totle, as well as other authors of credit,
repeated
(See, also, Thiersch, Epocken, p.
William Smith - 1844 - Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities - c
Timarch.
p.
706) and Aeschines
Athenians in the age of unmitigated democracy (cont. Ctes. p. 429) mention, in connection with
were extremely fond of speaking of all their in- this procedure, as one of the regulations appointed
stitutions either as originated by Solon, or as the by Solon to be observed by the proposer of a new
natural expansion and application of his principles. or amended law, that he should post up his pro-
Some even carried them back to Theseus. The posed law before the Eponymi, that is, the statues
orators of course were not slow to fall in with this of the ten heroes from whom the ten tribes of
popular prejudice, and various palpable anachronisms Cleisthenes derived their names (comp. Grote, l. c.
in their statements show how little reliance can be p. 163).
placed on any accoun of the institutions of Solon Besides the arrangement of the general political
that come from such a source. For instance, the relations of the people Solon was the author of a
oath of the Heliastic dicasts, which is quoted by great variety of special laws, which do not seem
Demosthenes and ascribed to Solon (cont. Timocr. to have been arranged in any systematic manner.
p. 746), mentions the Cleisthenean senate of Five Those relating to debtors and creditors have been
hundred. Several other curious examples of simi- already referred to. Several had for their object
lar anachronisms are collected by Mr. Grote (vol. the encouragement of trade and manufactures.
iii. p. 163, note 1) who has some excellent re- Foreign settlers were not to be naturalized as
marks on the practice of connecting the name of citizens unless they carried on some industrious
Solon with the whole political and judicial state of pursuit. If a father did not teach his son some
Athens, as it existed between the age of Pericles | trade or profession, the son was not liable to main-
## p. 862 (#878) ############################################
862
SOLON.
SOLON.
c
tain his father in his old age. The council of the Greeks months of 29 and 30 days alternately.
Areiopagus had a general power to punish idleness. He also thinks that this was accompanied by the
Solon forbade the exportation of all produce of the introduction of the Trieteris or two-year cycle.
Attic soil except olive oil. The impulse which he We have more than one statement to the effect
gave to the various branches of industry carried on that Solon exacted from the government and people
in towns had eventually an important bearing upon of Athens a solemn oath, that they would observe
the development of the democratic spirit in Athens. his laws without alteration for a certain space -
(Plut. Sol. 22, 24. ) Solon was the first who gave 10 years according to Herodotus (i. 29), - 100
to those who died childless the power of disposing years according to other accounts (Plut. Sol. 25).
of their property by will. He enacted several According to a story told by Plutarch (Sol. 15),
laws relating to marriage, especially with regard to Solon was himself aware that he had been com-
heiresses (Plut. Sol. 20). Other regulations were pelled to leave many imperfections in his system
intended to place restraints upon the female sex and code. He is said to have spoken of his laws
with regard to their appearance in public, and as being not the best, but the best which the
especially to repress frantic and excessive mani. Athenians would have received. After he had
festations of grief at funerals (l. c. 21). An adulo completed his task, heing, we are told, greatly an-
terer taken in the act might be killed on the spot, noyed and troubled by those who came to him
but the violation of a free woman was only punish with all kinds of complaints, suggestions or criti-
able by a fine of one hundred drachmae, the seduc- cisms about his laws, in order that he might not
tion of a free woman by a fine of twenty drachmae bimself have to propose any change, he absented
(l. c. 23). Other laws will be found in Plutarch himself from Athens for ten years, after he had
respecting the speaking evil either of the dead or obtained the oath above referred to. He first
of the living, respecting the use of wells, the plant visited Egypt, and conversed with two learned
ing of trees in conterminous properties, the des- Egyptian priests — Psenophis of Heliopolis, and
truction of noxious animals, &c. (l. c. 21, 23, 24. Sonchis of Sais. The stories which they told him
Comp. Diog. Laërt i. 55, &c. ). The rewards which about the submerged island of Atlantis, and the
he appointed to be given to victors at the Olympic war carried on against it by Athens 9000 years
and Isthmian games are for that age unusually before his time, induced him to make it the sub-
large (500 drachmae to the former and 100 to the ject of an epic poem, which, however, he did
latter). The law relating to theft, that the thief not complete, and of which nothing now remains.
