Solōn
（
Σόλων). A celebrated Athenian legislator, born about B.C.
638. His father Execestides was a descendant of Codrus, and his mother was a cousin of the
mother of Pisistratus. Execestides had seriously crippled his resources by a too prodigal
expenditure; and Solon consequently found it either necessary or convenient in his youth to
betake himself to the life of a foreign trader. It is likely enough that while necessity
compelled him to seek a livelihood in some mode or other, his active and inquiring spirit led
him to select that pursuit which would furnish the amplest means for its gratification. Solon
early distinguished himself by his poetical abilities. His first effusions were in a somewhat
light and amatory strain, which afterwards gave way to the more dignified and earnest purpose
of inculcating profound reflections or sage advice. So widely indeed did his reputation spread
that he was ranked as one of the famous Seven
Sages
(q.v.), and his name appears in all the lists of the seven. The occasion which first brought
Solon prominently forward as an actor on the political stage was the contest between Athens
and Megara respecting the possession of Salamis. The ill success of the attempts of the
Athenians to make themselves masters of the island had led to the enactment of a law
forbidding the writing or saying anything to urge the Athenians to renew the attempt. Soon
after these events (about 595) Solon took a leading part in promoting hostilities on behalf of
Delphi against Cirrha, and was the mover of the decree of the Amphictyons by which war was
declared. It does not appear, however, what active part he took in the war. According to a
common story, which, however, rests only on the authority of a late writer, Solon hastened the
surrender of the town by causing the waters of the Plistus to be poisoned. It was about the
time of the outbreak of this war that, in consequence of the distracted condition of Attica,
which was rent by civil commotions, Solon was called upon by all parties to mediate between
them, and alleviate the miseries that prevailed. He was chosen archon in 594, and under that
legal title was invested with unlimited power for adopting such measures as the exigencies of
the State demanded.
In fulfilment of the task intrusted to him, Solon addressed himself to the relief of the
existing distress. This he effected with the greatest discretion and success by his celebrated
“disburdening ordinance” (
σεισάχθεια), a
measure consisting of various distinct provisions, calculated to relieve the debtors with as
little infringement as possible on the claims of the wealthy creditors. He
also changed the standard of the monetary system from the Phidonian to the Euboic, which was
the one generally in use in the great centres of commerce, Chalcis and Eretria, so that
Athenian trade might be simplified in its exchanges (Aristotle,
Ath. Pol. 10). A limit was also set to the rate of interest and to the
accumulation of land (Aristotle,
Ath. Pol. 6). The success of the Seisachtheia procured for Solon such
confidence and popularity that he was further charged with the task of entirely remodelling
the constitution. As a preliminary step, he repealed all the laws of
Draco (q.v.), except those relating to bloodshed. The principal features
of the Solonian Constitution may be briefly summarized for the benefit of the reader. The
State as he left it was a timocracy (
τιμοκρατία), that is to
say, a form of oligarchy (
ὀλιγαρχία) in which the possession
of a certain amount of property is requisite for admission to the ruling class. (See
Oligarchia.) Solon established a sort of timocratic
scale, so that those who did not belong to the nobility received the rights of citizens in a
proportion determined partly by their property and their corresponding services to the State.
For this purpose he divided the population into four classes, founded on the possession of
land.
1.
Pentacosiomedimni (
Πεντακοσιομέδιμνοι), who had at least
500
medimni (750 bushels) of corn or
metretae of
wine or oil as yearly income.
2.
Hippeis (
Ἱππεῖς, Ἱππῆς), or knights, with at least
300
medimni.
3.
Zeugitae (
Ζευγῖται) (possessors of a yoke of oxen), with
at least 150
medimni.
4.
Thetes (
Θῆτες) (workers for wages), with less than 150
medimni of yearly income. Solon's legislation only granted to the first
three of these four classes a vote in the election of responsible officers, and only to the
first class the power of election to the highest offices; as, for instance, that of archon.
