d
himself. For these persons borrowed money and bought up a large amount
of land, and so when, a short time afterwards, all debts were
cancelled, they became wealthy; and this, they say, was the origin of
the families which were afterwards looked on as having been wealthy
from primeval times. However, the story of the popular party is by far
the most probable. A man who was so moderate and public-spirited in all
his other actions, that when it was within his power to put his
fellow-citizens beneath his feet and establish himself as tyrant, he
preferred instead to incur the hostility of both parties by placing his
honour and the general welfare above his personal aggrandisement, is
not likely to have consented to defile his hands by such a petty and
palpable fraud. That he had this absolute power is, in the first place,
indicated by the desperate condition the country; moreover, he mentions
it himself repeatedly in his poems, and it is universally admitted. We
are therefore bound to consider this accusation to be false.

Part 7

Next Solon drew up a constitution and enacted new laws; and the
ordinances of Draco ceased to be used, with the exception of those
relating to murder. The laws were inscribed on the wooden stands, and
set up in the King's Porch, and all swore to obey them; and the nine
Archons made oath upon the stone, declaring that they would dedicate a
golden statue if they should transgress any of them. This is the origin
of the oath to that effect which they take to the present day. Solon
ratified his laws for a hundred years; and the following was the
fashion in which he organized the constitution. He divided the
population according to property into four classes, just as it had been
divided before, namely, Pentacosiomedimni, Knights, Zeugitae, and
Thetes. The various magistracies, namely, the nine Archons, the
Treasurers, the Commissioners for Public Contracts (Poletae), the
Eleven, and Clerks (Colacretae), he assigned to the Pentacosiomedimni,
the Knights, and the Zeugitae, giving offices to each class in
proportion to the value of their rateable property. To who ranked among
the Thetes he gave nothing but a place in the Assembly and in the
juries. A man had to rank as a Pentacosiomedimnus if he made, from his
own land, five hundred measures, whether liquid or solid. Those ranked
as Knights who made three hundred measures, or, as some say, those who
were able to maintain a horse. In support of the l