SOLON, one of the seven wise men of Greece, was born at Salamis, of Athenian parente, who were descended from Codrus. His father leaving little patrimony, he had recourse to merchandise for his subsistence. He had, however, a greater thirst after knowledge and fame than after riches, and made his mercantile voyages subservient to the increase of his intellectual treasures. He very early cultivated the art of poetry, and applied himself to the study of moral and civil wisdom. When the Athenians, tired out with a long and troublesome war with the Megarensians, for the recovery of the isle of Salamis, prohibited any one, under pain of death, to propose the renewal of their claim to that island, Solon thinking the prohibition dishonourable to the state, and finding many of the younger citizens desirous to revive the war, feigned himself mad, and took care to have the report of his insanity spread through the city. In the mean time he composed an elegy adapted to the state of public affairs, and committed it to memory. Every thing being thus prepared, he sallied forth into the market-place with the kind of cap on his head which was commonly worn by sick persons, and ascending the herald’s stand, he delivered, to a numerous crowd, his lamentation for the desertion of Salamis. The verses were heard with general applause; Pisistratus seconded his advice, and urged the people to renew the war. The decree was immediately repealed; the claim to Salamis was resumed; and the conduct of the war was committed to Solon and Pisistratus, who by means of a stratagem defeated the Megarensians and recovered the island.

His popularity was extended through Greece in consequence of a successful alliance which he formed among the states in defence of the temple at Delphi against the Cirrhaeans. When dissensions had arisen at Athens between the rich creditors and their poor debtors, Solon was created archon, with the united power of supreme legislator and magistrate. He soon restored harmony between the rich and poor. He cancelled the debts which had proved the occasion of so much oppression; and ordained that in future no creditor should be allowed to seize the body of the debtor for his security. He made a new distribution of the people, instituted new courts of judicature, and framed a judicious code of laws, which afterwards became the basis of the laws of the twelve Tables in Rome. Among his criminal laws are many wise and excellent regulations; but the code is necessarily defective with respect to those principles which must be derived from the knowledge of the true God, and of pure morality, as the certain foundations of national happiness. Two of them in particular were very exceptionable; the permission of a voluntary exile to persons that had been guilty of premeditated murder, and the appointment of a less severe punishment for a rape than for seduction. Those who wish to see accurately stated the comparative excellence of the laws of Moses, of Lycurgus, and Solon, may consult the prize Dissertations relative to natural and revealed religion, published by the Teylerian Society of Haarlem, vol. ix.

The interview which Solon is said to have had with Croesus king of Lydia; the solid remarks of the sage after surveying the monarch’s wealth; the recollection of those remarks by Croesus when doomed to die, and the noble conduct of Cyrus on that occasion, are known to every schoolboy. Solon died in the island of Cyprus at a very advanced age. Statues were erected to his memory both at Athens and in Salamis. His thirst after knowledge continued to the last: “I grow old,” said he, “learning many things.” Among the apophthegms and precepts which have been ascribed to Solon, are the following: Laws are like cobwebs, that entangle the weak, but are broken by the strong. He who has learned to obey, will know how to command. In all things let reason be your guide. Diligently contemplate excellent things. In every thing that you do, consider the end.

The chronology of his life is involved in no small obscurity. His legislation may, with some degree of confidence, be referred to the year 594 before Christ; but, as a very learned and able chronologer has remarked, since both his age and the time of his death are doubtful, nothing can be with certainty affirmed of the year of his[7:20:474] birth.^[1. Clinton’s Fasti Hellenici, vol. ii. p. 301. ] According to Laertius, he died at the age of eighty; but Lucian extends his life to one hundred years. Of the poems of Solon, an elaborate edition has recently been published by Bach, under the title of “Solonis Atheniensis Carminum quae supersunt.” Bonnae, 1825, 8vo.