should restore twice the value of the thing stolen, From Egypt he proceeded to Cyprus, and was
seems to have been due to Solon. (Dict. of Ant. received with great distinction by Philocyprus,
art. Konñs dikn). He also either established or king of the little town of Aepeia. Solon persuaded
regulated the public dinners at the Prytaneium. the king to remove from the old site, which was
(Plut. Sol. 24. ) One of the most curious of his on an inconvenient and precipitous elevation, and
regulations was that which denounced atimia build a new town on the plain. He himself as-
against any citizen, who, on the outbreak of a sisted in laying out the plan. The new settle-
sedition, remained neutral. On the design of this ment was called Soli, in honour of the illustrious
enactment to shorten as much as possible any sus- visitor. A fragment of an elegiac poem addressed
pension of legal authority, and its connection with by Solon to Philocyprus is preserved by Plutarch
the ostracism, the reader will find some ingenious (Sol. 26 ; Bergk, 1. c. p. 3:25). We learn from
and able remarks in Grote (l. c. iii. p. 190, &c. ). Herodotus (v. 113) that in this poem Solon be-
The laws of Solon were inscribed on wooden rollers stowed the greatest praise upon Philocyprus. The
(a toves) and triangular tablets (Kúpbeus), in the statement of the blundering Diogenes Laërtius
Bovotpoondóv fashion, and were set up at first in (i. 51, 62) that Solon founded Soli in Cilicia, and
the Acropolis, afterwards in the Prytaneium. (Plut. died in Cyprus, may be rejected without hesi-
Sol. 25; Harpocr. s. vv. Kúpbels - Kátwdev tation.
vóuos ; Pollux, viii. & 128 ; Suidas, s. vv. )
It is impossible not to regret that the stern laws
The Athenians were also indebted to Solon for of chronology compel us to set down as a fiction
some rectification of the calendar. Diogenes Laër- the beautiful story so beautifully told by Hero-
tius (i. 59) says that “he made the Athenians dotus (i. 29–45, 86 ; comp. Plut. Sul. 27, 28) of
regulate their days according to the moon,” that is the interview between Solon and Croesus, and the
to say, he introduced some division of time agreeing illustration furnished in the history of the latter of
more accurately with the course of the moon. the truth of the maxim of the Athenian sage, that
Plutarch (Sol. 25) gives the following very confused worldly prosperity is precarious, and that no man's
account of the matter: “Since Solon observed the life can be pronounced happy till he has reached
irregularity of the moon, and saw that its motion its close without a reverse of fortune (CROESUS).
does not coincide completely either with the setting For though it may be made out that it is just
or with the rising of the sun, but that it often on within the limits of possibility that Solon and
the same day both overtakes and passes the sun, Croesus may have met a few years before B. C. 560,
he ordained that this day should be called evn kal that could not have been an interview consistent
véa, considering that the portion of it which pre- with any of the circumstances mentioned by Hero-
ceded the conjunction belonged to the month that dotus, and without which the story of the inter-
was ending, the rest to that which was beginning. view would be entirely devoid of any interest that
The succeeding day he called vouunvía. ” Accord-could make it worth while attempting to establish
ing to the scholiast on Aristophanes (Nub. 1129) its possibility. The whole pith and force of the
Solon introduced the practice of reckoning the days story would vanish if any interview of an earlier
from the twentieth onwards in the reverse order. date be substituted for that which the episode in
Ideler (Handbuch der Chronologie, vol. i. p. 266, &c. ) Herodotus requires, namely one taking place when
gathers from the notices that we have on the sub- Croesus was king (Mr. Grote, l. c. p. 199 shows
ject, that Solon was the first who introduced among that it is a mere gratuitous hypothesis to make
## p. 863 (#879) ############################################
SOLON.
863
SOPATER,
SISTRATUS,
Croesus joint king with his father), at the height arrangement of the Homeric poems, sec the article
of his power, when he had a son old cnough to be HOMERUS (p. 507).
married and command armies, and immediately The story told by Plutarch (Sol. 29, comp.
preceding the turn of his fortunes, not more than Diog. Laërt
. i. 59) respecting Solun and Thespis
seven or eight years before the capture of Sardis. cannot be true, since dramatic entertainments were
“In my judgment,” observes Mr. Grote, “this is not introduced into Athens till 20 years (B. C. 535)
an illustrative tale, in which certain real characters after Solon's death. It is related that Solon
--Solon and Croesus, ----and certain real facts — asked Thespis, after witnessing one of his pieces,
the great power and slicceeding ruin of the former if he was not ashamed of telling such untruths
by the victorious arm of Cyrus, together with before so large an audience. Thespis replied, that
certain facts altogether fictitious, such as the two as it was done for amusement only, there was no
Bons of Croesus, the Phrygian Adrastus and his harm in saying and doing such things. Which
history, the hunting of the mischievous wild boar answer incensed Solon so much that he struck the
on Mount Olympus, the ultimate preservation of ground vehemently with his staff, and said that if
Croesus, &c. are put together so as to convey an such amusement as that were to be praised and
impressive moral lesson. "
honoured, men would soon begin to regard cove-
During the absence of Solon the old oligarchical nants as nothing more than a joke.
disscnsions were renewed, the Pedieis being headed An inscription on a statue set up in honour of
by Lycurgus, the Parali by Megncles, the Diacrii Solon spoke of him as born in Salamis (Diog.
by Peisistratus. These dissensions were approach. Laërt. i. 62, ib. Menage). This can hardly have
ing a crisis when Solon returned to Athens, and been the case, as Salamis was not incorporated
had proceeded to such a length that he found him with Attica when he was born. The statue was set
self unable to repress them. For an account of up a long time after Solon's death, and probably
the successful machinations of Peisistratus, and the by the Salaminians themselves. (Piut. Solon. ;
unsuccessful endeavours of Solon to counteract Diog. Laërt. i. 45, &c. ; K. F. Hermann, Lehrbuch
them, the reader is referred to the article Pei- der griech. Staatsalterth. SS 106—109; Grote, Hist.
