This
was no other than the famous Epimenides, whom his
contemporaries regarded as a being of a superior na-
ture, and who, even to us, appears in a mysterious, or,
at least, an ambiguous light, from our inability to de-
cide how far he himself partook in the general opinion
which ascribed to him an intimate connexion with
higher powers.
was no other than the famous Epimenides, whom his
contemporaries regarded as a being of a superior na-
ture, and who, even to us, appears in a mysterious, or,
at least, an ambiguous light, from our inability to de-
cide how far he himself partook in the general opinion
which ascribed to him an intimate connexion with
higher powers.
Charles - 1867 - Classical Dictionary
The tyrants, that they might create
some new ground of complaint against Socrates, sent
an order to him to apprehend, along with several oth-
ers, a wealthy citizen of Salamis: the rest executed
the commission; but Socrates refused, saying that he
v. 1 v. ' i Mine. ' Ir'mself suffer death than be instrument-
al in inflicting it unjustly upon another. Observing
with regret how much the opinions of the Athenian
youth were misled, and their principles and taste cor-
rupted by so-called philosophers, who spent all their
time in refined speculations upon nature and the or gin
of things; and by mischievous sophists, who taugh: in
their schools the arts of false eloquence and deceKul
reasoning, Socrates formed the wise and generous de-
sign of instituting a new and more useful method of
Instruction. He therefore assumed the character of a
moral philosopher: and, looking upon the whole city of
Athens as his school, and all who were disposed to
lend their attention as his pupils, he seized every oc-
casion of communicating moral wisdom to his fellow-
citizens. He passed his lime chiefly in public. It was
his custom in the morning to visit the places of public re-
sort, and those set apart for gymnastic exercises; at
noon to appear among the crowds in the market-place or
courts of law; and to spend the rest of the day in those
parts of the city where he would be likely to meet with
the lai gest number of persons. The method of instruc-
? ? tion which Socrates chiefly made use of was to pro-
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:18 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? . SOCRATES
SOCRATES.
ihei possible nor very desirable to arrive at an; certain
conclusion: that he was only careful to exclude from
his notion of the gods all attributes which were incon-
sistent with the moral qualities of the Supreme Being;
and that, with this restriction, he considered the popu-
lar mythology as so harmless that its language and
rites might be innocently adopted. --The motives which
induced Aristophanes to bring Socrates on the stage
in preference to any other of the sophistical teachers,
ire much more obvious than the causes through which
lie was led to confound them together. Socrates, from
the time that he abandoned his hereditary art, became
one of the most conspicuous and notorious persons in
Athens. There was, perhaps, hardly a mechanic who
had not, at some time or other, been puzzled or divert-
ed by his questions. (Mem. , 1, 2,37. ) His features
were so formed by nature, as to serve, with scarcely
any exaggeration, fcr a highly laughable mask. His
usual mien and gait were no bss remarkably adapted
to the comic stage. He was subject to (its of ab-
sence, which seem now and then to have involved him
in ludicrous mistakes and disasters. Altogether, his ex-
terior was such as might of itself have tempted an-
other poet to find a place for him in a comedy. It
would be wrong, however, to suppose, as some have
done, that the holding up of Socrates to ridicule in the
comedy of the "Clouds" was the prelude, and, in
fact, the true cause of his condemnation and death.
In the first place, twenty-four years intervened be-
tween the first representation of the "Clouds" and
the trial of the philosopher; and, besides, Aristopha-
nes was not the only comic poet who traduced him
and his disciples on the stage. Eupolis, for example,
had charged him with a sleight of hand like that de-
scribed in the " Clouds" (Schol. ad Nub. , 180), and
bad also introduced Chsrephon, in his Ko? mki-c, as a
tarasite of Callias. (Schol. , Plat. , Bckker, p. 331. )
lie time, in fact, in which Socrates was brought to
trial, was one in which great zeal was professed, and
some was undoubtedly felt, for the revival of the an-
cient institutions, civil and religious, under which
Athens had attained to her past greatness; and it was
to be expected that all who traced the public calami-
lies to the neglect of the old laws and usages should
consider Socrates as a dangerous person. But there
were also specious reasons, which will presently he
mentioned, for connecting him more immediately with
the tyranny under which the city had lately groaned.
His accusers, however, were neither common syco-
phants, nor do they appear to havs been impelled by
purely patriotic motives. This, however, is a point
which must always remain involved in great uncer-
tainty. Anytus, who seems to have taken the lead in
the prosecution, and probably set it on foot, is said to
have been a tanner, and to have acquired great wealth
by his trade (Schol. , Plat. , Apol. Socr. , p. 331, Bck-
ker); but he was also a man of great political activ-
ity and influence, for the Thirty thought him consider-
able enough to include him in the same decree of ban-
ishment with Thrasybulus and Alcibiades (Xen. , Hist.
Gr. , 2, 3, 42), and he held the rank of general in the
army at Phyle. (Lysias, Agorat. , p. 137. ) With
him were associated two persons much inferior to him
in reputation and popularity: a tragic poet named
Melitus or Meletus, in whose name the indictment
was brought, and who, if we may judge of him from
the manner in which he is mentioned by Aristopha-
? ? nes, was not very celebrated or successful in his art.
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:18 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 81 ORATES.
SOI.
