[154] Eurip. Hippolyt. 957; Plato, Republ. ii, p. 364; Theophrast. Charact. c. 16.
[155] Herodot. i, 60.
[156] Plutarch, Solon, i; Diogen. Laërt. iii, 1; Aristot. Polit. iv, 9, 10.
[157] Plutarch, Solon, v.
[158] Plutarch, Solon, viii. It was a poem of one hundred lines, χαριέντως πάνυ πεποιημένων.
Diogenês tells us, that “Solon read the verses to the people through the medium of the herald,”—a statement not less deficient in taste than in accuracy, and which spoils the whole effect of the vigorous exordium, Ἀυτὸς κήρυξ ἦλθον ἀφ᾽ ἱμερτῆς Σαλαμῖνος, etc.
[159] Plutarch, l. c.; Diogen. Laërt. i, 47. Both Herodotus (i, 59) and some authors read by Plutarch ascribed to Peisistratus an active part in the war against the Megarians, and even the capture of Nisæa, the port of Megara. Now the first usurpation of Peisistratus was in 560 B. C., and we can hardly believe that he can have been prominent and renowned in a war no less than forty years before.
It will be seen hereafter—see the [note] on the interview between Solon and Krœsus, towards the end of this chapter—that Herodotus, and perhaps other authors also, conceived the Solonian legislation to date at a period later than it really does; instead of 594 B. C., they placed it nearer to the usurpation of Peisistratus.
[160] Plutarch, Solon, κυρίους εἶναι τοῦ πολιτεύματος. The strict meaning of these words refers only to the government of the island; but it seems almost certainly implied that they would be established in it as klêruchs, or proprietors of land, not meaning necessarily that all the preëxisting proprietors would be expelled.
[161] Plutarch, Solon, 8, 9, 10. Daïmachus of Platæa, however, denied to Solon any personal share in the Salaminian war (Plutarch, comp. Solon and Public. c. 4).