The tyrant, after his usurpation, is of Greece, vol. iii. c. xi. ; Thirlwall, Hist. of Greece,
said to have paid considerable court to Solon, and vol. ii. pp. ?
. 27—56. )
(C. P. M. ]
on various occasions to have solicited his advice, SOLON, a gem engraver, who probably lived
which Solon did not withhold. We do not know under Augustus, at the same time as Dioscorides,
certainly how long Solon survived the overthrow with whom he may perhaps be considered to divide
of the constitution. According to Phanias of Les- the honour of being the founder of the succession
bos (Plut. Sol. 32), he died in less than two years of gem engravers, who lived under the early Roman
after. There seems nothing to hinder us from ac- emperors, and whose numerous and beautiful works
cepting the statement that he had reached the age now fill the cabinets of Europe. There is no mention
of eighty (Diog. Laërt. i. 62). There was a story made of Solon in any ancient writer, but his name
current in antiquity that, by his own directions, occurs on several gems. A complete account of his
his ashes were collected and scattered round the works, with references to the other writers by whom
island of Salamis. Plutarch discards this story as they have been described, is given in Nagler's
absurd. He himself remarks, however, that Aris- Neues Allgemeines Künstler-Lexicon, vol xvii. s. v.
totle, as well as other authors of credit, repeated (See, also, Thiersch, Epocken, p. 304 ; Müller,
it. Diogenes Laërtius (i. 62) quotes some lines Archäol. d. Kunst, $ 200, n. 1. ) [P. S. )
of Cratinus in which it is alluded to. The sin- SOLON, JUʻLIUS, a man of the lowest origin,
gularity of it is rather an argument in its favour. purchased the rank of senator from Cleander, the
Of the
poems of Solon several fragments remain. favourite of Commodus, by the surrender of all his
They do not indicate any great degree of imagina- property. He was afterwards put to death by
tive power, but the style of them seems to have Septimius Severus at the commencement of his reign,
been vigorous and simple. Those that were called although he had himself drawn up a decree of the
forth by special emergencies appear to have been senate at the request of the emperor, enacting that
marked by no small degree of energy. Solon is no senator should be put to death (Dion Cass.
said to have attempted a metrical version of his lxxii. 12, lxxiv. 2, and Excerp. Vatic. ed. Maii,
laws, and a couple of lines are quoted as the com- p. 225).
mencement of this composition ; but nothing more SOMIS (Pwuis), the artist who made the bronze
of it remains. (Plut. Sol. 3). Here and there, even statue of Procles the son of Lycastidas, of An-
in the fragments that remain, sentiments are ex- dros, an Olympic victor in the boys' wrestling.
pressed of a somewhat more jovial kind than the (Paus. vi. 14. § 5. s. 13. ) From the connection
rest. These are probably relics of youthful effu- in which the passage stands in Pausanias, it may be
sions. Some traced them, as well as Solon's some inferred with probability, though not with certainty,
what luxurious style of living, to the bad habits that Somis was contemporary with Stomius about
which he had contracted while following the pro- the beginning of the fifth century B. C. (Thiersch,
fession of a trader. (Plut. Sol. 3. ) The fragments Epochen, p. 202 ; comp. Stomius. ) [P. S. )
of Solon are usually incorporated in the collections SOMNUS, the personification and god of sleep,
of the Greek gnomic poets, as, for example, in the Greek Hypnos, is described by the ancients as
those of Sylburg, Brunck, and Boissonade. They a brother of Death (Jávatos), and as a son of
are also inserted in Bergk's Poetae Lyrici Graeci. Night (Hes. Theog. 211, &c. ; Virg. Aen. vi. 277).
There is also a separate edition by Bach (Lugd. At Sicyon there was a statue of Sleep surnamed
Bat. 1825). The select correspondence of Solon é úths, the giver (Paus. ii. 10. § 2). In works
with Periander, Peisistratus, Epimenides, and of art Sleep and Death are represented alike as two
Croesus, with which Diogenes Laërtius has fa- youths sleeping or holding inverted torches in
voured us, is of course spurious.
their hands. (Comp. THANATOS. ) [L. S. )
Respecting the connection of Solon with the SO'PATER (Lúnatpos), historical. l. One of
## p. 864 (#880) ############################################
864
SOPATER.
