He then proceeded to the regulation of offices, employments, and magistracies, all which he left in the hands of the rich; for which reason he distributed the rich citizens into three classes, ranging them according to the difference of their incomes and revenues, and according to the value and estimation of each particular man's estate. Those that were found to have 500 measures per annum, as well in corn as in liquids, were placed in the first rank; those that had 300 were placed in the second; and those that had but 200 made up the third.

All the rest of the citizens, whose income fell short of 200 measures, were comprised in a fourth and last class, and were never admitted into any employments.* But, in order to make amends for this exclusion from offices, he left them a right to vote in the assemblies and judgments of the people; which at first seemed to be a matter of little consequence, but in time became extremely advantageous, and made them masters of all the affairs of the city; for most of the law-suits and differences were ultimately referred to the people, to whom an appeal lay from all the judgments of the magistrates; and in the assemblies of the people the greatest and most important affairs of the state, relating to peace or war, were also determined.

The Areopagus, so called from the place where its assemblies were held,† had been a long time established. Solon restored and augmented its authority, leaving to that tribunal, as the supreme court of judicature, a general inspection and superintendency over all affairs, as also the care of causing the laws (of which he made that body the guardian) to be observed and put in execution. Before his time, the citizens of the greatest probity and worth were made the judges of the Areopagus. Solon was the first that thought it convenient that none should be honoured with that dignity, except such as had passed through the office of archon. Nothing was so august as this senate:‡ and its reputation for judgment and integrity became so very great, that the Romans sometimes referred causes, which were too intricate for their own decision, to the determination of this tribunal.

Nothing was regarded or attended to here, but truth alone; and to the end that no external objects might divert the attention of the judges, their tribunal was always held at night, or in the dark; and the orators were not allowed to make use of any exordium, digression, or peroration.

Solon, to prevent as much as possible the abuse which the people might make of the great authority he left them, created a second council, consisting of 400 men, 100 out of every tribe; and ordered all causes and affairs to be brought before this council, and to be maturely examined by them, before they were proposed to the gene

*Plut. in Solon. p. 88.

†This was a hill near the citadel of Athens, called Areopagus, that is to say, the kill of Mars; because it was there Mars had been tried for the murder of Halirrothius, the son of Neptune.

Val. Max. L viii. c. 1. Lucian in Hermot. p. 595. Quintil. 1. vi. c. 1.

ral assembly of the people; to the judgment of which the sentiments of the other were to submit, and to which alone belonged the right of giving a final sentence and decision. It was upon this subject that Anacharsis (whom the reputation of the sages of Greece had brought from the heart of Scythia) said one day to Solon, I wonder you should empower wise men only to deliberate and debate upon af fairs, and leave the determination and decision of them wholly to fools. Upon another occasion, when Solon was conversing with him upon some other regulations he had in view, Anacharsis, astonished that he could expect to succeed in his designs of restraining the avarice and injustice of the citizens by written laws, answered him in this manner: Give me leave to tell you, that these written laws are just like spiders' webs: the weak and small may be caught and entangled in them; but the rich and powerful will break through them and despise them.

Solon, who was an able and prudent man, was very sensible of the inconveniences that attend a democracy, or popular government: but, having thoroughly studied, and being perfectly well acquainted with, the character and disposition of the Athenians, he knew it would be a vain attempt to take the sovereignty out of the people's hands; and that if they parted with it at one time, they would soon resume it at another by force and violence. He therefore contented himself with limiting their power by the authority of the Areopagus and the council of Four Hundred; judging, that the state, being supported and strengthened by these two powerful bodies, as by two good anchors, would not be so liable to commotions and disorders as it had been, and that the people would enjoy more tranquillity.

I shall mention only some of the laws which Solon made, by which the reader may be able to form a judgment of the rest. In the first place, every particular person was authorised to espouse the quarrel of any one that was injured and insulted; so that the first comer might prosecute the offender, and bring him to justice for the outrage he had committed.

The design of this wise legislator by this ordinance was, to accustom his citizens to have a fellow-feeling of one another's sufferings and misfortunes, as they were all members of one and the same body.

By another law, those persons that in public differences and dissensions did not declare themselves of one party or other, but waited to see how things would go before they determined, were declared infamous, condemned to perpetual banishment, and to have all their estates confiscated. Solon had learnt, from long experience and deep reflection, that the rich, the powerful, and even the wise and virtuous, are usually the most backward to expose themselves to the inconveniences which public dissensions and troubles produce in so

1

ciety; and that their zeal for the public good does not render them so vigilant and active in the defence of it, as the passions of the factious render them industrious to destroy it; that the right side being thus abandoned by those that are capable of giving more weight, authority, and strength to it by their union and concurrence, becomes unable to grapple with the audacious and violent enterprises of a few daring innovators. To prevent this misfortune, which may be attended with the most fatal consequences to a state, Solon judged it proper to force the well affected, by the fear of greater inconveniences to themselves, to declare at the very beginning of any commotion, for the party that was in the right, and to animate the spirit and courage of the best citizens by engaging with them in the common danger. By this method of accustoming the minds of the people to look upon that man almost as an enemy and a traitor, that should appear indifferent to, and unconcerned at, the misfortunes of the public, he provided the state with quick and sure resource against the sudden enterprises of wicked and profligate

citizens.

Solon abolished the giving of portions in marriage with young women, unless they were only daughters;* and ordered that the bride should carry no other fortune to her husband than three suits of clothes, and some household goods of little value: for he would not have matrimony become a traffic, and a mere commerce of interest; but desired, that it should be regarded as an honourable fellowship and society, in order to raise subjects to the state, to make the married pair live agreeably and harmoniously together, and to give continual testimony of mutual love and tenderness to each other.

