Wherefore he hied him home again, and took his weapons out of his house, and laid them before his gate in the midst of the street, saying: “For my part, I have done what I can possible, to help and defend the laws and liberties of my country.”
So from that time he betook himself unto his ease, and never after dealt any more in matters of state, or commonweal. His friends did counsel him to fly: but all they could not persuade him to it. For he kept his house, and gave himself to make verses, in which he sore reproved the Athenians’ faults. His friends hereupon did warn him to beware of such speeches, and to take heed what he said, lest if it came unto the tyrant’s ears, he might put him to death for it. And further, they asked him wherein he trusted, that he spake so boldly. He answered them, “In my age.”
Howbeit Pisistratus, after he had obtained his purpose, sending for him upon his word and faith, did honour and entertain him so well, that Solon in the end became one of his council, and approved many things which he did.
Solon lived a long time after Pisistratus had usurped the tyranny, as Heraclides Ponticus writeth. Howbeit Phanias Ephesian writeth, that he lived not above two years after.[d]
A MODERN VIEW OF SOLONIAN LAWS AND CONSTITUTION
As a recent summing up of Solon, we may quote Professor Bury:
“He was a poet, not because he was poetically inspired, like the Parian Archilochus of an earlier, or the Lesbian Sappho of his own, generation; but because at that time every man of letters was a poet; there was no prose literature. A hundred years later Solon would have used prose as the vehicle of his thought. We are fortunate enough to possess portions of poems—political pamphlets—which he published for the purpose of guiding public opinion; and thus we have his view of the situation in his own words.
“The character of the remedial measures of Solon is imperfectly known. His title to fame as one of the great statesmen of Europe rests upon his reform of the constitution. He discovered a secret of democracy, and he used his discovery to build up the constitution on democratic foundations. The Athenian commonwealth did not actually become a democracy till many years later. The radical measure of Solon, which was the very corner-stone of the Athenian democracy, was his constitution of the courts of justice. He composed the law courts out of all the citizens, including the Thetes; and as the panels of judges were enrolled by lot, the poorest burgher might have his turn. The constitution of the judicial courts out of the whole people was the secret of democracy which Solon discovered.
“It was the fate of Solon to live long enough to see the establishment of the tyranny which he dreaded. We know not what part he had taken in the troubled world of politics since his return to Athens. The story was invented that he called upon the citizens to arm themselves against the tyrant, but called in vain; and that then, laying his arms outside the threshold of his house, he cried, ‘I have aided, so far as I could, my country and the constitution, and I appeal to others to do likewise.’ Nor has the story that he refused to live under a tyranny and sought refuge with his Cyprian friend the king of Soli, any good foundation. We know only that in his later years he enjoyed the pleasures of wine and love, and that he survived but a short time the seizure of the tyranny by Pisistratus, who at least treated the old man with respect.”[e]