SOPHAGASENUS.
the generals elected by the Syracusans on the mur- 3. The younger sophist, of Apamea, or of Alex.
der of Hieronymus in B. c. 215 (Liv. xxiv. 23, 25). andria, is supposed to have lived about two hundred
2. A general of Philip V. , king of Macedonia, years later than the former. Suidas tells us that
crossed over to Africa in B. C. 203, with a body of he wrote epitomes of numerous works, and that
4000 troops and some money, in order to assist the some ascribed to him the Historical Extracts
Carthaginians. He was taken prisoner by the (ektorliv twv iotopiwv), which, we may therefore
Romans, together with many of his soldiers, and infer, others attributed to the elder Sopater. Pho-
Philip sent an embassy to Romo to solicit their lius (Bill. Cod. 161) has preserved an abstract of
release. (Liv. xxx, 26, 42. )
tlis εκλογή, or, as he calls it, εκλογαί διάφοροι,
3. An Acarnanian, the commander of Philip's from which it appears that the work contained a
garrison at Chalcis, was slain with most of his vast variety of facts and figments, collected from
troops in B. c. 200. (Liv. xxxi. 23. )
a great number of authors. A list of the writers
4. One of the generals of Perseus, slain in battle quoted by Sopater is given by Fabricius (Bill.
with the Romans in B. c. 171. (Liv. xlii. 66. ) Graec. vol. x. pp. 720—722; comp. vol. ii. p. 321,
5. Two Sicilians of this name are mentioned vol. iii. p. 51, vol. iv. p. 250, and Vossius, de llisi.
by Cicero in his orations against Verres. (Cic. Gruec. p. 294, ed. Westermann).
Verr. ii. 28, iv. 39. )
The rhetorical and grammatical works under
SOPATER (Lúnatpos), literary. 1. Of Paphos, the name of Sopater are the following:-Oaspéoers
a writer of parody and burlesque (oa vakoypápos), Sntnuárwv, a classification and analysis of rhe-
who lived in the time of Alexander the Great, and torical themes, printed in the Aldine collection,
continued to flourish down to the reign of Ptolemy | Venet. 1508, folio ; a commentary on the part
II. , as Athenaeus (ii. 71, b. ) informs us, on the repi otáoew of the texvú pontopikń of Hermo-
authority of the poet himself: his period may genes, printed in the same collection ; and Prole-
therefore be regarded as the forty years from B. C. gomena to Aristeides, printed from a MS. in
323 to 283 (Clinton, F. H. vol. ii. s. a. 283). He the Bodleian Library in vol. i. of Jebb's edition
is frequently mentioned by Athenaeus, who occa- of Aristeides. All the remains of his rhetorical
sionally calls him Vários, which seems to be a nick- works are contained in vols. iv. , v. , and rjji. of
name, derived from the word parñ (lentile-porridge, Walz's Rhetores Graeci. (Fabric. Bill, Gruec. vol.
which appears to have been the title of one of So- vi. pp. 18, 73, 102, 138 ; Westermann, ad Voss.
pater's plays), and applied to him as a punning | l. c. . )
[P. S. ]
variation upon Ilápios. The following titles of his SOPHAE'NETUS (Eopalvetos), a native of
plays are preserved by Athenaeus and Suidas (s. v. ; Stymphalus in Arcadia, was a coniniander of mer-
Suidas has made the mistake of distinguishing two cenaries in the service of Cyrus the Younger,
Sopaters, the one a comedian and the other a whom he joined in his expedition against Arta-
parodist): - Baxxis, Baxxidos gáuos, Barxidos xerxes, in B. C. 401, with 1000 heavy-armed men.
μνηστήρες, Γαλάτσι, Εύβουλοθεόμβροτος, Ιππόλυ- In the following year, after the treacherous appre-
τος, Κνιδία, Μύσται, Μυστάκου Θητίον, Νεκυία, | heusion of Clearchus and the other principal
Ορέστης, Πύλαι, Σίλφαι, Φακή, Φυσιόλογος. (Fabric. I generals of the Cyreans, Sophaenetus and Cleanor
vol. ii. p. 492 ; Ulrici, Gesch. d. Hellen. Dichtk. were deputed to meet Ariaeus, and receive his
vol. ii. p. 325. )
explanation of the transaction. When the main
2. Of Apamea, a distinguished sophist, the head body of the Greeks, after their arrival on the
for some time of the school of Plotinus, was a disfrontier of the western Armenia, marched to dis-
ciple of lamblichus, after whose death (before A. D. lodge Teribazus from the defile where he meant to
330), he went to Constantinople, where he enjoyed intercept them, Sophaenetus remained behind in
the favour and personal friendship of Constantine, command of the troops that were left to guard the
who afterwards, however, put him to death, from camp. At Trapezus, Philesius and Sophaenetus,
the motive, as was alleged, of giving a proof of the being the oldest of the generals, were placed in
sincerity of his own conversion to Christianity command of the ships which were to sail to
(Sozom. H. E. i. 5; comp. the note of Valesius; Cerasus with the men above forty, and the women
Suid. s.
