Part I.

SOLON.
^ fufficient wherewithal to irlaintain them- ’ felves ; and withal, fo great llrength of Bo- ’ dy, that both were alike vitlors in the pub- ’ lick Games, of whom it is thus reporred j ’ the Argives celebrating the Fell ival of Jiino^ ’it wasneceffary their Mother fhould be drawn ’ to the Temple by a pair of Oxen, there be- ’ ing no Oxen in the Field ready, thele young. ’ Men , llreightned in time , underwent the ’ Yoke, and drew the Chariot of their Mother ’ forty five Stadia, till they came to the Tem- ■’ pie •, when they had fo done, in the fight of ’ all the People, they obtain’d the happieft end ’ of their days, whereby the God declared it ’ better for a Man to die than to live 5 thehlr- preffing about them, the Men applau- ’ding the Piety of the Sons j the Women the ’ happinels of the Mother •, the Mother her ’ felf infinitely joyed with the affion, and the ’ glory thereof^ ftanding before the Image, pray- ’ ed the Goddefs to give her Sons, Cleobis and ’ B 'lto^ the beft thing that could happen to Man ’ after this Prayer, having lacrificed and feafted”
’ they lay down to fleep in the Temple, and ’ never waked more, but fo ended their days ^
* their Images (as of mold excellent Perfbns)
’ were made by the Argives.^ and fet up at £)
* phi. Thefe Solon ranked the fecond Degree. Hereat Crcefus growing angry j Stranger ( laid he ) ’ doth our happinefs feem fo delpicable ’that you will not rank us equal with private
* Perfons ? He anfwered, Do you enquire Crco^ ^fus concerning humane affairs of me, who ’ know, that Divine Providcnc is levere and ’ full of alteration ? In procefs of time we lee
* many things we would not, we fulfer many ’ things we would not *, let us propofe feventy ’ years, as the term of Mans life, which years
* confift of twenty five thouland and two hun¬ dred days, befides the additional month, if ’ we make one year longer than another by
* that month, to make the time accord, the I
’ with all thing.s, fome it hath, others it wants,
I ’ that which hath moft is beft ^ fo in Men, no ’ one is perletf • what one hath, the other ’ w'ants j he who hath conftantly moft, and at ’ laid quietly departs this life, in opinion, O ’ King, deferves to bear that name. In every ^ thing we muft have regard to the end, whither ^ it tends-, for many, to whom God difpenfeth ’ ail good fortunes, he at laid utterly fubverrs.
This Story is related by Plutarch.^ allb menti¬ oned by Laeniur.^ who adds, that ’ Crcefus be- ’ ing magnificently adorned and feared one his ’ Throne, asked him. Whether he had ever feen ’ any thing more glorious ? who anfwered,
'‘^PheafantSy and Pcacoks.^ who are much more ’ beautiful in their natural flower, t Solon after f Umdot. his dilcourle with Crcefus^ not Ibothing him or making any efteem of him, was dilmifled,^ and accounted unwife for neglefting the pre- fent good in regard to the future. Mfdp^ the ^ Plut. Writer of Fables was at that time at Sardis.^ lent for thither by Crxfus.^ with whom he was much in favour he was grieved to fee Solon, fo un- thankfully dilinift, and laid to him, Solon.^ we muft either tell Kings nothing at all, or what may pleale them. No, laith Solon.^ either no¬ thing at all, or what is beft for them. Thus was Solon much delpiled by Crcefus.
t * Afterwards Crcefus being taken Prifoner t Herodou ’ by Cyrus was at his command fettered and let ’ upon a great Pile of Wood to be burned •• as ’ he was in this pofture, it came into his mind ’ vyhat Solon had divinely faid to him, that no ’ living Man is happy j as foon as he remem- ’ bred thefe words, he fell iiito a great def^dion ’of Spirit, and fighing deeply, Solon .
^ thrice, which Cyrus hearing, command e ‘ Interpreters to ask upon whom he called^ they ’went to him and asked, he was filent; at laft preffing him further, he anfwered, /a/;;? who I defire above all wealth.^ might have fpoken with all Tyrants 5 notwithftanding, after much
’ additional months, belonging to thole feventy preflure and importunity , he told them, So- ’ years, will be thirty five, the days of thole Ion an Athenian came long fince to him], and be- ’ months a thouland and fifty, whereof one is holding all his Wealth.^ valued it at nothing
* not in all things like another ; fo that every moreover.^ that all ivhich he told him had come to ’Man, OCr^^x, ismilerable! you ^appear to nor did it more belong to him. than to all ’ me very rich, and are King over many, h\it\Mankind.^efpecially,tothofe who think themfelves ’the queftion you demand, I cannot x^tohiQAhappy. ’ WhilftG'
* until I hear you have ended your days happi- r to kiftdle, and the outward parts the|‘eof to be ’ ly i he who hath much wealth is not happier | ’ leizied by the flame. Cyrus being' informed by ’ than he who gets his_ living from day to day, ’ an Interpreter of all that Crcefus had laid, be- ’unlels Fortune continuing all tlwle good j’gan to' relent, knowing himlelf to be' but a
* things to him, grant that he die well. There ’ are many Men very rich, yet unfortunate, ma- ’ ny of moderate Eftates, fortunate, of whom
* he who abounds in Wealth, and is not happy,
’ exceeds the fortunate only in two things, the ’ other him in many -, the rich is more able to ’ latisfie his defires, and to overcome great in- ’ juries -, yet the fortunate excels him, he can- ’ not indeed infliff hurt on others, and latisfie ’ his own defires. Ids good fortune debars him ’ of thele : but he is tree from ills, liealthful,
’ happy in his Children,and beautiful, if to this^ ’ a Man dies well, tltat is he whom you feek, | ’ who deferves to be called happy ^ before * ’ death he cannot be ftil’d happy, but fortunate ^
’ yet for one Man to obtain all this is impoifi- *ble, as one Country cannot fiirnilh it fell
Man, wfto delivered another Man, nothing ’ inferiouf to him in Wealth, to be burned a- ’ live,* fearing to be punilhed for that' ’aft, and ’ confidering that nothing was certain in human ; ’ affairs, he commanded the fire to.be iiiftanriy ’ quenched, and CrafusjZxA thole that were 'with ' ’ him to be brought off ^ ^ whom’^ever after as * long as he lived, he had in efteem. ft'huS 5(7^;; gained praife, that of two Kings, his fpeech prelerved one, and inftrufted the other.
relates this done in the former ten years travel of Solon., upon the finifhingof his Laws, Whence he maketh an Apology for the incongruity, thereof with the rule's of Chrono- , logy, which had lels needed, if with Laertius, he had placed it after Ptfljiratus his ufurpation of the Tyranny.
Laertius
30
SOLON.
PaFxT 1-
Laertius faith, he went from hence to Cilicia^ and built there a City called after him Solck.^ whither he brought alfo fome few Athenians^ whofe Language growing corrupt by that of the Country, they were faid to foloecife 3 of this is the Etymologift doubtlefs to be underlfood, who derives SiAewi hm mKav kikixIuv (fo read we, not hn %hKuv©- KthtH. ) This is alfo at- teffed by Suidatt ^ as a diftinfl relation from that of Cyprus.^\n confirmation whereof Laertius adds, the CUicians were called Solenjes^ the Cy- prians Solii.
t mt.
CHAP. XII.
His Death.
t riHt. t T T Eraclides affirms So/ou lived long after Fi-
* De longAvis, xl fijiratus began to Reign ^ ^ Lucian that
his life extended to a hundred years^with whom thofe beft agree, who faid ( as Suidas relates ) he lived in the fifty fixth Olympiad 3 t but ac¬ cording to Fhanictf, Pifilfratus tooA the Tyranny upon hintj when Comias was Archon^ a7id Solon died^ Hegeftratus being Archon^ who fuceeeded Comias, which was in the firji year oj the fifty fifth Olympiad. If this later opinion had not everywhere taken place of the other, thedifa greement betwixt the time of Solon’s Death, and Cr£fus Reign had not been urged by nrgny, as an argument againld the ftory of their meet¬ ing.
He died ( according to Laertius ) aged eighty Var. Hifl.d.ye'dis (being, as^AElian ikith, very decrepit ) in Cyprus., ( as is likewife attefted hy (Valerius jigaxmtis, and + ) and left order with
his Friends that they fhould carry his Bones to Salamis, and there caufing them to be burnt, fcatter the Allies all over the Country-, which Rory Fltnarch ( though he counts it fabulous ) acknowledgeth to be attefted by many Authors of credit, particularly Ariftotle. t Ltaru + Laertius confirms it by the teftimony of
Cratinus, who makes him fpeak thus :
The JJland I inhabit, fown
As fame reports in Ajax Town.
