664 



SOLOMON'S SEAL 



SOLON 



places in Scotland. The loaves are whorled. The 

 Angular or Sweet-smelling Solomon's Seal (P. 

 offirimilt) is also rare in Britain, ami is found only 

 in England. It more nearly resembles tin- Common 

 Solomon's Seal, bat is smaller, and ha* greenish, 

 fragrant (lowers. All these species are common in 

 many parts of Europe. They are very similar in 

 their pro)iertie8. In America there is a P. gigan- 

 tnim, 2 to 7 feet high, and a smaller I', hi- 

 Jloriim. The young shoots of P. oflicinale are 

 eaten hv the Turks like asparagus. "The root U 

 white, fleshy, inodorous, with a sweetish, mucila- 

 ginous, acrid taste. It contains Asjxiragin. It is 

 a popular application to brnisea, to prevent or 

 remove discoloration, and its use is well known to 

 those who are too apt to get a black eye now and 

 then. A kind of bread has been made of it in 

 times of scarcity. The berries are emetic ami 

 purgative. 



Solon, the famous lawgiver of ancient Athens, 

 was born probably about 640 or 638 B.C., and died 

 about 558 or 559. His father, Execestides, who 

 traced his descent from the royal family of Attica, 

 had squandered an ample fortune. His son )>ecame 

 a trader, an occupation which at once brought him 

 wealth and opened up rich stores of observation 

 and experience to his inquiring mind. Doubtless 

 to the wide extent of his travels must l>e ascril>ed 

 that unprejudiced political genius by which he was 

 to create a constitution such, as had never existed 

 in the world before. He was known also as a 

 writer of graceful and amatory verses, hut later 

 his muse soared to a higher strain and sang the 

 triumphs of his legislation and the blessing of the 

 gods on his reforms. One of the finest of his 

 elegies owes its preservation to its being quoted 

 by Demosthenes in his De falsa Legatiom (sects. 

 286-289), 'to show (as he says) how Solon hated 

 fellows like .Kschines;' several quotations one of 

 twenty lines otherwise unknown occur in Aris- 

 totle's Constitution of Athens (first edited from a 

 papyrus acquired by the Iliitisli Museum, by F. G. 

 Keiiyon, 1891). The Megarian war (610-600) saw 

 the occasion of Solon's lirst political achievements. 

 The sarcasms of his stirring Tyrtiean verse induced 

 tin- desponding Athenians to continue the struggle, 

 and Solon was placed at the head of an expedi- 

 tion to Salami*. Suddenly landing there, he 

 drove out the Megarian garrison, and won the 

 ' lovely island ' for Athens ; finally the dispute was 

 settled by the arbitration of Sparta in favour of 

 AtheiiH. No story of antiquity is better known 

 than that which tells how Solon attempted to 

 influence the award by the insertion of a line in 

 the Hind (ii. ,V>H), which s|x-nks of the Salaniinian 

 Ajax ranging his ships with the Athenians. Solon's 

 influence, already wide, was increased by the strong 

 position he took up a little later in behalf of the 

 Delphic oracle against its oppressors. But the 

 unholy murder of Cylon still rested as a stain 

 ii|H>n Athens; Xisjpaand Salamis were again lost; 

 and superstitious fears took hold of the ]>eoplc. 



But the distress of Attica was not so much reli- 

 gious a* economic. The particular grievance which 

 brought matters to a head wax the law of debt. The 

 want of a middle class made the contrast U'tween 

 the opulence of the nobility ami the indigence of the 

 poor more glaring. A desperate conflict was im- 

 minent, when in .V.u liotii paitif- concurred in 

 inviting the [>o-t and devoted patriot, Solon, to 

 assume the atyhonship ami pacify his distracted 

 country. ' It is not the will of the gods that our 

 city should perish,' sang the poet in noble numl>ers ; 

 'it i- the ilesire of gain which will bring us to 

 ruin: the thought- <>i our leaders are not honest, 

 and their greed will bring great evils upon them. 

 Many of the poor go into foreign lands, sold as 

 lave*, and burdened with shameful bonds.' His 



first measure was the famous Seisachtheia, and the 

 remedy was severe. A limit was placed on vast 

 accumulation of lands, the person of the debtor 

 was safe whatever hU obligations, all debts public 

 and private were cancelled. The reform of the 

 money-standard was made, with the view not so 

 much of assisting debtors by reducing their debt* 

 (73 of the old drachmas were recoined into 100 

 of the new) as of simplifying trade with Asia 

 Minor and opening up new fields for Athenian 

 enterprise. Then the poet sang the end of his 

 labours : ' Many citizens who had been sold into 

 slavery I brought back to Athens their home ; 

 some of them spoke Attic no longer, their 

 speech being changed in their many wanderings. 

 i Mirers who had learned the habits of slaves at 

 home, and trembled In-fore a master, I made to be 

 free men. All this I accomplished by authority, 

 uniting force with justice, and I fulfilled my pro- 

 mise.' On laying down office at the end of the 

 year he was requested to reform the entire political 

 constitution of Athens. Solon's object was to 

 destroy the power of the Gentes, and give the 

 poorest class some control over the officers and 

 the law. On the division of the people into four 

 classes, rated according to income, a division which 

 our latest authority, the Constitution of Athens, 

 assigns to Draco, his reforms were based. The first 

 class ( IVntacosiomcdiiiini i were such as possessed 

 an annual income of not less than 500 rnedimni of 

 corn, the second class (Hippeis) were rated at 300, 

 the third (/eugitai) at 200, the fourth (Thetes) 

 consisted of all below the /eugitai. 



On each of the four certain duties were imposed. 

 The three highest provided the land army of Attica, 

 while the Thetes, as rowers in the triremes, formed 

 the most important part of the navy, one day to 

 prove the salvation of Greece and the mainstay of 

 the Athenian empire. The chief offices of state 

 were restricted to the Pentacosiomedimni ; the 

 second and third classes were eligible for minor 

 functions. If the Thetes were not admitted to 

 oflice, their inclusion in the Attic tribes or idiyla-, 

 their new right of sitting in the Assembly, electing 

 the public magistrates and passing sentence on 

 their conduct at the end of their year of office, 

 made them practically the sovereign power in the 

 state ; and Aristotle traces the swift development 

 of Athenian democracy to the judicial powers 

 received from Solon. The BoulS of 400, another of 

 the great lawgiver's creations, was formed by the 

 election of 100 members from each tribe, and took 

 the place of Draco's council of 401, of which we 

 first learn also in the newly-discovered Aristotelian 

 papyrus. The democratic nature of Solon's Council 

 is proved by its subsequent history. The Areopagus 

 continued as liefore to be the guardian of the laws 

 and the public morals ; it decided also on all grave 

 criminal cases. If he did not origiim .e it, Solon 

 saw the wisdom of preserving ami strengthening a 

 body which, by its nature, comprised the best 

 representatives of the highest class of citi/cns. 

 ' It was,' says /Eschylus, 'the bulwark of the land 

 and city, the like of which no man had seen 

 either in Scythia or in the island of 1 'clops ; a 

 council incorrupt, awful, and severe ; a watchful 

 guardian over those who slept.' The last of his 

 political reforms was the institution of the llcliu-a 

 or popular court of law, the members of which 

 were men of more than thirty years of age chosen 

 annually by lot from every claw. The object of 

 its creation was to serve as a balance to the Areo- 

 pagus, whose judicial supremacy might go too far in 

 the interests of the aristocracy who composed it. 



But Solon's work was not yet done. The laws 

 of Draco were not suited to a more civilised 

 age ; not only was the severity of punishment 

 for infringement out of all proportion to the 