Athenians in the age of unmitigated democracy (cont. Ctes. p. 429) mention, in connection with
were extremely fond of speaking of all their in- this procedure, as one of the regulations appointed
stitutions either as originated by Solon, or as the by Solon to be observed by the proposer of a new
natural expansion and application of his principles. or amended law, that he should post up his pro-
Some even carried them back to Theseus. The posed law before the Eponymi, that is, the statues
orators of course were not slow to fall in with this of the ten heroes from whom the ten tribes of
popular prejudice, and various palpable anachronisms Cleisthenes derived their names (comp. Grote, l. c.
in their statements show how little reliance can be p. 163).
placed on any accoun of the institutions of Solon Besides the arrangement of the general political
that come from such a source. For instance, the relations of the people Solon was the author of a
oath of the Heliastic dicasts, which is quoted by great variety of special laws, which do not seem
Demosthenes and ascribed to Solon (cont. Timocr. to have been arranged in any systematic manner.
p. 746), mentions the Cleisthenean senate of Five Those relating to debtors and creditors have been
hundred. Several other curious examples of simi- already referred to. Several had for their object
lar anachronisms are collected by Mr. Grote (vol. the encouragement of trade and manufactures.
iii. p. 163, note 1) who has some excellent re- Foreign settlers were not to be naturalized as
marks on the practice of connecting the name of citizens unless they carried on some industrious
Solon with the whole political and judicial state of pursuit. If a father did not teach his son some
Athens, as it existed between the age of Pericles | trade or profession, the son was not liable to main-
## p. 862 (#878) ############################################
862
SOLON.
SOLON.
c
tain his father in his old age. The council of the Greeks months of 29 and 30 days alternately.
Areiopagus had a general power to punish idleness. He also thinks that this was accompanied by the
Solon forbade the exportation of all produce of the introduction of the Trieteris or two-year cycle.
Attic soil except olive oil. The impulse which he We have more than one statement to the effect
gave to the various branches of industry carried on that Solon exacted from the government and people
in towns had eventually an important bearing upon of Athens a solemn oath, that they would observe
the development of the democratic spirit in Athens. his laws without alteration for a certain space -
(Plut. Sol. 22, 24. ) Solon was the first who gave 10 years according to Herodotus (i. 29), - 100
to those who died childless the power of disposing years according to other accounts (Plut. Sol. 25).
of their property by will. He enacted several According to a story told by Plutarch (Sol. 15),
laws relating to marriage, especially with regard to Solon was himself aware that he had been com-
heiresses (Plut. Sol. 20). Other regulations were pelled to leave many imperfections in his system
intended to place restraints upon the female sex and code. He is said to have spoken of his laws
with regard to their appearance in public, and as being not the best, but the best which the
especially to repress frantic and excessive mani. Athenians would have received. After he had
festations of grief at funerals (l. c. 21). An adulo completed his task, heing, we are told, greatly an-
terer taken in the act might be killed on the spot, noyed and troubled by those who came to him
but the violation of a free woman was only punish with all kinds of complaints, suggestions or criti-
able by a fine of one hundred drachmae, the seduc- cisms about his laws, in order that he might not
tion of a free woman by a fine of twenty drachmae bimself have to propose any change, he absented
(l. c. 23). Other laws will be found in Plutarch himself from Athens for ten years, after he had
respecting the speaking evil either of the dead or obtained the oath above referred to. He first
of the living, respecting the use of wells, the plant visited Egypt, and conversed with two learned
ing of trees in conterminous properties, the des- Egyptian priests — Psenophis of Heliopolis, and
truction of noxious animals, &c. (l. c. 21, 23, 24. Sonchis of Sais. The stories which they told him
Comp. Diog. Laërt i. 55, &c. ). The rewards which about the submerged island of Atlantis, and the
he appointed to be given to victors at the Olympic war carried on against it by Athens 9000 years
and Isthmian games are for that age unusually before his time, induced him to make it the sub-
large (500 drachmae to the former and 100 to the ject of an epic poem, which, however, he did
latter). The law relating to theft, that the thief not complete, and of which nothing now remains.
