Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
pliable, and by force upon the stubborn, this he did,
as he himself says,
With force and justice working both one.
And, therefore, when he was afterwards asked if he had left the
Athenians the best laws that could be given, he replied, "The best they
could receive." The way which, the moderns say, the Athenians have of
softening the badness of a thing, by ingeniously giving it some pretty
and innocent appellation, calling harlots, for example, mistresses,
tributes customs, a garrison a guard, and the jail the chamber, seems
originally to have been Solon's contrivance, who called canceling debts
Seisacthea, a relief, or disencumbrance. For the first thing which he
settled was, that what debts remained should be forgiven, and no man,
for the future, should engage the body of his debtor for security.
Though some, as Androtion, affirm that the debts were not canceled, but
the interest only lessened, which sufficiently pleased the people; so
that they named this benefit the Seisacthea, together with the enlarging
their measures, and raising the value of their money; for he made a
pound, which before passed for seventy-three drachmas, go for a
hundred; so that, though the number of pieces in the payment was equal,
the value was less; which proved a considerable benefit to those that
were to discharge great debts, and no loss to the creditors. But most
agree that it was the taking off the debts that was called Seisacthea,
which is confirmed by some places in his poem, where he takes honor to
himself, that
The mortgage-stones that covered her, by me
Removed, --the land that was a slave is free;
that some who had been seized for their debts he had brought back from
other countries, where
--so far their lot to roam,
They had forgot the language of their home;
and some he had set at liberty,--
Who here in shameful servitude were held.
While he was designing this, a most vexatious thing happened; for when
he had resolved to take off the debts, and was considering the proper
form and fit beginning for it, he told some of his friends, Conon,
Clinias, and Hipponicus, in whom he had a great deal of confidence, that
he would not meddle with the lands, but only free the people from their
debts; upon which, they, using their advantage, made haste and borrowed
some considerable sums of money, and purchased some large farms; and
when the law was enacted, they kept the possessions, and would not
return the money; which brought Solon into great suspicion and dislike,
as if he himself had not been abused, but was concerned in the
contrivance. But he presently stopped this suspicion, by releasing his
debtors of five talents (for he had lent so much), according to the law;
others, as Polyzelus the Rhodian, say fifteen; his friends, however,
were ever afterward called Chreocopidae, repudiators.
In this he pleased neither party, for the rich were angry for their
money, and the poor that the land was not divided, and, as Lycurgus
ordered in his commonwealth, all men reduced to equality. He, it is
true, being the eleventh from Hercules, and having reigned many years in
Lacedaemon, had got a great reputation and friends and power, which he
could use in modeling his state; and, applying force more than
persuasion, insomuch that he lost his eye in the scuffle, was able to
employ the most effectual means for the safety and harmony of a state,
by not permitting any to be poor or rich in his commonwealth. Solon
could not rise to that in his polity, being but a citizen of the middle
classes; yet he acted fully up to the height of his power, having
nothing but the good-will and good opinion of his citizens to rely on;
and that he offended the most part, who looked for another result, he
declares in the words,
Formerly they boasted of me vainly; with averted eyes
Now they look askance upon me; friends no more, but enemies.
And yet had any other man, he says, received the same power,
He would not have forborne, nor let alone,
But made the fattest of the milk his own.
Soon, however, becoming sensible of the good that was done, they laid by
their grudges, made a public sacrifice, calling it Seisacthea, and chose
Solon to new-model and make laws for the commonwealth, giving him the
entire power over everything, their magistracies, their assemblies,
courts, and councils; that he should appoint the number, times of
meeting, and what estate they must have that could be capable of these,
and dissolve or continue any of the present constitutions,
according to his pleasure.
First, then, he repealed all Draco's laws, except those concerning
homicide, because they were too severe, and the punishments too great;
for death was appointed for almost all offenses, insomuch that those
that were convicted of idleness were to die, and those that stole a
cabbage or an apple to suffer even as villains that committed sacrilege
or murder. So that Demades, in after time, was thought to have said
very happily, that Draco's laws were written not with ink, but blood;
and he himself, being once asked why he made death the punishment of
most offenses, replied, "Small ones deserve that, and I have no higher
for the greater crimes."
Next, Solon, being willing to continue the magistracies in the hands of
the rich men, and yet receive the people into the other part of the
government, took an account of the citizens' estates, and those that
were worth five hundred measures of fruits, dry and liquid, he placed in
the first rank, calling them Pentacosiomedimni; those that could keep an
horse, or were worth three hundred measures, were named Hippada
Teluntes, and made the second class; the Zeugitae, that had two hundred
measures, were in the third; and all the others were called Thetes, who
were not admitted to any office, but could come to the assembly, and act
as jurors; which at first seemed nothing, but afterwards was found an
enormous privilege, as almost every matter of dispute came before them
in this latter capacity. Even in the cases which he assigned to the
archons' cognizance, he allowed an appeal to the courts. Besides, it is
said that he was obscure and ambiguous in the wording of his laws, on
purpose to increase the honor of his courts; for since their differences
could not be adjusted by the letter, they would have to bring all their
causes to the judges, who thus were in a manner masters of the laws. Of
this equalization he himself makes mention in this manner:
Such power I gave the people as might do,
Abridged not what they had, now lavished new.