That defire of knowledge which he ufually j| VaU Max. profeft, continued with him to his end, t con- 8, 7.* firmed the laft day of his life, his Friends fit¬ ting about him, and falling into Ibme difcourle, he raifed his weary head, and being demanded why he did lb, he anfwered. That when I have learnt that, zvhatfoever it he, whereon you dif-
* 2p. j jnay die. ^ His Brothers Son finging an
Ode of Sappho, he delighted therewith, bad him that.
E7/«VSalamis, the Perfian pride caft down. And gave to Solon Bit'th, the favos renown.
Laertius beftows this Epigram upon him,
A Foreign Cyprian.^/r burned Solon, yet Salamis keeps his Bones, their Afhes IVheat His Soul to Heaven mounts with his Lavas Jo light
A burthen they not clog, but help his flight.
CHAP. XIII.
His Writings.
I
HIS excellency both in Rhetorick and Poe¬ try is attefted by many : Cicero, f ‘ Be- 1 ‘ fore Solon’s time, no Man is recorded for Elo- ‘ quence. ^ And again, Lycurgus, and Solon we * DeOrat.lib.i. ‘ place in the number of the Eloquent. \\ Dion, H ‘ Chryfoflom, Arijiides, Lycutgus, Solon, Epa- minondns, and if there be any other of the ‘ fame kind, ought to be efteemed Philofophers Mn the Common-wealth, or Orators, accord- ‘ ing to ingenious true Rhetorick. g Mfides .
‘ Solon IS faid to have fung thofe things which ‘ concern the Megarenfes, but neither his .Laws ‘ nor Orations, which fometimes he made for ‘ the Rich to the Commons, fometimes for the ‘ Commons to the Rich, did he fing or comprile ‘in Verle, but ufed a Rhetorical fbrm, excel- ‘lently demonftrating in all thefe,-that he de- ‘ferved to be efteemed an Orator and a wile ‘ Man, having attained both thofe titles and ‘ faculties.
As to Poetry, Flutarch avers, ‘ he addiHed ‘ himfelf thereto from the beginning, not in fe- ‘ rioiis matters, but ludicrous, ufed ( as itleems) .
‘ for his exercile and paftime ^ afterwards he included many Philolbphical Sentences in ‘ Verle, and many affairs of State, not in rela- ‘ lation to Hiftory, but to vindicate his own ‘ aHions, fometimes allb to correH and reprove ‘ the Athenians. Flato faith, ‘ \\ That at the II in Timsa.
‘ Apaturian Feaft, the Boys ufed to repeat his II ‘ Poems i and that if he applied himfelf to no- ‘ thing but Poetry as others did, and had finilh- ‘ ed the Hiftory he brought out of Egypt, and ‘ had not been conftrained by leditions and other ‘ diftraHions to lay alide thatftudy, neither He- Jiod, Homer, nor any of the Poets would have been more famous.
Of his Writings in Profc, we muft with La- ertius name in the firft place his Laws -, of which already.
Orations tothe Feople.
His Foems are cited under that general title teach him it, and being demanded why, j by '^Fhrynicus, their particular fubjebts and faid he, I may learn whilji' I depart out of titles thefe.
this life.
After his Death, the Athenians ereHed his ^■Faufan. Attic. Statue in Brafs, before the t checker’d Cloi- * Demofth. in u- Forum .* Another was fet up at Sa¬ lamis, hiding ( as Demojlhenes and JEfchines defcribe it ) the Hand within the Garment, in
Arili.2./£lian. var. hift, 8. 1 5,
Exhortations to himfelf, mentioned by Laer¬ tius, H Arijiides, and Suidas.
Elegies.
Salamis : of which Chap. 2.
Of the Athenian Comma n-iaealth, which La¬ ertius affirms to have
jj F.ci]g. an.
Attic.
!| In OrJt.
to nave extended to two thou-
the lame habit wherein he ufed to make | land Verfes, according to t and and|
Speeches to the Athenians, perhaps the lame \Fhilo, Elegiack. ^ ^ "
that carried this Infcription,
lambicks, mentioned by Athenxus and Arifiides.
Laertius, cited by
KQ
Epodes,