Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

​Solon, son of Execestides, a Salaminian, first introduced the relief of debts (seisachtheia) for the Athenians; this was a redemption of both persons and possessions. For men used to borrow on the security of their persons, and many were reduced to day-laborers through poverty. Accordingly, when seven talents of his paternal estate were owed to him, he was the first to remit them, and he urged the rest to do likewise. And this law was called seisachtheia; the reason for this is clear. Afterwards he enacted the rest of his laws, which it would be too long to recount, and deposited them on the wooden rollers (axones).

​And what was greatest of all, when his homeland Salamis was being disputed by the Athenians and the Megarians, and the Athenians, having suffered many defeats in the wars, had voted that if anyone should advise fighting for Salamis any longer, he should be punished with death, Solon pretended to be mad, crowned himself with a garland, and rushed into the agora. There, through a herald, he recited to the Athenians the elegiac verses bearing upon Salamis and roused them. And they fought once more against the Megarians and were victorious on account of Solon.

​The elegiac lines that most touched the Athenians were these: “May I then at that time be a man of Pholegandros or Sicinos instead of an Athenian, having exchanged my native land! For swift among men would this report become: ‘This is an Attic fellow, one of the abandoners of Salamis.’” And then: “Let us go to Salamis to fight for a lovely island and to cast off grievous disgrace.” He also persuaded them to acquire the Chersonese in Thrace in addition.

​And in order that he might not seem to possess Salamis by force alone, but also by right, he dug up certain tombs and showed that the dead were turned toward the east, as was the custom of the Athenians to bury them; and further, that the tombs themselves faced the dawn and that the inscriptions were engraved by demes, which was peculiar to the Athenians. Some also say that he inserted into Homer's Catalogue, after the line: “And Ajax led twelve ships from Salamis—” the verse: “And bringing them, stationed them where the battle-lines of the Athenians were arrayed.”

​From that time forward, the people held him in high regard and would gladly have been ruled by him as tyrant; but he chose not to, and, perceiving beforehand the design of his kinsman Pisistratus, as Sosicrates says, he hindered it as far as lay in his power. For he rushed into the assembly with spear and shield and announced to them Pisistratus' attack; and not only that, but he declared that he was ready to assist, saying these words: “Men of Athens, I am wiser than some of you, and braver than others: wiser than those who do not perceive the deceit of Pisistratus, and braver than those who understand it, but remain silent through fear.” And the council, being partisans of Pisistratus, said he was mad; wherefore he uttered these words: “A short time will indeed show my madness to the citizens; it will show it, when the truth comes into the open.”

​The elegiac lines in which he predicted the tyranny of Pisistratus were these: “From the cloud comes the force of snow and of hail, and thunder arises from the bright lightning; and by great men a city is destroyed, and into the slavery of a monarch the people have fallen through ignorance.” And when Pisistratus was already in power, failing to persuade them, Solon laid down his weapons in front of the generals' office and said: “O fatherland, I have helped you both by word and by deed,” and sailed away to Egypt and to Cyprus, and came to Croesus. There, when asked by him, “Who seems happy to you?” he replied, “Tellus the Athenian, and Cleobis and Biton,” and told the well-known stories.

​Some say that Croesus, having adorned himself in every manner and seated himself upon his throne, asked him whether he had seen any sight more beautiful; and Solon said: “Cocks and pheasants and peacocks; for they are adorned with a natural bloom, and one infinitely more beautiful.” Departing thence, he went to Cilicia and founded a city which he named Soli after himself; and he settled there a few Athenians who, having in the course of time corrupted their speech, were said to speak solecisms. And those from this place are called Soleis, while those from Cyprus are called Solioi. When he learned that Pisistratus was already reigning as tyrant, he wrote the following to the Athenians: