Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/200

 156 OntliJies of Europe cm History Fig. 79. Monument of the Tyrant- Slayers OF Athens, Harmodius AND ArISTOGITON On the slopes of the Areopagus (see plan, p. 173, and Fig. 91) overlooking the market place, the Athenians set up this group, depicting at the moment of attack the two heroic youths who lost their lives in an attempt to slay the two sons of Pisistratus and to free Athens from the two tyrants (514 B.C.) (p. 157). The group was carried off by the Persians after the battle of Salamis ; the Athenians had another made to replace the first one. It was afterward recovered in Persia by Alexander or his successors and restored to its old place where both groups stood side by side. Our illustration is an an- cient copy in marble, probably reproduc- ing the later of the two groups Further, he proclaimed a constitution which gave all but the very lowest classes a voice in the control of the State. It was not democratic, for it recognized an aristocracy of wealth as well as the old aristocracy of birth. It created a new class made up of the richest nobles, with an income of at least five hundred measures of grain, oil, and wine. As they paid the highest taxes, these nobles held the treasury offices, leaving to other nobles the remaining high offices ; but the humblest free craftsman could vote in the Assembly of the people. Otherwise the es- tablished institutions were little changed by Solon. He left also a written code of law by which all free men were for the first time given equal rights in the courts. Some of these laws have de- scended to our own time and are still in force. Solon is the first great Greek statesman of whom