should restore twice the value of the thing stolen, From Egypt he proceeded to Cyprus, and was
seems to have been due to Solon. (Dict. of Ant. received with great distinction by Philocyprus,
art. Konñs dikn). He also either established or king of the little town of Aepeia. Solon persuaded
regulated the public dinners at the Prytaneium. the king to remove from the old site, which was
(Plut. Sol. 24. ) One of the most curious of his on an inconvenient and precipitous elevation, and
regulations was that which denounced atimia build a new town on the plain. He himself as-
against any citizen, who, on the outbreak of a sisted in laying out the plan. The new settle-
sedition, remained neutral. On the design of this ment was called Soli, in honour of the illustrious
enactment to shorten as much as possible any sus- visitor. A fragment of an elegiac poem addressed
pension of legal authority, and its connection with by Solon to Philocyprus is preserved by Plutarch
the ostracism, the reader will find some ingenious (Sol. 26 ; Bergk, 1. c. p. 3:25). We learn from
and able remarks in Grote (l. c. iii. p. 190, &c. ). Herodotus (v. 113) that in this poem Solon be-
The laws of Solon were inscribed on wooden rollers stowed the greatest praise upon Philocyprus. The
(a toves) and triangular tablets (Kúpbeus), in the statement of the blundering Diogenes Laërtius
Bovotpoondóv fashion, and were set up at first in (i. 51, 62) that Solon founded Soli in Cilicia, and
the Acropolis, afterwards in the Prytaneium. (Plut. died in Cyprus, may be rejected without hesi-
Sol. 25; Harpocr. s. vv. Kúpbels - Kátwdev tation.
vóuos ; Pollux, viii. & 128 ; Suidas, s. vv. )
It is impossible not to regret that the stern laws
The Athenians were also indebted to Solon for of chronology compel us to set down as a fiction
some rectification of the calendar. Diogenes Laër- the beautiful story so beautifully told by Hero-
tius (i. 59) says that “he made the Athenians dotus (i. 29–45, 86 ; comp. Plut. Sul. 27, 28) of
regulate their days according to the moon,” that is the interview between Solon and Croesus, and the
to say, he introduced some division of time agreeing illustration furnished in the history of the latter of
more accurately with the course of the moon. the truth of the maxim of the Athenian sage, that
Plutarch (Sol. 25) gives the following very confused worldly prosperity is precarious, and that no man's
account of the matter: “Since Solon observed the life can be pronounced happy till he has reached
irregularity of the moon, and saw that its motion its close without a reverse of fortune (CROESUS).
does not coincide completely either with the setting For though it may be made out that it is just
or with the rising of the sun, but that it often on within the limits of possibility that Solon and
the same day both overtakes and passes the sun, Croesus may have met a few years before B. C. 560,
he ordained that this day should be called evn kal that could not have been an interview consistent
véa, considering that the portion of it which pre- with any of the circumstances mentioned by Hero-
ceded the conjunction belonged to the month that dotus, and without which the story of the inter-
was ending, the rest to that which was beginning. view would be entirely devoid of any interest that
The succeeding day he called vouunvía. ” Accord-could make it worth while attempting to establish
ing to the scholiast on Aristophanes (Nub. 1129) its possibility. The whole pith and force of the
Solon introduced the practice of reckoning the days story would vanish if any interview of an earlier
from the twentieth onwards in the reverse order. date be substituted for that which the episode in
Ideler (Handbuch der Chronologie, vol. i. p. 266, &c. ) Herodotus requires, namely one taking place when
gathers from the notices that we have on the sub- Croesus was king (Mr. Grote, l. c. p. 199 shows
ject, that Solon was the first who introduced among that it is a mere gratuitous hypothesis to make
## p. 863 (#879) ############################################
SOLON.
863
SOPATER,
SISTRATUS,
Croesus joint king with his father), at the height arrangement of the Homeric poems, sec the article
of his power, when he had a son old cnough to be HOMERUS (p. 507).
married and command armies, and immediately The story told by Plutarch (Sol. 29, comp.
preceding the turn of his fortunes, not more than Diog. Laërt
. i. 59) respecting Solun and Thespis
seven or eight years before the capture of Sardis. cannot be true, since dramatic entertainments were
“In my judgment,” observes Mr. Grote, “this is not introduced into Athens till 20 years (B. C. 535)
an illustrative tale, in which certain real characters after Solon's death. It is related that Solon
--Solon and Croesus, ----and certain real facts — asked Thespis, after witnessing one of his pieces,
the great power and slicceeding ruin of the former if he was not ashamed of telling such untruths
by the victorious arm of Cyrus, together with before so large an audience. Thespis replied, that
certain facts altogether fictitious, such as the two as it was done for amusement only, there was no
Bons of Croesus, the Phrygian Adrastus and his harm in saying and doing such things. Which
history, the hunting of the mischievous wild boar answer incensed Solon so much that he struck the
on Mount Olympus, the ultimate preservation of ground vehemently with his staff, and said that if
Croesus, &c. are put together so as to convey an such amusement as that were to be praised and
impressive moral lesson. "
honoured, men would soon begin to regard cove-
During the absence of Solon the old oligarchical nants as nothing more than a joke.
disscnsions were renewed, the Pedieis being headed An inscription on a statue set up in honour of
by Lycurgus, the Parali by Megncles, the Diacrii Solon spoke of him as born in Salamis (Diog.
by Peisistratus. These dissensions were approach. Laërt. i. 62, ib. Menage). This can hardly have
ing a crisis when Solon returned to Athens, and been the case, as Salamis was not incorporated
had proceeded to such a length that he found him with Attica when he was born. The statue was set
self unable to repress them. For an account of up a long time after Solon's death, and probably
the successful machinations of Peisistratus, and the by the Salaminians themselves. (Piut. Solon. ;
unsuccessful endeavours of Solon to counteract Diog. Laërt. i. 45, &c. ; K. F. Hermann, Lehrbuch
them, the reader is referred to the article Pei- der griech. Staatsalterth. SS 106—109; Grote, Hist.
