ASIA MINOR IN THE TIME OF THE SEVEN 



WISg MEN 



By Ma"R¥;Mills Patrick 



President or the America^. GSllege for Girls, Constantinople 



A SIA MINOR was the home of the 



/\ Seven Wise Men, with some ex- 

 X A. ceptions. There is great disagree- 

 ment among ancient authorities as to who 

 all of the Seven Wise Men really were, 

 and only four of them are the same in 

 all the lists given. 



The four about whom we are sure are 

 Bias of Priene, Pittakos of Mitylene, 

 Thales of Miletus, and Solon of Athens, 

 and three of these four were from places 

 on the eastern Mediterranean. ( See map 

 of Asia Minor on opposite page.) 



Even if we take the whole list of the 

 seven as they are sometimes given, four 

 of them were from Asia Minor or the 

 iEgean Islands, and only three from 

 Greece proper. Furthermore, Solon of 

 Athens, the most important of those 

 from Greece, appears to have greatly en- 

 joyed traveling in the provinces of Asia 

 Minor, for in regard to his journeys in 

 the East we have many stories, both true 

 and false. 



One familiar story concerns his visit 

 to Croesus, the richest of the kings of 

 Sardis. After his royal host had shown 

 him all the glory of the court and the 

 treasures of silver and gold, Solon was 

 asked whom he considered the most for- 

 tunate man in the world, the expectation, 

 of course, being that the Wise Man 

 would name the great and powerful 

 Croesus as the most fortunate individual 

 who had ever existed. 



Solon, to the king's surprise, however, 

 named certain obscure people who had 

 done their duty and were loved by their 

 neighbors and afterward died the death 

 of simple but honored citizens. 



A TALE DESTROYED BY HISTORIC At, 

 CRITICISM 



The noble words of Solon had a great 

 effect on Croesus, and were remembered 



at the tragic moment when Cyrus was 

 just about to burn him to death, and 

 were the .means of saving his life. 



We all* know this story, but, unfortu- 

 nately, it can not be true, for Solon would 

 have been too old and Croesus too young 

 for an/ time of meeting to have been 

 possible ; and so we must yield this de- 

 light full, tale, with many others, to the 

 destruction of historical criticism. 



Another story which connects Solon 

 with the ,East may be genuine, as far as 

 its chronology is concerned. It is said 

 that the great law giver, hearing his 

 nephew singing one day, asked him who 

 was the author of the song. The youth 

 replied that it was one of Sappho's 

 poems ; and Solon was so much impressed 

 with its beauty that he exclaimed, with 

 admiration, "Let me not die before I 

 have learned it." 



PICTURING THE HOME LIFE OE ASIA 

 MINOR 2,500 YEARS AGO 



The centers of interest and activity 

 among the Greeks at the time of the 

 Seven Wise Men were in 'Asia Minor, 

 and such familiar names as Samos, Chios, 

 Miletus, Mitylene, Smyrna, and many 

 others were connected with the great 

 events that occupied the minds of the 

 people in that era. 



All who are familiar with the scenes 

 of the eastern Mediterranean love them 

 and enjoy reproducing the history of 

 their past, reviving the descriptions of 

 the busy life that came and went from 

 one generation to another in those sur- 

 roundings. 



We may study with interest Asia 

 Minor under the Roman occupation, at 

 the time of St. Paul ; or we may go far- 

 ther back, to the period of the Kings of 

 Pergamus ; or we may try to picture the 

 life of the eastern Mediterranean in the 



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