Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/172

 156 HISTORY OF GREECE. posed formally to the ekklesia, the pro-bouleutic senate, being composed of friends of Peisistratus, had previously authorized the proposition, 1 that a company of fifty club-men should be assigned as a permanent body-guard for the defence of Peisistra- tus. To this motion Solon opposed a strenuous resistance, 2 but found himself overborne, and even treated as if he had lost his senses. The poor were earnest in favor of it, while the rich were afraid to express their dissent ; and he could only comfort himself, after the fatal vote had been passed, by exclaiming that he was wiser than the former and more determined than the latter. Such was one of the first known instances in which this memorable stratagem was played off" against the liberty of a Grecian com- munity. The unbounded popular favor which had procured the passing of this grant, was still farther manifested by the absence of all precautions to prevent the limits of the grant from being exceed- ed. The number of the body-guard was not long confined to fifty, and probably their clubs were soon exchanged for sharpei weapons. Peisistratus thus found himself strong enough to throw off the mask and seize the acropolis. His leading opponents, Megakles and the Alkmaaonids, immediately fled the city, and it was left to the venerable age and undaunted patriotism of Solon to stand forward almost alone in a vain attempt to resist the usurpation. He publicly presented himself in the market-place, employing encouragement, remonstrance, and reproach, in order to rouse the spirit of the people. To prevent this despotism from coming, he told them would have been easy ; to shake it off now was more difficult, yet at the same time more glorious. 3 But he epoke in vain ; for all who were not actually favorable to Peisis- tratus listened only to their fears, and remained passive ; nor did any one join Solon, when, as a last appeal, he put on his armor and planted himself in military posture before the door of his house. " I have done my duty, he exclaimed at length ; I have sustained to the best of my power my country and the 1 Diog. Lai-rt. i, 49. f/ {iovhr), HeiffiarpaTitiai ovTff, etc. cd. Maii. Fr. xix-xxiy.
 * Plutarch, Solon, 29-30 ; Diog. Latfrt. i, 50-51.
 * Plutarch, Solon, 30 ; Diogen. Laiirt. i, 49 ; Diodor. Excerptu, lib. vii-x