<uct during tho Anarchy, must have been accounted
one of the party of the city, since he remained there
throughout the whole period, and that the prosecutors
were probably able to give evidence of many express-
ions apparently unfavourable to democracy, which had
fallen from him in his manifold conversations, we can-
not be surprised that the verdict was against him, but
rather, as he himself professed to be, that the votes of
the judges were almost equally divided. It appears,
indeed, most likely, that if his defence had been con-
ducted in the usual manner, he would hare been ac-
quitted; and that, even after the conviction, he would
not have been condemned to death if he had not pro-
voked the anger of the court by a deportment which
must have been interpreted as a sign of profound con-
tempt or of insolent defiance. When the verdict had
been given, the prisoner was entitled to speak in miti-
gation of the penalty proposed by the prosecutor, and
to assign another for the court to decide upon. Soc-
rates is represented as not only disdaining to depre-
cate its severity by such appeals as were usually made
in the Athenian tribunals to the feelings of the jurors,
but as demanding a reward and honour instead of the
punishment of a malefactor; and he was at last only
induced by the persuasions and offers of his friends to
name a trilling pecuniary mulct. The execution of his
sentence was delayed by the departure of the Theoris,
the sacred vessel which carried the yearly offerings of
the Athenians to Delos. From the moment that the
priest of Apollo had crowned its stern with laurel
until its return, the law required that the city should
be kept pure from all pollution, and, therefore, that no
c ::. 'mi>>i should be put to death. The opening cere-
n< . /. <? 'lad taken place on the day before the trial of
Socrates, and thirty days elapsed before the Theoris
again sailed into the Piraeus. During this interval
some of his wealthy friends pressed him to take ad-
vantage of the means of escape which rlii-v could ea-
tily have procured for him. But he refused to prolong
a life which was so near to its natural close--for he
was little less than seventy years old--by a breach of
lie laws, which he had never violated, and in defence
of which he had before braved death; and his attach-
ment to Athens was so strong that life had no charms
for him in a foreign land. His imprisonment was
cheered by the society of his friends, and was probably
spent chiefly in conversation of a more than usually
elevated strain. When the summon* came, he drank
the fatal cup of hemlock in the midst of his weeping
friends, with as much composure, and as little regret,
>> the last draught of a long and cheerful banquet.
The sorrow which the Athenians are said to have man-
ifested for his death, by signs of public mourning, and
by the punishments inflicted on his prosecutors, seems
not to be so well attested as the alarm it excited
among his most eminent disciples, who perhaps con-
sidered it as the signal of a general persecution, and
are said to have taken refuge at Megara and other cit-
ies. (Diog. Laert. , 2, 19, scqq. --Enfield, Hist. Phi-
lot. , vol. 4, p. 164, tenq. --Ritter, Hilt. Philos. , vol.
2, p. 1, 16, icqq. --ThirlwaWs Greece, vol. 4, p. 265,
seqq. )--II. Surnamed Srholasticus, an ecclesiastical
historian, who flourished about the middle of the fifth
century. He . was a native of Constantinople, and a
pupil of the grammarians Ammonius and Helladius.
Socrates wrote an ecclesiastical history in seven books,
from 306 to 439 A. D. He at first took for his guide
? ? the work of Rufous; but having afterward perceived,
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:18 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOL
SOLON.
\a there was an agreeable plain below, Solon per-
uaded him to raise there a larger and more pleasant
ity, and to transfer thither the inhabitants of the other
-ie also assisted in laying out the whole, and building
t in the best manner for convenience and defence, so
. n:it Philocyprus shortly had it peopled in such a man-
. Ter as to excite the envy of the neighbouring princes:
ind, therefore, though the former city was called ,i? pia,
ret, in honour of Solon, he called the new one Soli.
Th:>> story, however, appears to want confirmation,
I! >>. ? more particularly, as Herodotus, who is fond of
relating such things, makes no mention of the matter.
It is more than probable that the anecdote owed its
origin to the accidental similarity between the name
of Solon and that of the city. Pococke found traces
of the ancient place, which still bore the name of So-
. ea. (vol. 2, p. 324). --The inhabitants of this city, as
well as those of Soloe in Cilicia, were charged with
? peaking very ungrammatical Greek, whence the term
solecism (SototKto/iOf), to demote any gross violation
jf the idiom of a language. (Suidai, s. r. ? 6X01. )--
'. I. A city of Cilicia Campestris, neur the mouih of
. he river Larnus. It was founded by an Argive col-
ony, strengthened by settlers from the city of Lindus
n Rhodes. By intermingling with the rude Cilicianc,
JH inhabitants so far corrupted their own dialect as
o give rise to the term Solecism (SoAoi/tiff^of), to
lenote any violation of the idiom of a language. (Vid.
Soloe I. ) It is doubtful whether the term in question
relongs properly to the city we are now considering,
>r the one in Cyprus; the greater number of authori-
. es appear to be in favour of the former. Soloe suf-
*red severely from Tigranes, king of Armenia, who
created the greater part of Syria, and also Cilicia,
rom the Seleucidae. He carried the inhabitants of
ne place to Tigranocerta, his Armenian capital, in
Jrder to introduce there European culture. Pompey,
herefore, found Soloe nearly desolate in his visit to
these parts during the war with the pirates, and estab-
ished here the remainder of the latter after they were
conquered. The city was henceforward known, be-
tides its own name, by that of Pompeiopolis. (Strab. ,
67\. --Appian, "Bell. Mithrad. , 105. )--This city was
the birthplace of Chry? ippus, Menander, and Aratus.
(Mela, 1, 13. --Slrabo, I. c. ) Captain Beaufort gives
i detailed account of the topography and remains of
this interesting city. (Karamania, p. 261, scqq. ) Me-
tetln is the name which most of the natives give to
the modern site. (Beaufort, Ib , p. 266. --Manner! ,
Geogr. , vol. 6, pt. 2, p. 67. )
SOLXIS, a promontory on the western coast of Mau-
ritania Tingitana, now Cape Cantin. (Herod. , 2, 32.
--Id. , 4, 43. )
SOLON, a celebrated Athenian lawgiver, and one of
'. he seven sages of Greece. According to the most
authentic accounts, he was the son of Execestides,
and was sprung from the line of Codrus. His father
had reduced his fortune by his imprudent liberality;
and Solon, in his youth, is said to have been compelled,
in order to repair the decay of his patrimony, to em-
bark in commercial adventures--a mode of acquiring
wealth which was not disdained by men of the highest
iiittii. as it frequently afforded them the means of form-
ing honourable alliances in foreign countries, and even
of raising themselves to princely rank as the founders
of colonies. It was, however, undoubtedly not more
the desire of affluence than the thirst of knowledge
? ? that impelled Solon to seek distant shores; and the
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:18 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOLON.
Jxonour had been satisfied by alternate victories, agreed
to refer their claims to arbitration. At their request
the Lacedaemonians appointed five commissioners to
try the cause. Solon, who was the chief spokesman
on the Athenian side, maintained their lille on the
ground of ancient possession, by arguments which,
though they never silenced the Mcganans, appear to
have convinced the arbitrators. The strongest seem
to have been derived from the Athenian customs, of
which he pointed out traces in (he mode of interment
observed in Salamis, as well as inscriptions on the
tombs, which attested the Attic origin of ihe persons
they commemorated. He is said also to have adduced
the authority of the Homeric catalogue of the Grecian
fleet, by forgin<r a line which described Ajax as ran-
ging the ships which he brought from Salamis in the
Athenian station; and he interpreted some oracular
verses, which spoke of Salamis as an Ionian island, in
a similar sense. Modern criticism would not have
beer, much better satisfied with the plea, which he
grounded on the Attic tradition, that the sons of the
game hero had settled in Attica, and had been adopt-
ed as Athenian citizens, and, in return, had transferred
their hereditary dominion over the island to their new
countrymen. The weight, however, of all these argu-
ments determined the issue in favour of the Atheni-
ans; and it seems more probable that the Megarians
acquiesced in a decision to which they had themselves
appealed, than that, as Plutarch represents, they al-
most immediately renewed hostilities. Party feuds
continued to rage with unabated violence at Athens.
The removal of the men whom public opinion had de-
nounced as objects of divine wrath, was only a pre-
liminary step towards the restoration of tranquillity;
but the evil was seated much deeper, and required a
different kind of remedy, which was only to be found
in a new organization of the state. This, it is proba-
ble, Solon already meditated, as he must long have
perceived its necessity. But he saw that, before it
could be accomplished, the minds of men must be
brought into a frame fitted for its reception, and that
this could only be done with the aid of religion.
There were superstitious fears to be stilled, angry pas-
sions to be soothed, barbarous usages, hallowed by
long prescription, to be abolished; and even the au-
thority of Solon was not of itself sufficient for these
purposes. He therefore looked abroad for a coadju-
tor, and fame directed his view to a man peculiarly
qualified to meet the extraordinary emergency.
This
was no other than the famous Epimenides, whom his
contemporaries regarded as a being of a superior na-
ture, and who, even to us, appears in a mysterious, or,
at least, an ambiguous light, from our inability to de-
cide how far he himself partook in the general opinion
which ascribed to him an intimate connexion with
higher powers. This person was publicly invited to
Athens, to exert his marvellous powers on behalf of
the distracted city; and, when his work was accom-
plished, he was dismissed with tokens of the warmest
pr. iiii. iilr. (Kid. Epimenides. ) But, though the visit
of Epimenides was attended with the most salutary
consequences, so far as it applied a suitable remedy to
evils which were entirely seated in the imagination,
and, though it may have wrought still happier effects
by calming, soothing, and opening hearts which had
SOLON.
share of political rights, but _e>d even their person*!
freedom by a precarious tenure, and were frequently
? ? reduced to actual slavery. The smaller proprietors,
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:18 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOLON.
SOLON.
llmost unlimited power, and an ambitious man might
easily have abused it to make himself master of the
state, Solon's friends exhorted him to seize the oppor-
tunity of becoming tyrant of Athens; and they were
not at a loss for fair arguments to colour their foul ad-
vice, reminding him of recent instances--of Tynnon-
daj in Eubra, and Pittacus at Mytilene, who had ex-
ercised a sovereignty over their fellow-citizens without
forfeiting their love. Solon saw through their sophis-
try, and was not tempted by it to betray the sacred
trust reposed in him; but, satisfied with the approba-
tion of his own conscience and the esteem of his coun-
trymen, instead of harbouring schemes of self-aggran-
dizement, he bent all his thoughts snd energies to the
execution of the great task which he had undertaken.
This task consisted of two main parts: the first and
most pressing business wss to relieve the present dis-
tress of the commonalty; the next to provide against
vhe recurrence of like evils, by regulating the rights
of all the citizens according to equitable principles,
and fixing them on a permanent baais. In proceeding
to the first part of his undertaking, Solon held a mid-
dle course between the two extremes--those who
wished to keep all, and those who were for taking ev-
erything away. While he resisted the reckless and
extravagant demands of those who desired all debts to
be cancelled, and the lands of the rich to be confis-
cated and parcelled out among the poor, he met the
reasonable expectations of the public by his disbur-
dening ordinance (iiiouxOcia), and relieved the debt-
or, partly by a reduction of the rate of interest, which
was probably made retrospective, and thus, in many
cases, would wipe off a great part of the debt, and
partly by lowering the standard of the silver coinage,
so that the debtor saved more than one fourth in ev-
ery payment. (Pint. , Sol. , 15. -- Vid. Boeckk, StaaUk. ,
2, p. 360. ) He likewise released the pledged lands
from their encumbrances, and restored them in full
property to their owners; though it does not seem cer-
tain whether this was one of the express objects of
Cite measure, or only one of the consequences which
it involved. Finally, he abolished the inhuman law
which enabled the creditor to enslave his debtor, and
restored thoso who were pining at home in such bond-
age to immediate liberty; and it would seem that he
compelled those who had sold their debtors into for-
eign countries to procure their freedom at their own
expense. The debt itself, in such cases, was of
course held to be extinguished. Solon himself, in a
poem which he afterward composed on the subject of
his legislation, spoke with a becoming pride of the
happy change which this measure had wrought in the
face of Attica, of the numerous citizens whose lands
he had discharged, and whose persons he had'eman-
cipated, and brought'back from hopeless slavery in
strange lands. He was only unfortunate in bestowing
his confidence on persons who were incapable of imi-
tating his virtue, and who abused his intimacy. At
the time when all men were uncertain as to his inten-
tions, and no kind of property could be thought se-
cure, he privately informed three of his friends of his
determination not to touch the estates of the land-own-
ers, but only to reduce the amount of debt. He had
afterward the vexation of discovering, that the men to
whom he had intrusted this secret had been base
enough to take advantage of it, by making large pur-
chases of land--which at such a juncture bore, no
? ? lioubt, a very low price--with borrowed money. For-
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:18 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOLON.
jXOI. OR.
jtners which had hitherto been reserved to the nobles;
thev were also destined to fill the highest commands
in the army, as ir later times, when Athens became a
maritime power, they did in the fleet. Some lower
offices were undoubtedly left open to the second and
thiro class, though we are unable to define the extent
of their privileges, or to ascertain whether, in their po-
litical rights, one had any advantage over the other.
Thev were at least distinguished from each other by
the mode of their military service; the one furnishing
the cavalry, the other the heavy-armed infantry. But,
tor their exclusion from the dignities occupied by the
wealthy few, they received a compensation in the
comparative lightness of their burdens. They were
assessed, not in exact proportion to the amount of
their incomes, but at a much lower rate; the nominal
value of their property being for this purpose reduced
below the truth, that of the knights by one sixth, that
of the third class by one third. The fourth class was
excluded from all share in the magistracy, and from
the honours and duties of the full-armed warrior, the
expense of which would, in general, exceed their means:
by land they served only as light troops; in later times
they manned the fleets. In return, they were exempt-
ed from all direct contributions, and they were permit-
ted to take a part in the popular assembly, as well as
in the exercise of those judicial powers which were
now placed in the hands of the people. We shall
shortly have occasion to observe how amply this boon
compensated for the loss of all the privileges that were
withheld from them. Solon's classification takes no
notice of any other than landed property; yet, as the
example of Solon himself seems to prove that Attica
must already have carried on some foreign trade, it is
not unlikely that there were fortunes of this kind equal
to those which gave admission to the higher classes.
But '? '. can hardly be supposed that they placed their
possessors on a level with the owners of the soil; it
is more probable that these, together with the newly-
adopted citizens, without regard to their various de-
grees of affluence, were all included in the lowest
rlass. Salon's system then made room for all free-
men, but assigned to them different places, varying
with their visible means of serving the state. His
general aim in the distribution of power, as he himself
explains it in a fragment which Plutarch has preserved
from one of his poems, was to give such a share to the
commonalty as would enable it to protect itself, and to
the wealthy as much as was necessary for retaining
their dignity; in other words, for ruling the people
without the means of oppressing it. He threw his
strong shield, he says, over both, and permitted neither
to gain an unjust advantage. The magistrates, though
elected upon a different qualification, retained their an-
cient authority; but they were now responsible for
the exercise of it, not to their own body, but to the
governed. The judicial functions of the archons were
perhaps preserved nearly in their full extent; but ap-
peals were allowed from their jurisdiction to courts
numerously composed, and filled indiscriminately from
all classes. (P/uf. , Sol. , 18. ) Solon could not fore-
see the change of circumstances by which this right
of appeal became the instrument of overthrowing the
equilibrium which he hoped to have established on a
? olid basis, when that which he had designed to exer-
cise an extraordinary jurisdiction became an ordinary
tribunal, which drew almost all causes to itself, and
? ? overruled every other power in the state. He seems to
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:18 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SUP
SOPHOCLES.
(3 witness the partial overthrow of his system in the
usurpation of Pisistratus. (Vid. Pisistratus. )--It is
sot certain how long he survived this inroad upon his
institutions; one account, apparently the most authen-
tic, places his death in the year following thst in
which the revolution occurred (B. C. 559). The lei-
sure of his retirement from public life was to the last
devoted to the Muses: and if we might trust Pla-
to's assertions on such subjects, he was engaged at
'lie time of his death in the composition of a great po-
em, in which he had designed to describe the flourish-
ing state of Attica before the Ogygian flood, and to
celebrate the wars which it waged with the inhabitants
of the vast island which afterward sank in the Atlantic
Ocean. On the fragments of this poem, preserved in
the family, Plato, himself a descendant of Solon, pro-
fesses to have founded a work which he left unfinished,
but in which he had meant to exhibit hit imaginary
state in life and action. It is certainly not improba-
ble that Solon, when the prospect of his country be-
came gloomy, and his own political career was closed,
indulged his imagination with excursions into an ideal
world, where he may have raised a social fabric as un-
l. ke as possible to the realitv which he had before his
eyes at home, and perhaps suggested by what he had
seer, or heard in Egypt. It is only important to ob-
serve that the fact, if admitted, can lead to no safe
conclusions ss to his abstract political principles, and
tan still less be allowed to sway our judgment on the
design and character of his institutions. (Thirluall's
Greece, vol. 2, p. 23, sa/q )--Solon is generally ranked
under the gnomic poets, and some fragments of his
C reductions in this department have been preserved
y the ancient writers. Of these the finest is his
"prayer to the Muses. " The fragments of Solon
are found in the collections of H. Stephens, Winter-
ton, Brunck, Gaisford, and Boissonnade. --(Scholl,
Hist. Lit. Gr. , vol. 1, p. 238. )
Sih. vmi, a people of Lycia, of whom an account is
giren under the head of Lycia.