Before Solon's time, the Athenians were not allowed to make their wills; the wealth of the deceased always devolved upon his children and family. Solon's law allowed every one that was childless, to dispose of his whole estate as he thought fit; preferring by that means friendship to kindred, and choice to necessity and constraint, and rendering every man truly master of his own fortune, by leaving him at liberty to bestow it where he pleased. This law however did not authorise indifferently all sorts of donations: it justified and approved of none but those that were made freely and without any compulsion; without having the mind distempered and intoxicated by potions or charms, or perverted and seduced by the allurements and caresses of a woman; for this wise lawgiver was justly persuaded, that there is no difference to be made between being seduced and being forced, looking upon artifice and violence, pleasure and pain, in the same light, when they are made use of as means to impose upon men's reason, and to captivate the liberty of their understandings.

Another regulation he made was to lessen the rewards of the

*Plut. in Solon. p. 89.

victors at the Isthmian and Olympic games,* and to fix them at a certain value, viz. 100 drachmas, which make about two pounds, for the first sort; and 500 drachmas, or about ten pounds, for the second. He thought it a shameful thing, that athlete and wrestlers, a sort of people not only useless, but often dangerous to the state, should have any considerable rewards allotted them, which ought rather to be reserved for the families of those persons who died in the service of their country; it being very just and reasonable, that the state should support and provide for such orphans, who probably might come in time to follow the good examples of their fathers.

In order to encourage arts, trades, and manufactures, the senate of the Areopagus was charged with the care of inquiring into the ways and means that every man made use of to gain his livelihood, and of chastising and punishing all those who led an idle life. Besides the forementioned view of bringing arts and trades into a flourishing condition, this regulation was founded upon two other reasons still more important.

First, Solon considered, that such persons as have no fortune, and make use of no methods of industry to gain their livelihood, are ready to employ all manner of unjust and unlawful means for acquiring money; and that the necessity of subsisting some way or other disposes them for committing all sorts of misdemeanours, rapine, knaveries, and frauds; from which springs up a school of vice in the bosom of the commonwealth; and such a leaven gains ground, as does not fail to spread its infection, and by degrees corrupt the manners of the public.

In the second place, the most able statesmen have always looked upon these indigent and idle people as a troop of dangerous, restless, and turbulent spirits, eager after innovation and change, always ready for seditions and insurrections, and interested in revolutions of the state, by which alone they can hope to change their own situation and fortune. It was for all these reasons, that in the law we are speaking of, Solon declared, that a son should not be obliged to support his father in old age or necessity, if the latter had not taken care to have his son brought up to some trade or occupation. All children that were spurious and illegitimate, were exempted from the same duty: for it is evident, says Solon, that whoever thus contemns the dignity and sanctity of matrimony, has never had in view the lawful end we ought to propose to ourselves in having children, but only the gratification of a loose passion. Having then satisfied his own desires, he has no proper right over the persons who may spring from this disgraceful intercourse, upon whose lives, as well as births, he has entailed an indelible infamy and reproach.

It was prohibited to speak any ill of the dead :† because religion directs us to account the dead as sacred, justice requires us to spare

*Plut. p. 91. Diog. Laert. in Solon. p. 37.

† Plut. in Solon. p. 89.

those that are no more, and good policy should hinder hatred from becoming immortal.

It was also forbidden to affront or give ill language to any body in the temples, in courts of judicature, in public assemblies, and in the theatres, during the time of representation: for to be no where able to govern our passions and resentments, argues too untractable and licentious a disposition; as, on the other hand, to restrain them at all times, and upon all occasions, is a virtue beyond the strength of mere human nature, and a perfection reserved for the evangelical law.

Cicero observes, that this wise legislator of Athens, whose laws were in force even in his time, had provided no law against parricide; and being asked the reason why he had not, he answered: That to make laws against, and ordain punishments for, a crime that hitherto had never been known or heard of, was the way to introduce it, rather than to prevent it.* I omit several of his laws concerning marriage and adultery, in which there are remarkable and manifest contradictions, and a great mixture of light and darkness, knowledge and error, which we generally find even among the very wisest of the heathens, who had no established principles.

A. M. 3445.

After Solon had published his laws, and engaged the people by public oath to observe them religiously, at least for the term of 100 years, he thought proper to remove from Athens, in order to give them time to take root, and to gather strength by custom; as also to rid himself of the trouble and importunity of those who came to consult him about the meaning of his laws, and to avoid the complaints and ill-will of others: for, as he said himself, in great undertakings it is hard (if not impossible) to please all parties. He was absent ten years, in which interval of time we are to place his journeys into Egypt, into Lydia, to visit king Croesus, and into several other countries. At his return he found the whole Ant. J. C. 550. city in commotion and trouble;† the three old factions were revived, and had formed three different parties. Lycurgus was at the head of the people that inhabited the low-lands; Megacles, son of Alcmeon, was the leader of the inhabitants upon the seacoast; and Pisistratus had declared for the mountaineers, to whom were joined the handicraftsmen and labourers who lived by their industry, and who were particularly hostile to the rich of these three leaders the two latter were the most powerful and considerable. Megacles was the son of that Alcmeon whom Croesus had extremely enriched for a particular service which he had done him. He had likewise married a lady, who had brought him an immense portion: her name was Agarista, the daughter of Clisthenes, tyrant of Sicyon. This Clisthenes was the richest and most opulent prince at this time in Greece. In order to be able to choose a worthy

:

* Sapienter fecisse dicitur, cùm de eo nihil sanxerit, quod antea commissum non erat; ne, non tam prohibere quam admonere, videretur. Pro Rosc. Amer, n. 70.

† Plut. in Solon. p. 94.

Herod. lib. vi. c. 125–131.