SOLON, s011on, Athenian law-giver: b. Athens, about 640 "Lc.; d. about 559. He was of a noble family and some of its members were ancestors of Codrus. Solon in early life became a trader, gathering by travel a fund of observa tion and experience, and thus became enrolled among the Seven Wise Men of Greece. His first appearance in public life was during the contest between Athens and Megara, for the possession of Salamis, a question he decided by °noting a passage of Homer in which Ajax is described as belonging to the Athenian arma ment. He appeared again as a promoter of hostilities against Cirrha in behalf of Delphi, and moved the Amphictyons to declare war. He was made archon about 592 or 594, at a time when the laws, too favorable to the rich, had overburdened the poorer classes to a critical point inviting revolution. His prelimi nary measures consisted of a "disburdening ordinance" intended to alleviate the burdens of the debtor class without doing injustice to the creditor; a rearrangement of the monetary sys tem, and a measure to control the rate of interest and the acquisition of land. So suc cessful did these reforms prove that he was charged with the remodeling of the constitu tion. He began by abolishing all the laws of Draco, except those relating to homicide, and established the right to citizenship on a basis of property qualification. He divided the peo ple into four classes: (1) Pentacosiomedimni, those having a yearly income of at least 500 medimni (750 bushels) of corn, or metretee of wine or oil; (2) Hippeis, Knights, those having 300 medimni; (3) Zeugitx, those possessing a yoke of oxen with 150 medimni; (4) Thetes, workers for wages, those with less than 150 medimni as yearly income. The archons could only be chosen from the first class. Mem bers of the first three classes were alone eligible for responsible offices and with them lay the election to such offices. The Thetes were in eligible to office, but could vote in the general public assemblies. Solon among other things regulated the levying of taxes and the military service of the citizens. He also established the Council of the Four Hundred. His system tended to reduce debts and give greater oppor tunity to those in the lower classes; his code of laws regulated public and private life. He also reformed the calendar and the system of weights and measures. He regulated and re duced dowries, restricted prostitution, compelled fathers to teach trades to their sons and or dered that at stated periods each citizen must report how he earned his living. The laws he made were inscribed on wooden cylinders and "angular tables and set up in public. He ac k ledged, however, that these laws were not the 'gest conceivable, but the best that the AthenialN4ould be made to accept.
The remainder of his history belongs to the borderland orlegend. He is said to have ex acted a pledge from the Athenians that they would not change his laws for 10 years and to have left the state for Egypt, Cyprus and Lydia. He returned to find the old dissensions re newed in a state which was destined in a short time to fall under the tyranny of 'Pisistratus. Consult Gilliard, 'Queques Reformes de Solon' (Paris 1907) ; Lehmann-Haupt, 'Solon of Athens' (Liverpool 1912). See ATHENS.
SOLOVIEV, Vladimir Sergeie vitch, Russian philosopher and religious writer : b. Moscow, 16 Jan. 1853; d. 31 July 1900. He was the son of the historian Sergei Soloviev and naturally grew up with the companionship of books. A born mystic, he in early youth passed through the stages of scepticism into a profound belief into a creed not clearly de fined, but sufficient for himself. He was gradu ated from the University of Moscow in 1874 with a dissertation on "The Crisis of Philosophy in Western and shortly after visited France, Italy, England and Egypt. He was ap pointed to an associate professorship in the University of Saint Petersburg in 1877, which he held till 1881, when his plea for pardon on behalf of the assassin of Alexander II led to his dismissal and brought him into collision with the Holy Synod and its procurator, Pobiedonostseff. For the rest of his life Solo viev engaged in religious and philosophical writing, pouring out a vast variety of volumes with amazing fecundity. He acquired a deep knowledge of Hebrew and defended the Rus sian Jews against official persecution. Some of his works have long been translated and cir culated in France and Germany, where they aroused considerable interest, but English read ers have as yet been unable to learn much about a remarkable man who for a generation exerted a profound religious influence over his country men. His works hardly reveal a master philo sophical thinker; his speculations rather leave the impression of being assimilated, taking over systems imported from the West and restating them in some extreme form, daring but not always original. At the age of 24 he wrote the 'Philosophical Principles of Integral Science' ; the 'Critique of Exclusive Principle" and The Justification of Good> are obscure, fragmen tary and discursive — displaying a disability of dissociating religion and morality from truth.
Like Newman, his spiritual pilgrimage led him to embrace the Roman Catholic •Church, but there the resemblance ends. Newman was faced with the alternatives of blind belief or limitless unbelief ; to Soloviev, belief was a necessity; convinced at the outset of the truth of Chris tianity, it only remained for him to choose the form. His admirers have referred to him as the Russian Newman," "the Russian John the Baptist" and "the William James of Russia." None of these descriptions is accurate. Solo viev was not a dialectician; his conclusions do not conform to logical rule; he was truly Slavic in his spiritual mobility or instability; quickly receptive even of inconsistent doctrine, and aspiring after things that were hard or impossible to reconcile. The philosopher be came absorbed in the religious teacher and re-, former. He labored not only for a reunion between the Orthodox and the Roman Catho lic churches, but for a general religious unity. His encyclopedic variety of literary productions and multifarious propaganda have recently begun to find their way into English; only his brilliant dialogue on 'War and Progress' and 'The Justification of the Good' (1919) have been translated. Consult d'Herbigny, M., 'Vladimir Soloviev' (London 1918).