Lives by Plutarch - 2 - Solon
Solon
Quote
"The future that bears down on each of us is variable and determined by unknowable factors, and so we consider a man happy only when the gods have granted him success right up to the end of his life."
Notes
Solon is born into a wealthy family, but his father gives a lot of his wealth away, so Solon becomes a trader. He also loves learning and his work as a trader gives him a good excuse to travel and learn.
Solon's reputation grows through his later military achievements. In one example, after Athens passes a law forbidding anyone from talking about going to war to capture the island of Salamis, Solon pretends to be insane and goes out into the streets with a prepared poem arguing they should go to war against Salamis. The people rally around him and he leads them in taking Salamis.
Meanwhile, Athens is growing more divided, both politically and also between the rich and the poor. Some debts are getting so bad that people are selling themselves or their children into slavery so they can pay it back.
The people choose to elect Solon as archon (or ruler) of Athens in the hopes that he can help resolve these divisions. Both the rich and the poor believe him to be on their side, and he is seen as an objective arbiter.
Some people want him to be a tyrant because the situation is so bad. But he refuses. He wants to "harmonize force and justice" with his rule. Plutarch says, "he acts where he expects to find people receptive to his proposals and submissive to the application of pressure." He doesn't want to lead a revolution, but he does want to bring in some serious reforms.
To deal with the all the poor people's massive debts, he cancels all debts throughout Athens. And he forbids against anyone selling themselves as slaves to pay a debt.
He also tells some of his friends about his plan, who then go and borrow a bunch of money and buy a bunch of land, knowing that debts were about to be canceled, and that land would not be redistributed.
The poor are upset that Solon isn't redistributing all the land (something Lycurgus did in Sparta). But even though they're upset at first, they still go along with it and see benefit.
He repeals Draco's severe criminal punishments. Draco is where we get the word, 'draconian', and all of his punishments had involved putting people to death.
He updates the property requirements for holding office to open them up to more of the lower classes. The poor cannot hold office but they can be jurors, which is important since many disputes end up being handled by the courts.
He brings in a council of elders, similar to Lycurgus, to add a third element of government to be a balance against the king's inclinations to tyranny and the people's inclinations to mob rule.
Anyone who remains neutral during a debate have their voting rights removed.
He makes it illegal to speak ill of the dead. Plutarch approves: "This is a good idea because piety requires us to regard the dead as sacred, decency requires us to refrain from attacking people in their absence, and political expediency requires us not to let a conflict go on forever."
There are lots more laws, and a lot of people want to discuss Solon's laws with him and tell him their criticisms. Solon doesn't want to answer their "peevish quibbling" so he leaves and goes traveling again.
He goes to Egypt and hears the story of Atlantis from the Egyptian priests. He also goes to Lydia and has a discussion with King Croesus. King Croesus is very rich and he wants Solon to say he's the happiest man alive, but Solon doesn't think so. He thinks that life is full of unknowns and no one can be judged happy or not happy before they die. That'd be like calling the winner of a race before the race is finished. Plus it's actually the people who die from an honourable act who are truly the happiest. (This conversation is also recorded in Herodotus.)
After he returns from his travels, Athens is divided again and a man named Pisistratus is rallying people so he can take power. No one is standing up to him and soon he succeeds. Solon says, "I have played my part" and he leaves, very critical of the Athenians for allowing this to happen.
But Pisistratus likes Solon, follows many of his laws and hires him as an advisor.
Extras
What does Plutarch think of Atlantis? He says that Solon went to Egypt and studied "with the most learned of the Egyptian priests." He also explains that Solon planned to write an entire history of Atlantis, but in his description he calls it a "history or legend of Atlantis." Which one is it, Plutarch?
It is amazing to think that Solon had plans to write a history of Atlantis. He was going to write it as an epic poem, too, something like The Iliad or The Odyssey. Plutarch says this story "was particularly relevant to Athens, according to the learned priests of Sais, who were his informants, but he abandoned it. His reason for doing so was because he was afraid that he was too old to complete such a lengthy poem."
Plutarch inserts himself and his opinions as part of the discussion between Solon and Thales on marriage. Thales advises against getting married. He thinks people become too overwhelmed and emotional over attaching themselves to someone. Plutarch takes this opportunity to tell us what he thinks:
"Rather than using poverty as a shield against loss of wealth, or avoiding friendship in order to guard against the loss of friends, or refusing to have children in order to protect oneself against their death, one should make reason one's defense against every eventuality."