposely worded his laws vaguely and
with several interpretations, in order to increase the powers of these
juries, because persons who could not settle their disputes by the
letter of the law were obliged to have recourse to juries of the people,
and to refer all disputes to them, as being to a certain extent above
the laws. He himself notices this in the following verses:
"I gave the people all the strength they needed,
Yet kept the power of the nobles strong;
Thus each from other's violence I shielded,
Not letting either do the other wrong."
Thinking that the weakness of the populace required still further
protection, he permitted any man to prosecute on behalf of any other who
might be ill-treated. Thus if a man were struck or injured, any one else
who was able and willing might prosecute on his behalf, and the
lawgiver by this means endeavoured to make the whole body of citizens
act together and feel as one. A saying of his is recorded which quite
agrees with the spirit of this law. Being asked, what he thought was the
best managed city? "That," he answered, "in which those who are not
wronged espouse the cause of those who are, and punish their
oppressors."
XIX. He established the senate of the Areopagus of those who had held
the yearly office of archon, and himself became a member of it because
he had been archon. But in addition to this, observing that the people
were becoming turbulent and unruly, in consequence of their relief from
debt, he formed a second senate, consisting of a hundred men selected
from each of the four tribes, to deliberate on measures in the first
instance, and he permitted no measures to be proposed before the general
assembly, which had not been previously discussed in this senate. The
upper senate he intended to exercise a general supervision, and to
maintain the laws, and he thought that with these two senates as her
anchors, the ship of the state would ride more securely, and that the
people would be less inclined to disorder. Most writers say that Solon
constituted the senate of the Areopagus, as is related above; and this
view is supported by the fact that Drakon nowhere mentions or names the
Areopagites, but in all cases of murder refers to the Ephetai. However,
the eighth law on the thirteenth table of the laws of Solon runs thus:--
"All citizens who were disfranchised before the magistracy of Solon
shall resume their rights, except those who have been condemned by the
Areopagus, or by the Ephetai, or by the king--archons, in the prytaneum,
for murder or manslaughter, or attempts to overthrow the government and
who were in exile when this law was made."
This again proves that the senate of the Areopagus existed before the
time of Solon; for who could those persons be who were condemned by the
court of the Areopagus, if Solon was the first who gave the senate of
the Areopagus a criminal jurisdiction; though perhaps some words have
been left out, or indistinctly written, and the law means "all those
who had been condemned on the charges which now are judged by the court
of the Areopagus, the Ephetai, or the Prytanies, when this law was made,
must remain disfranchised, though the others become enfranchised?" Of
these explanations the reader himself must consider which he prefers.
XX. The strangest of his remaining laws is that which declared
disfranchised a citizen who in a party conflict took neither side;
apparently his object was to prevent any one regarding home politics in
a listless, uninterested fashion, securing his own personal property,
and priding himself upon exemption from the misfortunes of his country,
and to encourage men boldly to attach themselves to the right party and
to share all its dangers, rather than in safety to watch and see which
side would be successful. That also is a strange and even ludicrous
provision in one of his laws, which permits an heiress, whose husband
proves impotent, to avail herself of the services of the next of kin to
obtain an heir to her estate. Some, however, say that this law rightly
serves men who know themselves to be unfit for marriage, and who
nevertheless marry heiresses for their money, and try to make the laws
override nature; for, when they see their wife having intercourse with
whom she pleases, they will either break off the marriage, or live in
constant shame, and so pay the penalty of their avarice and wrong-doing.
It is a good provision also, that the heiress may not converse with any
one, but only with him whom she may choose from among her husband's
relations, so that her offspring may be all in the family. This is
pointed at by his ordinance that the bride and bridegroom should be shut
in the same room and eat a quince together, and that the husband of an
heiress should approach her at least thrice in each month. For even if
no children are born, still this is a mark of respect to a good wife,
and puts an end to many misunderstandings, preventing their leading to
an actual quarrel.
