Sol (the sun), was an object of veneration among the ancients. It was particularly worshipped by the Persians, under the name of Mithras; and was the Baal or Bel of the Chaldeans, the Belphegor of the Moabites, the Moloch of the Canaanites, the Osiris of the Egyptians, and the Adonis of the Syrians. The Massagetæ sacrificed horses to the sun on account of their swiftness. According to some of the ancient poets, Sol and Apollo were two different persons. Apollo, however, and Phœbus and Sol, are universally supposed to be the same deity.
Solicinium, a town of Germany, now Sultz, on the Neckar.
Solīnus Caius Julius, a grammarian at the end of the first century, who wrote a book called Polyhistor, which is a collection of historical remarks and geographical annotations on the most celebrated places of every country. He has been called Pliny’s ape, because he imitated that well-known naturalist. The last edition of the Polyhistor is that of Nuremberg, ex editione Salamasii. 1777.
Solis Fons, a celebrated fountain in Libya. See: [Ammon].
Soloe, or Soli, a town of Cyprus, built on the borders of the Clarius by an Athenian colony. It was originally called Æpeia, till Solon visited Cyprus, and advised Philocyprus, one of the princes of the island, to change the situation of his capital. His advice was followed; a new town was raised in a beautiful plain, and called after the name of the Athenian philosopher. Strabo, bk. 14.—Plutarch, Solon.——A town of Cilicia on the sea-coast, built by the Greeks and Rhodians. It was afterwards called Pompeiopolis, from Pompey, who settled a colony of pirates there. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 27.—Dionysius of Halicarnassus. Some suppose that the Greeks, who settled in either of these two towns, forgot the purity of their native language, and thence arose the term Solecismus, applied to an inelegant or improper expression.
Solœis, or Soloentia, a promontory of Libya at the extremity of mount Atlas, now cape Cantin.——A town of Sicily, between Panormus and Himera, now Solanto. Cicero, Against Verres, bk. 3, ch. 43.—Thucydides, bk. 6.
Solon, one of the seven wise men of Greece, was born at Salamis, and educated at Athens. His father’s name was Euphorion, or Exechestides, one of the descendants of king Codrus, and by his mother’s side he reckoned among his relations the celebrated Pisistratus. After he had devoted part of his time to philosophical and political studies, Solon travelled over the greatest part of Greece, but at his return home he was distressed with the dissensions which were kindled among his countrymen. All fixed their eyes upon Solon as a deliverer, and he was unanimously elected archon and sovereign legislator. He might have become absolute, but he refused the dangerous office of king of Athens, and, in the capacity of lawgiver, he began to make a reform in every department. The complaints of the poorer citizens found redress, all debts were remitted, and no one was permitted to seize the person of his debtor if unable to make a restoration of his money. After he had made the most salutary regulations in the state, and bound the Athenians by a solemn oath that they would faithfully observe his laws for the space of 100 years, Solon resigned the office of legislator and removed himself from Athens. He visited Egypt, and in the court of Crœsus king of Lydia he convinced the monarch of the instability of fortune, and told him, when he wished to know whether he was not the happiest of mortals, that Tellus, an Athenian, who had always seen his country in a flourishing state, who had seen his children lead a virtuous life, and who had himself fallen in defence of his country, was more entitled to happiness than the possessor of riches and the master of empires. After 10 years’ absence Solon returned to Athens, but he had the mortification to find the greatest part of his regulations disregarded by the factious spirit of his countrymen, and the usurpation of Pisistratus. Not to be longer a spectator of the divisions that reigned in his country, he retired to Cyprus, where he died at the court of king Philocyprus, in the 80th year of his age, 558 years before the christian era. The salutary consequences of the laws of Solon can be discovered in the length of time they were in force in the republic of Athens. For above 400 years they flourished in full vigour, and Cicero, who was himself a witness of their benign influence, passes the highest encomiums upon the legislator, whose superior wisdom framed such a code of regulations. It was the intention of Solon to protect the poorer citizens, and by dividing the whole body of the Athenians into four classes, three of which were permitted to discharge the most important offices and magistracies of the state, and the last to give their opinion in the assemblies, but not have a share in the distinctions and honours of their superiors, the legislator gave the populace a privilege which, though at first small and inconsiderable, soon rendered them masters of the republic, and of all the affairs of government. He made a reformation in the Areopagus, he increased the authority of the members, and permitted them yearly to inquire how every citizen maintained himself, and to punish such as lived in idleness, and were not employed in some honourable and lucrative profession. He also regulated the Prytaneum, and fixed the number of its judges at 400. The sanguinary laws of Draco were all cancelled, except that against murder, and the punishment denounced against every offender was proportioned to his crime; but Solon made no law against parricide or sacrilege. The former of these crimes, he said, was too horrible to human nature for a man to be guilty of it, and the latter could never be committed, because the history of Athens had never furnished a single instance. Such as had died in the service of their country were buried with great pomp, and their family was maintained at the public expense; but such as had squandered away their estates, such as refused to bear arms in defence of their country, or paid no attention to the infirmities and distress of their parents, were branded with infamy. The laws of marriage were newly regulated; it became a union of affection and tenderness, and no longer a mercenary contract. To speak with ill language against the dead as well as the living, was made a crime, and the legislator wished that the character of his fellow-citizens should be freed from the aspersions of malevolence and envy. A person that had no children was permitted to dispose of his estates as he pleased, and the females were not allowed to be extravagant in their dress or expenses. To be guilty of adultery was a capital crime, and the friend and associate of lewdness and debauchery was never permitted to speak in public, for, as the philosopher observed, a man who has no shame, is not capable of being intrusted with the people. These celebrated laws were engraven on several tables, and that they might be better known and more familiar to the Athenians, they were written in verse. The indignation which Solon expressed on seeing the tragical representations of Thespis, is well known, and he sternly observed, that if falsehood and fiction were tolerated on the stage, they would soon find their way among the common occupations of men. According to Plutarch, Solon was reconciled to Pisistratus; but this seems to be false, as the legislator refused to live in a country where the privileges of his fellow-citizens were trampled upon by the usurpation of a tyrant. See: [Lycurgus]. Plutarch, Solon.—Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 29.—Diogenes Laërtius, bk. 1.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 40.—Cicero.
Solona, a town of Gaul Cispadana on the Utens.
Solonium, a town of Latium on the borders of Etruria. Plutarch, Caius Marius.—Cicero, de Divinatione, bk. 1.
Solva, a town of Noricum.