Those that were great in wealth and high in place,
My counsel likewise kept from all disgrace.
Before them both I held my shield of might,
And let not either touch the other's right.
And for the greater security of the weak commons, he gave general
liberty of indicting for an act of injury; if any one was beaten,
maimed, or suffered any violence, any man that would and was able, might
prosecute the wrongdoer; intending by this to accustom the citizens,
like members of the same body, to resent and be sensible of one
another's injuries. And there is a saying of his agreeable to this law,
for, being asked what city was best modeled, "That," said he, "where
those that are not injured try and punish the unjust as much as those
that are."
When he had constituted the Areopagus of those who had been yearly
archons, of which he himself was a member therefore, observing that the
people, now free from their debts, were unsettled and imperious, he
formed another council of four hundred, a hundred out of each of the
four tribes, which was to inspect all matters before they were
propounded to the people, and to take care that nothing but what had
been first examined should be brought before the general assembly. The
upper council, or Areopagus, he made inspectors and keepers of the laws,
conceiving that the commonwealth, held by these two councils, like
anchors, would be less liable to be tossed by tumults, and the people be
more at quiet. Such is the general statement, that Solon instituted the
Areopagus; which seems to be confirmed, because Draco makes no mention
of the Areopagites, but in all causes of blood refers to the Ephetae;
yet Solon's thirteenth table contains the eighth law set down in these
very words: "Whoever before Solon's archonship were disfranchised, let
them be restored, except those that, being condemned by the Areopagus,
Ephetae, or in the Prytaneum by the kings, for homicide, murder, or
designs against the government, were in banishment when this law was
made;" and these words seem to show that the Areopagus existed before
Solon's laws, for who could be condemned by that council before his
time, if he was the first that instituted the court? unless, which is
probable, there is some ellipsis, or want of precision, in the language,
and it should run thus, -- "Those that are convicted of such offenses as
belong to the cognizance of the Areopagites, Ephetae, or the Prytanes,
when this law was made," shall remain still in disgrace, whilst others
are restored; of this the reader must judge.
Amongst his other laws, one is very peculiar and surprising, which
disfranchises all who stand neuter in a sedition; for it seems he would
not have any one remain insensible and regardless of the public good,
and, securing his private affairs, glory that he has no feeling of the
distempers of his country; but at once join with the good party and
those that have the right upon their side, assist and venture with them,
rather than keep out of harm's way and watch who would get the better.
It seems an absurd and foolish law which permits an heiress, if her
lawful husband fail her, to take his nearest kinsman; yet some say this
law was well contrived against those, who, conscious of their own
unfitness, yet, for the sake of the portion, would match with heiresses,
and make use of law to put a violence upon nature; for now, since she
can quit him for whom she pleases, they would either abstain from such
marriages, or continue them with disgrace, and suffer for their
covetousness and designed affront; it is well done, moreover, to confine
her to her husband's nearest kinsman, that the children may be of the
same family. Agreeable to this is the law that the bride and bridegroom
shall be shut into a chamber, and eat a quince together; and that the
husband of an heiress shall consort with her thrice a month; for though
there be no children, yet it is an honor and due affection which an
husband ought to pay to a virtuous, chaste wife; it takes off all petty
differences, and will not permit their little quarrels
to proceed to a rupture.
In all other marriages he forbade dowries to be given; the wife was to
have three suits of clothes, a little inconsiderable household stuff,
and that was all; for he would not have marriages contracted for gain or
an estate, but for pure love, kind affection, and birth of children.
When the mother of Dionysius desired him to marry her to one of his
citizens, "Indeed," said he, "by my tyranny I have broken my country's
laws, but cannot put a violence upon those of nature by an unseasonable
marriage." Such disorder is never to be suffered in a commonwealth, nor
such unseasonable and unloving and unperforming marriages, which attain
no due end or fruit; any provident governor or lawgiver might say to an
old man that takes a young wife what is said to Philoctetes
in the tragedy,--
Truly, in a fit state thou to marry!
and if he finds a young man, with a rich and elderly wife, growing fat
in his place, like the partridges, remove him to a young woman of proper
age. And of this enough.
Another commendable law of Solon's is that which forbids men to speak
evil of the dead; for it is pious to think the deceased sacred, and