Somnus, son of Erebus and Nox, was one of the
deities of the lower world, and the god of Sleep. The
Latin poet Ovid (Met. , 11, 592, seqq. ), probably after
some Grecian predecessor, as was usually the case,
gives a beautiful description of the Cave of Sleep, near
:hi- land of the Cimmerians, and of the cortege which
. here attended on him, as Morpheus, Icelos or Phor-
3f ler, and Phantasos; the first of whom takes the form
ol man to appear in dreams, the second of animals, the
? liird of inanimate objects. (Keighlley's Mythology,
a. 200. )
Sonus, a river of India, falling into the Ganges, and
now the Saone ot Son. As this river towards its ori-
gin is called Ando-nadi, it appears that the name An-
domain (given also in Arrian), or. rather, Ando-natis,
can denote no other than it. (Plin. , 6, 18. )
Sophknk, a country of Armenia, between the prin-
cipal stream of the Euphrates and Mount Masius. It is
now called Zoph. (Dio Cass. , 36, 36. --Plin. , 5,12. )
Sophoclfs, a celebrated tragic poet, born at Colo-
nic, a village little more than a mile from Athens,
B. C. 495. He was, consequently, thirty years junior
to iEschylus, and fifteen senior to Euripides, the for-
mer having been born B. C. 525, and the latter B. C.
480. --Sophilus, his father, a man of opulence and re-
spectability, bestowed upon his son a careful educa-
tion in all the literary and personal accomplishments
? ? if Ilia age and country. The powers of the future
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:18 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOPHOCLES.
? trier produced, was to read before the court hia
CEdipus at Colonua, t piece which he had just com-
po*>>d; or, according to others, that beautiful chorus
oni in which he celebrates the loveliness of his fa-
vourite residence (Cic. ,dc Fin. , 5, 1). The admiring
judges instantly arose, dismissed the cause, and ac-
companied the aged poet to his house with the utmost
honour and respect Sophocles was spared the mis-
ery of beholding the utter overthrow of his declining
country. Early in the year 405 B. C. , some months
before the defeat of jEgospotamos put the finishing
stroke to the misfortunes of Athens, death came gen-
tly upon the venerable old man, full of years and glory.
The accounts of his death are very diverse, all tending
to the marvellous. later and Neanthes state that he
was choked by a grape; Satyrus makes him to expire
from excessive exertion, in reading aloud a long para-
graph out of the Antigone; others ascribe his death
to extreme joy at being proclaimed the Tragic victor.
Not content with the singularity of his death, the
ancient recorders of his life add prodigy to his funeral
also. He died when the Athenians were cooped up
within their walls, and the Lacedemonians were in
possession of Decelea, the place of his family sepul-
chre. Bacchus twice appeared in a vision to Lysan-
der, tho Spartan general, and bid him allow the inter-
ment; which accordingly took place with all due so-
lemnity. Pausanias, however, tells the story some-
what differently (1, 21). Ister slates, moreover, that
:he Athenians passed a decree to appoint an annual
sacrifice to so admirable a man. (Fir. Anon. )--Sev-
en tragedies alone remain out of the great number
which Sophocles composed; yet among these seven
we probably possess the most splendid productions of
lis genius. Suidas makes the number which lie wrote
one hundred and twenty-three. Aristophanes, the
grammarian, one hundred and thirty, seventeen of
which he deemed spurious. Bockh considers both
statements erroneous. It appears from the argument
. 0 the Antigone, that this play was exhibited a little
before the generalship of Sophocles, B. C. 441, and
that this was his thirty-second drama; and it is known
ihat Sophocles began to exhibit B. C. 468. Hence
Bockh argues that, as during the first twenty-seven
/cars of his dramatic career he produced thirty-two tra-
gedies, so during the remaining thirty-six years it is not
probable he composed many more than this number.
He therefore supposes that the true number is seventy,
>>r nearly so. To Iophon, the son of Sophocles, he re-
ers many of the plays which bore the father's name;
others he ascribes to the favourite grandson, Sopho-
eles, son of Ariston, by his wife or mistress Theoris.
The result of Bockh s investigation is, that of the one
nundred and six dramas whose titles remain, only twen-
ty-six can, with any certainty, be assigned to the elder
Sophocles. (Bockh. a J Trag. Grac. ,c. 8,seqq. )--The
personal character of Sophocles, without rising into
spotless excellence or exalted heroism, was honoura-
ble, calm, and amiable. In his younger days he seems
? o have been addicted to intemperance in love and wine
(Oic, Off. , 1, iO. --Athen. , 13, p. 603. ) And a say-
ing of his, recorded by Plato, Cicero, and Athemeus,
while it confirms the charges just mentioned, would
ilso imply that years had cooled the turbulent passions
of his youth. "I thank old sge," said the poet, " for
ielivering me from the tyranny of my appetites. " Yet
even in his later days, the charms of a Theoris and
ar. Archippe sre reported to have been too powerful for
? ? the still susceptible dramatist. Aristophanes, who, in
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:18 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOPHOCLES.
