The Athenians punished Megacles for this treacherous deed, for he and the family to which he belonged were banished from Athens, while their property was seized by the State. It is told that the city lay under a curse after the treacherous deed of Megacles, nor was she freed from it until a priest purified her with solemn religious rites.
Cylon had neither gained his own ends nor had he helped the people by his rebellion.
Poverty and debt were hard to bear, yet these the citizens might now have suffered in silence, but injustice drove them to demand that the laws should be reformed. For the archons punished as they pleased those who disobeyed the law, and at the courts, sentence was often passed in favour of those who had bribed or befriended the judge.
When the people rose in 621 B.C. demanding that justice should be done in the land, the task of reforming the laws was entrusted to one of the archons named Draco.
Until now the laws had not been written, and so many of them were unknown to the people. Draco ordered that the laws should be inscribed on tablets that they might be read by the people. Sometimes he was blamed for the severity of these laws, although all he had done was to make them known.
But the code of laws which Draco drew up was so severe that in later days, as the Athenians read them, they exclaimed in horror, ‘The laws of Draco seem to have been written in blood rather than with ink.’ And indeed there was cause for dismay when the theft of a cabbage was punished with death. Draco was thus of little real help to the poor people of Athens.
CHAPTER XXX
SOLON FREES THE SLAVES
Solon, the wise lawgiver of Athens, was a descendant of King Codrus. His father had given away most of his wealth to help his city or his countrymen, so Solon became a merchant, as the sons of noblemen often did in these days of long ago. To increase his business, Solon journeyed through many of the states of Greece as well as to Asia. Wherever he went he studied the laws and manners of the people, just as Lycurgus the lawgiver of Sparta had done.
Solon was not only a merchant, he was also a poet, and because he was both wise and learned he was counted one of the seven sages of Greece.