Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/358

 352 THE REVOLUTIONS. BOOK IV. Paralii, — the ownership of the soil tempted tliem less; they ha«l the sea before them, and commerce, and trade. Several had become rich, and with riches they were neaily free. They therefore did not share the ardent desire of the Diacrii, and did not feel any vigorous hatred of the Eupatrids. They had not, however, the base resignation of the Pedieis; they demanded more stability in their condition, and better assured rights. Solon satisfied these wishes so far as was possible. There is a part of the work of this legislator which the ancients have very imperfectly explained to us, but which appears to have been the principal part of it. Before his time, the greater part of the inhabitants of Attica still held but a precarious possession of the soil, and might be reduced to personal servitude. After him this class was no longer found ; the right of prop- erty was accessible to all ; there was no longer any slavery for the Athenian; the fimilies of the lower classes were forever freed from the authority of the Eupatrid families. Here was a great change, whose author could be no other than Solon. According to Plutarch's account, it is true, Solon did no more than to solten the rigor of the law of debt by abolishing the right of the creditor to enslave the debtor. But we should carefully examine what a writer so long after this period says of those debts that troubled the Athenian city, as well as all the cities of Greece and Italy. It is difficult to believe that before Solon there was so great a circulation of money that there were many borrowers and lenders. We are not to judge those times by the period that followed. There was at that time very little commerce; bills of exchange were unknown, and credits must have been very rare. On what security could a man borrow who