SOts
1? oj bia r. ghts within those limits.
some new ground of complaint against Socrates, sent
an order to him to apprehend, along with several oth-
ers, a wealthy citizen of Salamis: the rest executed
the commission; but Socrates refused, saying that he
v. 1 v. ' i Mine. ' Ir'mself suffer death than be instrument-
al in inflicting it unjustly upon another. Observing
with regret how much the opinions of the Athenian
youth were misled, and their principles and taste cor-
rupted by so-called philosophers, who spent all their
time in refined speculations upon nature and the or gin
of things; and by mischievous sophists, who taugh: in
their schools the arts of false eloquence and deceKul
reasoning, Socrates formed the wise and generous de-
sign of instituting a new and more useful method of
Instruction. He therefore assumed the character of a
moral philosopher: and, looking upon the whole city of
Athens as his school, and all who were disposed to
lend their attention as his pupils, he seized every oc-
casion of communicating moral wisdom to his fellow-
citizens. He passed his lime chiefly in public. It was
his custom in the morning to visit the places of public re-
sort, and those set apart for gymnastic exercises; at
noon to appear among the crowds in the market-place or
courts of law; and to spend the rest of the day in those
parts of the city where he would be likely to meet with
the lai gest number of persons. The method of instruc-
? ? tion which Socrates chiefly made use of was to pro-
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:18 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? . SOCRATES
SOCRATES.
ihei possible nor very desirable to arrive at an; certain
conclusion: that he was only careful to exclude from
his notion of the gods all attributes which were incon-
sistent with the moral qualities of the Supreme Being;
and that, with this restriction, he considered the popu-
lar mythology as so harmless that its language and
rites might be innocently adopted. --The motives which
induced Aristophanes to bring Socrates on the stage
in preference to any other of the sophistical teachers,
ire much more obvious than the causes through which
lie was led to confound them together. Socrates, from
the time that he abandoned his hereditary art, became
one of the most conspicuous and notorious persons in
Athens. There was, perhaps, hardly a mechanic who
had not, at some time or other, been puzzled or divert-
ed by his questions. (Mem. , 1, 2,37. ) His features
were so formed by nature, as to serve, with scarcely
any exaggeration, fcr a highly laughable mask. His
usual mien and gait were no bss remarkably adapted
to the comic stage. He was subject to (its of ab-
sence, which seem now and then to have involved him
in ludicrous mistakes and disasters. Altogether, his ex-
terior was such as might of itself have tempted an-
other poet to find a place for him in a comedy. It
would be wrong, however, to suppose, as some have
done, that the holding up of Socrates to ridicule in the
comedy of the "Clouds" was the prelude, and, in
fact, the true cause of his condemnation and death.
In the first place, twenty-four years intervened be-
tween the first representation of the "Clouds" and
the trial of the philosopher; and, besides, Aristopha-
nes was not the only comic poet who traduced him
and his disciples on the stage. Eupolis, for example,
had charged him with a sleight of hand like that de-
scribed in the " Clouds" (Schol. ad Nub. , 180), and
bad also introduced Chsrephon, in his Ko? mki-c, as a
tarasite of Callias. (Schol. , Plat. , Bckker, p. 331. )
lie time, in fact, in which Socrates was brought to
trial, was one in which great zeal was professed, and
some was undoubtedly felt, for the revival of the an-
cient institutions, civil and religious, under which
Athens had attained to her past greatness; and it was
to be expected that all who traced the public calami-
lies to the neglect of the old laws and usages should
consider Socrates as a dangerous person. But there
were also specious reasons, which will presently he
mentioned, for connecting him more immediately with
the tyranny under which the city had lately groaned.
His accusers, however, were neither common syco-
phants, nor do they appear to havs been impelled by
purely patriotic motives. This, however, is a point
which must always remain involved in great uncer-
tainty. Anytus, who seems to have taken the lead in
the prosecution, and probably set it on foot, is said to
have been a tanner, and to have acquired great wealth
by his trade (Schol. , Plat. , Apol. Socr. , p. 331, Bck-
ker); but he was also a man of great political activ-
ity and influence, for the Thirty thought him consider-
able enough to include him in the same decree of ban-
ishment with Thrasybulus and Alcibiades (Xen. , Hist.
Gr. , 2, 3, 42), and he held the rank of general in the
army at Phyle. (Lysias, Agorat. , p. 137. ) With
him were associated two persons much inferior to him
in reputation and popularity: a tragic poet named
Melitus or Meletus, in whose name the indictment
was brought, and who, if we may judge of him from
the manner in which he is mentioned by Aristopha-
? ? nes, was not very celebrated or successful in his art.
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:18 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 81 ORATES.
SOI.
<uct during tho Anarchy, must have been accounted
one of the party of the city, since he remained there
throughout the whole period, and that the prosecutors
were probably able to give evidence of many express-
ions apparently unfavourable to democracy, which had
fallen from him in his manifold conversations, we can-
not be surprised that the verdict was against him, but
rather, as he himself professed to be, that the votes of
the judges were almost equally divided. It appears,
indeed, most likely, that if his defence had been con-
ducted in the usual manner, he would hare been ac-
quitted; and that, even after the conviction, he would
not have been condemned to death if he had not pro-
voked the anger of the court by a deportment which
must have been interpreted as a sign of profound con-
tempt or of insolent defiance. When the verdict had
been given, the prisoner was entitled to speak in miti-
gation of the penalty proposed by the prosecutor, and
to assign another for the court to decide upon. Soc-
rates is represented as not only disdaining to depre-
cate its severity by such appeals as were usually made
in the Athenian tribunals to the feelings of the jurors,
but as demanding a reward and honour instead of the
punishment of a malefactor; and he was at last only
induced by the persuasions and offers of his friends to
name a trilling pecuniary mulct. The execution of his
sentence was delayed by the departure of the Theoris,
the sacred vessel which carried the yearly offerings of
the Athenians to Delos. From the moment that the
priest of Apollo had crowned its stern with laurel
until its return, the law required that the city should
be kept pure from all pollution, and, therefore, that no
c ::. 'mi>>i should be put to death. The opening cere-
n< . /. <? 'lad taken place on the day before the trial of
Socrates, and thirty days elapsed before the Theoris
again sailed into the Piraeus. During this interval
some of his wealthy friends pressed him to take ad-
vantage of the means of escape which rlii-v could ea-
tily have procured for him. But he refused to prolong
a life which was so near to its natural close--for he
was little less than seventy years old--by a breach of
lie laws, which he had never violated, and in defence
of which he had before braved death; and his attach-
ment to Athens was so strong that life had no charms
for him in a foreign land. His imprisonment was
cheered by the society of his friends, and was probably
spent chiefly in conversation of a more than usually
elevated strain. When the summon* came, he drank
the fatal cup of hemlock in the midst of his weeping
friends, with as much composure, and as little regret,
>> the last draught of a long and cheerful banquet.