The fourth class was excluded from all official positions, but possessed the right of voting
in the general public assemblies which chose officials and passed laws. They had also the
right of taking part in the trials by jury which Solon had instituted. The first three
classes were bound to serve as hoplites; the cavalry was raised out of the first two, while
the fourth class was only employed as light-armed troops or on the fleet, and apparently for
pay. The others served without pay. The first three classes alone were subject to direct
taxation. The holders of office in the State were also unpaid. Solon established as the chief
consultative body the Council of the Four Hundred (see
Boulé), in which only the first three classes took part, and as chief
administrative body the
Areopagus (q.v.), which
was to be filled up by those who had been archons. A Council of 401 members is said to have
been part of Draco's constitution (about B.C. 621), the members being selected by lot from
the whole body of citizens. Solon reduced the Council to 400, one hundred from each of the
four tribes; and extended in some particulars the powers already possessed by the Areopagus
(Aristotle,
Ath. Pol. 4, 8). Besides this, he promulgated a code of laws embracing
the whole of public and private life, the salutary effects of which lasted long after the end
of his constitution. He also rectified the calendar, and regulated the system of weights and
measures. He forbade the exportation of Attic products, except olive oil. Among his other
regulations were those giving to childless persons the power of disposing of their
property by will, punishing idleness, inflicting
ἀτιμία on
those citizens who in the time of any sedition remained neutral, and giving great rewards to
the victors in the Olympian and Isthmian Games.
The laws of Solon were inscribed on wooden cylinders (
ἄξονες) and triangular tablets (
κύρβεις), and
set up in the Acropolis, and later in the Prytaneum. Solon himself spoke of them as being not
the best laws conceivable, but the best that the Athenians could be induced to accept. His
Constitution was, in fact, a compromise between democracy proper and oligarchy, and it gives
to Solon a title to rank with the great constructive statesmen of all time.
The great lawgiver's later history must be regarded as more legendary than authentic. After
completing his task of legislation he left Athens for ten years, after exacting from the
people a promise that they would leave his laws unaltered for that space of time (Aristotle,
Ath. Pol. 11;
Herod.i. 29;
Plut. Sol. 25). After visiting Egypt, he is said to
have gone to Cyprus, where he was received by the king of the little town of Aepea. Solon
persuaded the king, Philocyprus, to remove from the old site and build a new town on the
plain. The new settlement was called Soli, in honour of the illustrious visitor (
Herod.v. 113). He is further said to have visited Lydia; and his
interview with Croesus was one of the most celebrated stories in antiquity. “Who is
the happiest man you have ever seen?” asked the magnificent king, fishing for a
compliment. “I can speak of no one as happy until I have seen how his life has
ended,” replied the philosopher, thus giving deep offence to the monarch (
Herod.i. 32). See
Croesus.
During the absence of Solon the old dissensions were renewed, and shortly after his arrival
at Athens the supreme power was seized by Pisistratus. The tyrant, after his usurpation, is
said to have paid considerable court to Solon, and on various occasions to have solicited his
advice, which Solon did not withhold. Solon probably died about 558, two years after the
overthrow of the Constitution, at the age of eighty. There was a story current in antiquity
that, by his own directions, his ashes were collected and scattered round the island of
Salamis. Of the poems of Solon several fragments remain. They do not indicate any great
degree of imaginative power, but their style is vigorous and simple; and those that were
called forth by special emergencies appear to have been marked by no small degree of energy.
See the histories of Greece by Thirlwall, Grote, Curtius, Cox, and Abbot; and the editions
of Aristotle's
Constitution of Athens by Kenyon
(1891), Kaibel
and Wilamowitz-Moellendorf
(1891), with the translation by Poste
(1891). See also
Jonas, De Solone Atheniensi (1884).
The remains of Solon's poetry are collected by Bergk in his
Poetae Lyrici
Graeci (4th ed. 1878) and discussed by Mettauer in his
Solon als
Dichter (1884) and
Laeger, De Veterum Epicorum Studio in
Solonis Reliquiis (1885). His life was written by Plutarch.
