Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/114

 93 HISTORY OF GKKKCK. to bear iu mind that at this early day, so far as our knowledg* goes, democratical government was a thing unknown in Greece 5 all Grecian governments were either oligarchical or despotic, the mass of the freemen having not yet tasted of constitutional privilege. His own friends and supporters were the first to urge him, while redressing the prevalent discontents, to multiply par- tisans for himself personally, and seize the supreme power : they even " chid him as a madman, for declining to haul up the net when the fish were already enmeshed." * The mass of the people, in despair with their lot, would gladly have seconded him in such an attempt, and many even among the oligarchy might have acquiesced in his personal government, from the mere apprehension of something worse, if they resisted it. That Solon might easily have made himself despot, admits of little doubt ; and though the position of a Greek despot was always perilous, he would have had greater facility for maintaining him- self in it than Peisistratus possessed after him ; so that nothing but the combination of prudence and virtue which marks his lofty character, restricted him within the trust specially confided to him. To the surprise of every one, to the dissatisfaction of his own friends, under the complaints alike, as he says, of various extreme and dissentient parties, who required him to adopt measures fatal to the peace of society, 2 he set himself honestly to solve the very difficult and critical problem submitted to him. Of all grievances, the most urgent was the condition of the poorer class of debtors ; and to their relief Solon's first measure, the memorable seisachtheia, or shaking off of burdens, was 1 See Plutarch, Solon, 14 ; and above all the Trochaic tetrameters of Soloa nimself, addressed to Phokus, Fr. 24-26, Schneidewin : OVK E(j>v 'Lo'Xuv fiadvQpov, ovde ftovM/eic avf/p, 'Eff$3.u yap tfeoC duWrof, atrdf OVK eJefaro. rLepifiahuv J' uypav, aj>a(r&ei<; OVK avEa^aaev fiey a AIKTVOV, dvpov i?' apapTrj /cat Qpevtiv inroaakei( 1 Aristides, Uepi rov llapa^^ey/zarof, ii, p. 397 ; and Fragm. 23, Schn., of the Iambics of Solon : el yap fj&el.ov "A rotf kvavTioiaiv qvdavev Tore, 5' a reimv urepotf dpuaai. .... uv uvfytiv T t y I