The sorrow which the Athenians are said to have man-
ifested for his death, by signs of public mourning, and
by the punishments inflicted on his prosecutors, seems
not to be so well attested as the alarm it excited
among his most eminent disciples, who perhaps con-
sidered it as the signal of a general persecution, and
are said to have taken refuge at Megara and other cit-
ies. (Diog. Laert. , 2, 19, scqq. --Enfield, Hist. Phi-
lot. , vol. 4, p. 164, tenq. --Ritter, Hilt. Philos. , vol.
2, p. 1, 16, icqq. --ThirlwaWs Greece, vol. 4, p. 265,
seqq. )--II. Surnamed Srholasticus, an ecclesiastical
historian, who flourished about the middle of the fifth
century. He . was a native of Constantinople, and a
pupil of the grammarians Ammonius and Helladius.
Socrates wrote an ecclesiastical history in seven books,
from 306 to 439 A. D. He at first took for his guide
? ? the work of Rufous; but having afterward perceived,
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:18 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOL
SOLON.
\a there was an agreeable plain below, Solon per-
uaded him to raise there a larger and more pleasant
ity, and to transfer thither the inhabitants of the other
-ie also assisted in laying out the whole, and building
t in the best manner for convenience and defence, so
. n:it Philocyprus shortly had it peopled in such a man-
. Ter as to excite the envy of the neighbouring princes:
ind, therefore, though the former city was called ,i? pia,
ret, in honour of Solon, he called the new one Soli.
Th:>> story, however, appears to want confirmation,
I! >>. ? more particularly, as Herodotus, who is fond of
relating such things, makes no mention of the matter.
It is more than probable that the anecdote owed its
origin to the accidental similarity between the name
of Solon and that of the city. Pococke found traces
of the ancient place, which still bore the name of So-
. ea. (vol. 2, p. 324). --The inhabitants of this city, as
well as those of Soloe in Cilicia, were charged with
? peaking very ungrammatical Greek, whence the term
solecism (SototKto/iOf), to demote any gross violation
jf the idiom of a language. (Suidai, s. r. ? 6X01. )--
'. I. A city of Cilicia Campestris, neur the mouih of
. he river Larnus. It was founded by an Argive col-
ony, strengthened by settlers from the city of Lindus
n Rhodes. By intermingling with the rude Cilicianc,
JH inhabitants so far corrupted their own dialect as
o give rise to the term Solecism (SoAoi/tiff^of), to
lenote any violation of the idiom of a language. (Vid.
Soloe I. ) It is doubtful whether the term in question
relongs properly to the city we are now considering,
>r the one in Cyprus; the greater number of authori-
. es appear to be in favour of the former. Soloe suf-
*red severely from Tigranes, king of Armenia, who
created the greater part of Syria, and also Cilicia,
rom the Seleucidae. He carried the inhabitants of
ne place to Tigranocerta, his Armenian capital, in
Jrder to introduce there European culture. Pompey,
herefore, found Soloe nearly desolate in his visit to
these parts during the war with the pirates, and estab-
ished here the remainder of the latter after they were
conquered. The city was henceforward known, be-
tides its own name, by that of Pompeiopolis. (Strab. ,
67\. --Appian, "Bell. Mithrad. , 105. )--This city was
the birthplace of Chry? ippus, Menander, and Aratus.
(Mela, 1, 13. --Slrabo, I. c. ) Captain Beaufort gives
i detailed account of the topography and remains of
this interesting city. (Karamania, p. 261, scqq. ) Me-
tetln is the name which most of the natives give to
the modern site. (Beaufort, Ib , p. 266. --Manner! ,
Geogr. , vol. 6, pt. 2, p. 67. )
SOLXIS, a promontory on the western coast of Mau-
ritania Tingitana, now Cape Cantin. (Herod. , 2, 32.
--Id. , 4, 43. )
SOLON, a celebrated Athenian lawgiver, and one of
'. he seven sages of Greece. According to the most
authentic accounts, he was the son of Execestides,
and was sprung from the line of Codrus. His father
had reduced his fortune by his imprudent liberality;
and Solon, in his youth, is said to have been compelled,
in order to repair the decay of his patrimony, to em-
bark in commercial adventures--a mode of acquiring
wealth which was not disdained by men of the highest
iiittii. as it frequently afforded them the means of form-
ing honourable alliances in foreign countries, and even
of raising themselves to princely rank as the founders
of colonies. It was, however, undoubtedly not more
the desire of affluence than the thirst of knowledge
? ? that impelled Solon to seek distant shores; and the
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:18 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOLON.
Jxonour had been satisfied by alternate victories, agreed
to refer their claims to arbitration. At their request
the Lacedaemonians appointed five commissioners to
try the cause. Solon, who was the chief spokesman
on the Athenian side, maintained their lille on the
ground of ancient possession, by arguments which,
though they never silenced the Mcganans, appear to
have convinced the arbitrators. The strongest seem
to have been derived from the Athenian customs, of
which he pointed out traces in (he mode of interment
observed in Salamis, as well as inscriptions on the
tombs, which attested the Attic origin of ihe persons
they commemorated. He is said also to have adduced
the authority of the Homeric catalogue of the Grecian
fleet, by forgin<r a line which described Ajax as ran-
ging the ships which he brought from Salamis in the
Athenian station; and he interpreted some oracular
verses, which spoke of Salamis as an Ionian island, in
a similar sense. Modern criticism would not have
beer, much better satisfied with the plea, which he
grounded on the Attic tradition, that the sons of the
game hero had settled in Attica, and had been adopt-
ed as Athenian citizens, and, in return, had transferred
their hereditary dominion over the island to their new
countrymen. The weight, however, of all these argu-
ments determined the issue in favour of the Atheni-
ans; and it seems more probable that the Megarians
acquiesced in a decision to which they had themselves
appealed, than that, as Plutarch represents, they al-
most immediately renewed hostilities. Party feuds
continued to rage with unabated violence at Athens.
