There is something singular in the present parallel, which has not
occurred in any other of the lives; that the one should be the imitator
of the other, and the other his best evidence. Upon the survey of
Solon's sentence to Croesus in favor of Tellus's happiness, it seems
more applicable to Poplicola; for Tellus, whose virtuous life and dying
well had gained him the name of the happiest man, yet was never
celebrated in Solon's poems for a good man, nor have his children or any
magistracy of his deserved a memorial; but Poplicola's life was the most
eminent amongst the Romans, as well for the greatness of his virtue as
his power, and also since his death many amongst the distinguished
families, even in our days, the Poplicolae, Messalae, and Valerii, after
a lapse of six hundred years, acknowledge him as the fountain of their
honor. Besides, Tellus, though keeping his post and fighting like a
valiant soldier, was yet slain by his enemies; but Poplicola, the better
fortune, slew his, and saw his country victorious under his command.
And his honors and triumphs brought him, which was Solon's ambition, to
a happy end; the ejaculation which, in his verses against Mimnermus
about the continuance of man's life, he himself made,
Mourned let me die; and may I, when life ends,
Occasion sighs and sorrows to my friends,
is evidence to Poplicola's happiness; his death did not only draw tears
from his friends and acquaintance, but was the object of universal
regret and sorrow through the whole city; the women deplored his loss as
that of a son, brother, or common father. "Wealth I would have," said
Solon, "but wealth by wrong procure would not," because punishment would
follow. But Poplicola's riches were not only justly his, but he spent
them nobly in doing good to the distressed. So that if Solon was
reputed the wisest man, we must allow Poplicola to be the happiest; for
what Solon wished for as the greatest and most perfect good, this
Poplicola had, and used and enjoyed to his death.
And as Solon may thus be said to have contributed to Poplicola's glory,
so did also Poplicola to his, by his choice of him as his model in the
formation of republican institutions; in reducing, for example, the
excessive powers and assumption of the consulship. Several of his laws,
indeed, he actually transferred to Rome, as his empowering the people to
elect their officers, and allowing offenders the liberty of appealing to
the people, as Solon did to the jurors. He did not, indeed, create a
new senate, as Solon did, but augmented the old to almost double its
number. The appointment of treasurers again, the quaestors, has a like
origin; with the intent that the chief magistrate should not, if of good
character, be withdrawn from greater matters; or, if bad, have the
greater temptation to injustice, by holding both the government and
treasury in his hands. The aversion to tyranny was stronger in
Poplicola; any one who attempted usurpation could, by Solon's law, only
be punished upon conviction; but Poplicola made it death before a trial.
And though Solon justly gloried, that, when arbitrary power was
absolutely offered to him by circumstances, and when his countrymen
would have willingly seen him accept it, he yet declined it; still
Poplicola merited no less, who, receiving a despotic command, converted
it to a popular office, and did not employ the whole legal power which
he held. We must allow, indeed, that Solon was before Poplicola in
observing that
A people always minds its rulers best
When it is neither humored nor oppressed.
The remission of debts was peculiar to Solon; it was his great means for
confirming the citizens' liberty; for a mere law to give all men equal
rights is but useless, if the poor must sacrifice those rights to their
debts, and, in the very seats and sanctuaries of equality, the courts of
justice, the offices of state, and the public discussions, be more than
anywhere at the beck and bidding of the rich. A yet more extraordinary
success was, that, although usually civil violence is caused by any
remission of debts, upon this one occasion this dangerous but powerful
remedy actually put an end to civil violence already existing, Solon's
own private worth and reputation overbalancing all the ordinary ill-
repute and discredit of the change. The beginning of his government was
more glorious, for he was entirely original, and followed no man's
example, and, without the aid of any ally, achieved his most important
measures by his own conduct; yet the close of Poplicola's life was more
happy and desirable, for Solon saw the dissolution of his own
commonwealth, Poplicola's maintained the state in good order down to the
civil wars. Solon, leaving his laws, as soon as he had made them,
engraven in wood, but destitute of a defender, departed from Athens;
whilst Poplicola, remaining, both in and out of office, labored to
establish the government Solon, though he actually knew of Pisistratus's
ambition, yet was not able to suppress it, but had to yield to
usurpation in its infancy; whereas Poplicola utterly subverted and
dissolved a potent monarchy, strongly settled by long continuance;
uniting thus to virtues equal to those, and purposes identical with
those of Solon, the good fortune and the power that alone could make
them effective.
In military exploits, Daimachus of Plataea will not even allow Solon the
conduct of the war against the Megarians, as was before intimated; but
Poplicola was victorious in the most important conflicts, both as a
private soldier and commander. In domestic politics, also, Solon, in
play, as it were, and by counterfeiting madness, induced the enterprise
against Salamis; whereas Poplicola, in the very beginning, exposed
himself to the greatest risk, took arms against Tarquin, detected the
conspiracy, and, being principally concerned both in preventing the
escape of and afterwards punishing the traitors, not only expelled the
tyrants from the city, but extirpated their very hopes. And as, in
cases calling for contest and resistance and manful opposition, he
behaved with courage and resolution, so, in instances where peaceable
language, persuasion, and concession were requisite, he was yet more to
be commended; and succeeded in gaining happily to reconciliation and
friendship, Porsenna, a terrible and invincible enemy. Some may,
perhaps, object, that Solon recovered Salamis, which they had lost, for
the Athenians; whereas Poplicola receded from part of what the Romans
were at that time possessed of; but judgment is to be made of actions
according to the times in which they were performed. The conduct of a
wise politician is ever suited to the present posture of affairs; often
by foregoing a part he saves the whole, and by yielding in a small
matter secures a greater; and so Poplicola, by restoring what the Romans
had lately usurped, saved their undoubted patrimony, and procured,
moreover, the stores of the enemy for those who were only too thankful
to secure their city. Permitting the decision of the controversy to his
adversary, he not only got the victory, but likewise what he himself
would willingly have given to purchase the victory, Porsenna putting an
end to the war, and leaving them all the provision of his camp, from the
sense of the virtue and gallant disposition of the Romans which their
consul had impressed upon him.