The tyrant, after his usurpation, is of Greece, vol. iii. c. xi. ; Thirlwall, Hist. of Greece,
said to have paid considerable court to Solon, and vol. ii. pp. ?
. 27—56. )
(C. P. M. ]
on various occasions to have solicited his advice, SOLON, a gem engraver, who probably lived
which Solon did not withhold. We do not know under Augustus, at the same time as Dioscorides,
certainly how long Solon survived the overthrow with whom he may perhaps be considered to divide
of the constitution. According to Phanias of Les- the honour of being the founder of the succession
bos (Plut. Sol. 32), he died in less than two years of gem engravers, who lived under the early Roman
after. There seems nothing to hinder us from ac- emperors, and whose numerous and beautiful works
cepting the statement that he had reached the age now fill the cabinets of Europe. There is no mention
of eighty (Diog. Laërt. i. 62). There was a story made of Solon in any ancient writer, but his name
current in antiquity that, by his own directions, occurs on several gems. A complete account of his
his ashes were collected and scattered round the works, with references to the other writers by whom
island of Salamis. Plutarch discards this story as they have been described, is given in Nagler's
absurd. He himself remarks, however, that Aris- Neues Allgemeines Künstler-Lexicon, vol xvii. s. v.
totle, as well as other authors of credit, repeated (See, also, Thiersch, Epocken, p. 304 ; Müller,
it. Diogenes Laërtius (i. 62) quotes some lines Archäol. d. Kunst, $ 200, n. 1. ) [P. S. )
of Cratinus in which it is alluded to. The sin- SOLON, JUʻLIUS, a man of the lowest origin,
gularity of it is rather an argument in its favour. purchased the rank of senator from Cleander, the
Of the
poems of Solon several fragments remain. favourite of Commodus, by the surrender of all his
They do not indicate any great degree of imagina- property. He was afterwards put to death by
tive power, but the style of them seems to have Septimius Severus at the commencement of his reign,
been vigorous and simple. Those that were called although he had himself drawn up a decree of the
forth by special emergencies appear to have been senate at the request of the emperor, enacting that
marked by no small degree of energy. Solon is no senator should be put to death (Dion Cass.
said to have attempted a metrical version of his lxxii. 12, lxxiv. 2, and Excerp. Vatic. ed. Maii,
laws, and a couple of lines are quoted as the com- p. 225).
mencement of this composition ; but nothing more SOMIS (Pwuis), the artist who made the bronze
of it remains. (Plut. Sol. 3). Here and there, even statue of Procles the son of Lycastidas, of An-
in the fragments that remain, sentiments are ex- dros, an Olympic victor in the boys' wrestling.
pressed of a somewhat more jovial kind than the (Paus. vi. 14. § 5. s. 13. ) From the connection
rest. These are probably relics of youthful effu- in which the passage stands in Pausanias, it may be
sions. Some traced them, as well as Solon's some inferred with probability, though not with certainty,
what luxurious style of living, to the bad habits that Somis was contemporary with Stomius about
which he had contracted while following the pro- the beginning of the fifth century B. C. (Thiersch,
fession of a trader. (Plut. Sol. 3. ) The fragments Epochen, p. 202 ; comp. Stomius. ) [P. S. )
of Solon are usually incorporated in the collections SOMNUS, the personification and god of sleep,
of the Greek gnomic poets, as, for example, in the Greek Hypnos, is described by the ancients as
those of Sylburg, Brunck, and Boissonade. They a brother of Death (Jávatos), and as a son of
are also inserted in Bergk's Poetae Lyrici Graeci. Night (Hes. Theog. 211, &c. ; Virg. Aen. vi. 277).
There is also a separate edition by Bach (Lugd. At Sicyon there was a statue of Sleep surnamed
Bat. 1825). The select correspondence of Solon é úths, the giver (Paus. ii. 10. § 2). In works
with Periander, Peisistratus, Epimenides, and of art Sleep and Death are represented alike as two
Croesus, with which Diogenes Laërtius has fa- youths sleeping or holding inverted torches in
voured us, is of course spurious.
their hands. (Comp. THANATOS. ) [L. S. )
Respecting the connection of Solon with the SO'PATER (Lúnatpos), historical. l. One of
## p. 864 (#880) ############################################
864
SOPATER.
