SOLON, Athenian statesman, the son of Execestides of the family of Codrus, was born about 638 B.C. The prodigality of his father made it necessary for Solon to maintain himself by trade, especially abroad. In his youth he became well known as the author of amatory poems and later of patriotic and didactic verse. Hence his inclusion among the Seven Sages. Solon's first public service was the recovery of Salamis from the Megar ians. A law had been passed forbidding any reference to the loss of the island; Solon solved the difficulty by feigning madness, and reciting an inflammatory poem in the agora. It appears that Solon was appointed to recover the "fair island" and that he suc ceeded in expelling the Megarians. Sparta finally arbitrated in favour of the Athenians (c. 596), who ascribed their success to Solon. About a year later he seems to have moved a decree be fore the Amphictyons declaring war on Cirrha. At this period the distress in Attica and the accumulating discontent of the poorer classes, for whom Draco's code had proved inadequate, reached its height. Solon was summoned by all classes unani mously to discover a remedy; under the legal title of Archon, he received unlimited powers which he exercised in economic and constitutional reforms (see below). From various sources we learn that these reforms met with considerable opposition, to escape from which Solon left Athens for ten years. After visiting Egypt, he went to Cyprus, where Philocyprus, king of Aepea, received him with honour. Herodotus (v. 113) says that Philo cyprus, on the advice of Solon, built himself a new town called, after his guest, Soli. The story that Solon visited Croesus in Lydia, and made to him the famous remark—"Call no man happy till he is dead"—is unfortunately discredited by the fact that Croesus seems to have become king nearly 3o years after Solon's legislation, whereas the story must be dated within ten years of it. Subsequently Solon returned to Athens, to find civil strife renewed, and shortly afterwards his friend (perhaps his relative) Peisistratus made himself tyrant. About 558 B.C. Solon died and,
according to the story in Dio genes Laertius i. 62 (but see Plutarch's Solon, 32), his ashes were scattered round the island of Salamis. If the story is true, it shows that he was regarded as the oecist of Salamis.
Reforms.—The date of Solon's archonship has been usually fixed at 594 B.C. (01. 46, 3), a date given by Diog. Laert. (i. 62) on the evidence of the Rhodian Sosicrates (fl. 200-128 B.c., see Clinton, Fast. Hell. 298, and Busolt, 2nd ed., ii. 259). The date 594 is confirmed by statements in the Aristotelian Constitution of Athens (ch. For various reasons the dates 592, 591 and even 590 have been sug gested by various historians (for the importance of this question see the concluding paragraph of this article). The historical evi dence for the Solonian reforms has always been unsatisfactory. There is strong reason to con clude that in the 5th and 4th centuries there was no general tradition as to details. In settling differences there is no appeal to tradition, and this though there occur radical and insoluble contradictions. Thus the Constitution of Athens (ch. vi.) says that the Seisachtheia ("shaking off of burdens") consisted in a cancelling of all debts public and private, whereas Androtion, an elder contemporary, denies this specifically, and says that it consisted in the reduction of the rate of interest and the debase ment of the coinage. The Constitution denies the existence of any connection between the coinage reform and the relief of debt ors. The absence of tradition is further confirmed by the fact that the Constitution always appeals for corroboration to Solon's Poems. Of the Laws it is probable that in the 4th century, though some dealing with agrarian distress were in existence, those em bodying the Seisachtheia were not, and few if any of the purely constitutional laws remained. The main source of the account in the Constitution is, therefore, the Poems of Solon, from which numerous quotations are made (see chs. 5-12).