Solōn in Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898)

（Σόλων). A celebrated Athenian legislator, born about B.C. 638. His father Execestides was a descendant of Codrus, and his mother was a cousin of the mother of Pisistratus. Execestides had seriously crippled his resources by a too prodigal expenditure; and Solon consequently found it either necessary or convenient in his youth to betake himself to the life of a foreign trader. It is likely enough that while necessity compelled him to seek a livelihood in some mode or other, his active and inquiring spirit led him to select that pursuit which would furnish the amplest means for its gratification. Solon early distinguished himself by his poetical abilities. His first effusions were in a somewhat light and amatory strain, which afterwards gave way to the more dignified and earnest purpose of inculcating profound reflections or sage advice. So widely indeed did his reputation spread that he was ranked as one of the famous Seven Sages (q.v.), and his name appears in all the lists of the seven. The occasion which first brought Solon prominently forward as an actor on the political stage was the contest between Athens and Megara respecting the possession of Salamis. The ill success of the attempts of the Athenians to make themselves masters of the island had led to the enactment of a law forbidding the writing or saying anything to urge the Athenians to renew the attempt. Soon after these events (about 595) Solon took a leading part in promoting hostilities on behalf of Delphi against Cirrha, and was the mover of the decree of the Amphictyons by which war was declared. It does not appear, however, what active part he took in the war. According to a common story, which, however, rests only on the authority of a late writer, Solon hastened the surrender of the town by causing the waters of the Plistus to be poisoned. It was about the time of the outbreak of this war that, in consequence of the distracted condition of Attica, which was rent by civil commotions, Solon was called upon by all parties to mediate between them, and alleviate the miseries that prevailed. He was chosen archon in 594, and under that legal title was invested with unlimited power for adopting such measures as the exigencies of the State demanded. In fulfilment of the task intrusted to him, Solon addressed himself to the relief of the existing distress. This he effected with the greatest discretion and success by his celebrated "disburdening ordinance" (σεισάχθεια), a measure consisting of various distinct provisions, calculated to relieve the debtors with as little infringement as possible on the claims of the wealthy creditors. He also changed the standard of the monetary system from the Phidonian to the Euboic, which was the one generally in use in the great centres of commerce, Chalcis and Eretria, so that Athenian trade might be simplified in its exchanges (Aristotle, Ath. Pol. 10). A limit was also set to the rate of interest and to the accumulation of land (Aristotle, Ath. Pol. 6). The success of the Seisachtheia procured for Solon such confidence and popularity that he was further charged with the task of entirely remodelling the constitution. As a preliminary step, he repealed all the laws of Draco (q.v.), except those relating to bloodshed. The principal features of the Solonian Constitution may be briefly summarized for the benefit of the reader. The State as he left it was a timocracy (τιμοκρατία), that is to say, a form of oligarchy (ὀλιγαρχία) in which the possession of a certain amount of property is requisite for admission to the ruling class. (See Oligarchia.) Solon established a sort of timocratic scale, so that those who did not belong to the nobility received the rights of citizens in a proportion determined partly by their property and their corresponding services to the State. For this purpose he divided the population into four classes, founded on the possession of land.

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