SOPHAGASENUS.
the generals elected by the Syracusans on the mur- 3. The younger sophist, of Apamea, or of Alex.
der of Hieronymus in B. c. 215 (Liv. xxiv. 23, 25). andria, is supposed to have lived about two hundred
2. A general of Philip V. , king of Macedonia, years later than the former. Suidas tells us that
crossed over to Africa in B. C. 203, with a body of he wrote epitomes of numerous works, and that
4000 troops and some money, in order to assist the some ascribed to him the Historical Extracts
Carthaginians. He was taken prisoner by the (ektorliv twv iotopiwv), which, we may therefore
Romans, together with many of his soldiers, and infer, others attributed to the elder Sopater. Pho-
Philip sent an embassy to Romo to solicit their lius (Bill. Cod. 161) has preserved an abstract of
release. (Liv. xxx, 26, 42. )
tlis εκλογή, or, as he calls it, εκλογαί διάφοροι,
3. An Acarnanian, the commander of Philip's from which it appears that the work contained a
garrison at Chalcis, was slain with most of his vast variety of facts and figments, collected from
troops in B. c. 200. (Liv. xxxi. 23. )
a great number of authors. A list of the writers
4. One of the generals of Perseus, slain in battle quoted by Sopater is given by Fabricius (Bill.
with the Romans in B. c. 171. (Liv. xlii. 66. ) Graec. vol. x. pp. 720—722; comp. vol. ii. p. 321,
5. Two Sicilians of this name are mentioned vol. iii. p. 51, vol. iv. p. 250, and Vossius, de llisi.
by Cicero in his orations against Verres. (Cic. Gruec. p. 294, ed. Westermann).
Verr. ii. 28, iv. 39. )
The rhetorical and grammatical works under
SOPATER (Lúnatpos), literary. 1. Of Paphos, the name of Sopater are the following:-Oaspéoers
a writer of parody and burlesque (oa vakoypápos), Sntnuárwv, a classification and analysis of rhe-
who lived in the time of Alexander the Great, and torical themes, printed in the Aldine collection,
continued to flourish down to the reign of Ptolemy | Venet. 1508, folio ; a commentary on the part
II. , as Athenaeus (ii. 71, b. ) informs us, on the repi otáoew of the texvú pontopikń of Hermo-
authority of the poet himself: his period may genes, printed in the same collection ; and Prole-
therefore be regarded as the forty years from B. C. gomena to Aristeides, printed from a MS. in
323 to 283 (Clinton, F. H. vol. ii. s. a. 283). He the Bodleian Library in vol. i. of Jebb's edition
is frequently mentioned by Athenaeus, who occa- of Aristeides. All the remains of his rhetorical
sionally calls him Vários, which seems to be a nick- works are contained in vols. iv. , v. , and rjji. of
name, derived from the word parñ (lentile-porridge, Walz's Rhetores Graeci. (Fabric. Bill, Gruec. vol.
which appears to have been the title of one of So- vi. pp. 18, 73, 102, 138 ; Westermann, ad Voss.
pater's plays), and applied to him as a punning | l. c. . )
[P. S. ]
variation upon Ilápios. The following titles of his SOPHAE'NETUS (Eopalvetos), a native of
plays are preserved by Athenaeus and Suidas (s. v. ; Stymphalus in Arcadia, was a coniniander of mer-
Suidas has made the mistake of distinguishing two cenaries in the service of Cyrus the Younger,
Sopaters, the one a comedian and the other a whom he joined in his expedition against Arta-
parodist): - Baxxis, Baxxidos gáuos, Barxidos xerxes, in B. C. 401, with 1000 heavy-armed men.
μνηστήρες, Γαλάτσι, Εύβουλοθεόμβροτος, Ιππόλυ- In the following year, after the treacherous appre-
τος, Κνιδία, Μύσται, Μυστάκου Θητίον, Νεκυία, | heusion of Clearchus and the other principal
Ορέστης, Πύλαι, Σίλφαι, Φακή, Φυσιόλογος. (Fabric. I generals of the Cyreans, Sophaenetus and Cleanor
vol. ii. p. 492 ; Ulrici, Gesch. d. Hellen. Dichtk. were deputed to meet Ariaeus, and receive his
vol. ii. p. 325. )
explanation of the transaction. When the main
2. Of Apamea, a distinguished sophist, the head body of the Greeks, after their arrival on the
for some time of the school of Plotinus, was a disfrontier of the western Armenia, marched to dis-
ciple of lamblichus, after whose death (before A. D. lodge Teribazus from the defile where he meant to
330), he went to Constantinople, where he enjoyed intercept them, Sophaenetus remained behind in
the favour and personal friendship of Constantine, command of the troops that were left to guard the
who afterwards, however, put him to death, from camp. At Trapezus, Philesius and Sophaenetus,
the motive, as was alleged, of giving a proof of the being the oldest of the generals, were placed in
sincerity of his own conversion to Christianity command of the ships which were to sail to
(Sozom. H. E. i. 5; comp. the note of Valesius; Cerasus with the men above forty, and the women
Suid. s.
