Page:The City-State of the Greeks and Romans.djvu/182

158 occupation; yet the progress continued, steady and sure as ever. "We must rather look for an explanation to that quality of her people which we saw exemplified so admirably in Solon, and which the student of her literature and art ever contemplates with delight; I mean the sanity, the reasonableness, of the Athenians and their leading men. I have pointed out how Solon's work was reasonable, because it embraced in one series of laws, social and economic, as well as political, reform; in all his legislation he was animated by the same reasonable object of developing the resources of the State in due proportion and harmony. The same quality is to be noted even in the tyranny which followed. Little as we know of the government of Pisistratus, it is quite enough to convince us that under this absolutism Athens was not, like so many other States, swept into a back-current, or left floating idle and exhausted. Pisistratus did not abolish Solon's laws, nor did he play false to the spirit which dictated them. On this point Thucydides is emphatic; let me quote his exact words.

"The general character of his administration was not unpopular or oppressive to the many; in fact no tyrants ever displayed greater merit or capacity than these. Though the tax which they exacted amounted only to five per cent., they improved and adorned the city. ... The city was permitted to retain her ancient laws, the Pisistratidæ only taking care that one of themselves should always be in office."