In other marriages he suppressed dowries, and ordered the bride to bring
to her husband three dresses and a few articles of furniture of no great
value; for he did not wish marriages to be treated as money bargains or
means of gain, but that men and women should enter into marriage for
love and happiness and procreation of children. Dionysius, the despot of
Syracuse, when his mother wished to be married to a young citizen, told
her that he had indeed broken the laws of the state when he seized the
throne, but that he could not disregard the laws of nature so far as to
countenance such a monstrous union. These disproportioned matches ought
not to be permitted in any state, nor should men be allowed to form
unequal loveless alliances, which are in no sense true marriages. A
magistrate or lawgiver might well address an old man who marries a young
girl in the words of Sophokles: "Poor wretch, a hopeful bridegroom you
will be;" and if he found a young man fattening like a partridge in the
house of a rich old woman, he ought to transfer him to some young maiden
who is without a husband. So much for this subject.
XXI. Besides these, Solon's law which forbids men to speak evil of the
dead is much praised. It is good to think of the departed as sacred, and
it is only just to refrain from attacking the absent, while it is
politic, also, to prevent hatred from being eternal. He also forbade
people to speak evil of the living in temples, courts of justice, public
buildings, or during the national games; and imposed a fine of three
drachmas to the person offended, and two to the state. His reason for
this was that it shows a violent and uncultivated nature not to be able
to restrain one's passion in certain places and at certain times,
although it is hard to do so always, and to some persons impossible; and
a legislator should frame his laws with a view to what he can reasonably
hope to effect, and rather correct a few persons usefully than punish a
number to no purpose.
He gained credit also by his law about wills. Before his time these were
not permitted at Athens, but the money and lands of a deceased person
were inherited by his family in all cases. Solon, however, permitted any
one who had no children to leave his property to whom he would,
honouring friendship more than nearness of kin, and giving a man
absolute power to dispose of his inheritance. Yet, on the other hand, he
did not permit legacies to be given without any restrictions, but
disallowed all that were obtained by the effects of disease or by
administration of drugs to the testator, or by imprisonment and
violence, or by the solicitations of his wife, as he rightly considered
that to be persuaded by one's wife against one's better judgment is the
same as to submit to force. For Solon held that a man's reason was
perverted by deceit as much as by violence, and by pleasure no less than
by pain.
He regulated, moreover, the journeys of the women, and their mournings
and festivals. A woman was not allowed to travel with more than three
dresses, nor with more than an obolus' worth of food or drink, nor a
basket more than a cubit in length; nor was she to travel at night,
except in a waggon with a light carried in front of it. He abolished the
habits of tearing themselves at funerals, and of reciting set forms of
dirges, and of hiring mourners. He also forbade them to sacrifice an ox
for the funeral feast, and to bury more than three garments with the
body, and to visit other persons' graves. Most of these things are
forbidden by our own laws also; with the addition, that by our laws
those who offend thus are fined by the gynaeconomi, or regulators of the
women, for giving way to unmanly and womanish sorrow.
XXII. Observing that the city was filled with men who came from all
countries to take refuge in Attica, that the country was for the most
part poor and unproductive, and that merchants also are unwilling to
despatch cargoes to a country which has nothing to export, he encouraged
his countrymen to embark in trade, and made a law that a son was not
obliged to support his father, if his father had not taught him a trade.
As for Lykurgus, whose city was clear of strangers, and whose land was
"unstinted, and with room for twice the number," as Euripides says, and
who above all had all the Helots, throughout Lacedaemon, who were best
kept employed, in order to break their spirit by labour and hardship, it
was very well that his citizens should disdain laborious handicrafts and
devote their whole attention to the art of war.
But Solon had not the power to change the whole life of his countrymen
by his laws, but rather was forced to suit his laws to existing
circumstances, and, as he saw that the soil was so poor that it could
only suffice for the farmers, and was unable to feed a mass of idle
people as well, he gave great honour to trade, and gave powers to the
senate of the Areopagus to inquire what each man's source of income
might be, and to punish the idle. A harsher measure was that of which we
are told by Herakleides of Pontus, his making it unnecessary for
illegitimate children to maintain their father. Yet if a man abstains
from an honourable marriage, and lives with a woman more for his own
pleasure in her society than with a view to producing a family, he is
rightly served, and cannot upbraid his children with neglecting him,
because he has made their birth their reproach.