SOLON AND POPLICOLA.

I. It is a point peculiar to this comparison, and which does not occur
in any of the other Lives which I have written, that in turn one
imitates and the other bears witness to his fellow's deeds. Observe, for
instance, Solon's definition of happiness before Croesus, how much
better it suits Poplicola than Tellus. He says that Tellus was fortunate
because of his good luck, his virtue, and his noble children; but yet he
makes no mention of him or of his children in his poetry, and he never
was a man of any renown, or held any high office.

Now Poplicola's virtues made him the most powerful and glorious of the
Romans during his life, and six hundred years after his death the very
noblest families of Rome, those named Publicola and Messala and
Valerius, are proud to trace their descent from him, even at the present
day. Tellus, it is true, died like a brave man fighting in the ranks,
but Poplicola slew his enemies, which is much better than being killed
oneself, and made his country victorious by skill as a general and a
statesman, and, after triumphing and enjoying honours of every kind,
died the death which Solon thought so enviable. Besides, Solon, in his
answer to Mimnermus about the time of life, has written the verses:

"To me may favouring Heaven send,
That all my friends may mourn my end,"

in which he bears witness to the good fortune of Poplicola; for he, when
he died, was mourned not only by all his friends and relations but by
the whole city, in which thousands wept for him, while all the women
wore mourning for him as if he were a son or father of them all that
they had lost.

Solon says in his poems,

"I long for wealth, but not procured
By means unholy."

Now Poplicola not only possessed wealth honourably acquired, but also
was able to spend it, much to his credit, in relieving the needy. Thus
if Solon was the wisest, Poplicola was certainly the most fortunate of
men; for what Solon prayed for as the greatest blessing, Poplicola
possessed and enjoyed to the end of his days.

II. Thus has Solon done honour to Poplicola; and he again honoured Solon
by regarding him as the best model a man could follow in establishing a
free constitution: for he took away the excessive power and dignity of
the consuls and made them inoffensive to the people, and indeed made use
of many of Solon's own laws; as he empowered the people to elect their
own consuls, and gave defendants