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Solon was the son of Execestides and his
family was of Salamis in Attica; and in wisdom and learning he surpassed all the men of his time.1 Being by nature far superior as regards virtue to the rest of
men, he cultivated assiduously a virtue that wins applause; for he devoted much time to every
branch of knowledge and became practised in every kind of virtue.
[2]
While still a youth, for instance, he availed himself of the best teachers, and when he
attained to manhood he spent his time in the company of the men who enjoyed the greatest
influence for their pursuit of wisdom. As a consequence, by reason of his companionship and
association with men of this kind, he came to be called one of the Seven Wise Men and won for
himself the highest rank in sagacity, not only among the men just mentioned, but also among all
who were regarded with admiration.
[3]
The same Solon, who had acquired great fame by his legislation, also in his
conversations and answers to questions as a private citizen became an object of wonder by
reason of his attainments in learning.
[4]
The same Solon, although the city2 followed the whole Ionian manner of life and
luxury and a carefree existence had made the inhabitants effeminate, worked a change in them by
accustoming them to practise virtue and to emulate the deeds of virile folk. And it was because
of this that Harmodius and Aristogeiton,3 their
spirits equipped with the panoply of his legislation, made the attempt to destroy the rule of
the Peisistratidae.4Const. Exc. 2 (1), p. 217.
1 The following fragments on the Seven Wise Men may be compared with the fuller accounts in Diogenes Laertius (tr. by Hicks in the L.C.L.).
3 The famous Tyrannicides of Athens; Harmodius killed Hipparchus, son of Peisistratus. See following note, and Book 10.17 and notes.
4 Peisistratus was tyrant, with one or two interruptions, 560-527 B.C.; his two sons continued the tyranny until the assassination of Hipparchus in 514 and the forced retirement of Hippias in 510.
Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.
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