The removal of the men whom public opinion had de-
nounced as objects of divine wrath, was only a pre-
liminary step towards the restoration of tranquillity;
but the evil was seated much deeper, and required a
different kind of remedy, which was only to be found
in a new organization of the state. This, it is proba-
ble, Solon already meditated, as he must long have
perceived its necessity. But he saw that, before it
could be accomplished, the minds of men must be
brought into a frame fitted for its reception, and that
this could only be done with the aid of religion.
There were superstitious fears to be stilled, angry pas-
sions to be soothed, barbarous usages, hallowed by
long prescription, to be abolished; and even the au-
thority of Solon was not of itself sufficient for these
purposes. He therefore looked abroad for a coadju-
tor, and fame directed his view to a man peculiarly
qualified to meet the extraordinary emergency.
This
was no other than the famous Epimenides, whom his
contemporaries regarded as a being of a superior na-
ture, and who, even to us, appears in a mysterious, or,
at least, an ambiguous light, from our inability to de-
cide how far he himself partook in the general opinion
which ascribed to him an intimate connexion with
higher powers. This person was publicly invited to
Athens, to exert his marvellous powers on behalf of
the distracted city; and, when his work was accom-
plished, he was dismissed with tokens of the warmest
pr. iiii. iilr. (Kid. Epimenides. ) But, though the visit
of Epimenides was attended with the most salutary
consequences, so far as it applied a suitable remedy to
evils which were entirely seated in the imagination,
and, though it may have wrought still happier effects
by calming, soothing, and opening hearts which had
SOLON.
share of political rights, but _e>d even their person*!
freedom by a precarious tenure, and were frequently
? ? reduced to actual slavery. The smaller proprietors,
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:18 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOLON.
SOLON.
llmost unlimited power, and an ambitious man might
easily have abused it to make himself master of the
state, Solon's friends exhorted him to seize the oppor-
tunity of becoming tyrant of Athens; and they were
not at a loss for fair arguments to colour their foul ad-
vice, reminding him of recent instances--of Tynnon-
daj in Eubra, and Pittacus at Mytilene, who had ex-
ercised a sovereignty over their fellow-citizens without
forfeiting their love. Solon saw through their sophis-
try, and was not tempted by it to betray the sacred
trust reposed in him; but, satisfied with the approba-
tion of his own conscience and the esteem of his coun-
trymen, instead of harbouring schemes of self-aggran-
dizement, he bent all his thoughts snd energies to the
execution of the great task which he had undertaken.
This task consisted of two main parts: the first and
most pressing business wss to relieve the present dis-
tress of the commonalty; the next to provide against
vhe recurrence of like evils, by regulating the rights
of all the citizens according to equitable principles,
and fixing them on a permanent baais. In proceeding
to the first part of his undertaking, Solon held a mid-
dle course between the two extremes--those who
wished to keep all, and those who were for taking ev-
erything away. While he resisted the reckless and
extravagant demands of those who desired all debts to
be cancelled, and the lands of the rich to be confis-
cated and parcelled out among the poor, he met the
reasonable expectations of the public by his disbur-
dening ordinance (iiiouxOcia), and relieved the debt-
or, partly by a reduction of the rate of interest, which
was probably made retrospective, and thus, in many
cases, would wipe off a great part of the debt, and
partly by lowering the standard of the silver coinage,
so that the debtor saved more than one fourth in ev-
ery payment. (Pint. , Sol. , 15. -- Vid. Boeckk, StaaUk. ,
2, p. 360. ) He likewise released the pledged lands
from their encumbrances, and restored them in full
property to their owners; though it does not seem cer-
tain whether this was one of the express objects of
Cite measure, or only one of the consequences which
it involved. Finally, he abolished the inhuman law
which enabled the creditor to enslave his debtor, and
restored thoso who were pining at home in such bond-
age to immediate liberty; and it would seem that he
compelled those who had sold their debtors into for-
eign countries to procure their freedom at their own
expense. The debt itself, in such cases, was of
course held to be extinguished. Solon himself, in a
poem which he afterward composed on the subject of
his legislation, spoke with a becoming pride of the
happy change which this measure had wrought in the
face of Attica, of the numerous citizens whose lands
he had discharged, and whose persons he had'eman-
cipated, and brought'back from hopeless slavery in
strange lands. He was only unfortunate in bestowing
his confidence on persons who were incapable of imi-
tating his virtue, and who abused his intimacy. At
the time when all men were uncertain as to his inten-
tions, and no kind of property could be thought se-
cure, he privately informed three of his friends of his
determination not to touch the estates of the land-own-
ers, but only to reduce the amount of debt. He had
afterward the vexation of discovering, that the men to
whom he had intrusted this secret had been base
enough to take advantage of it, by making large pur-
chases of land--which at such a juncture bore, no
? ? lioubt, a very low price--with borrowed money. For-
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:18 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOLON.
jXOI. OR.
jtners which had hitherto been reserved to the nobles;
thev were also destined to fill the highest commands
in the army, as ir later times, when Athens became a
maritime power, they did in the fleet. Some lower
offices were undoubtedly left open to the second and
thiro class, though we are unable to define the extent
of their privileges, or to ascertain whether, in their po-
litical rights, one had any advantage over the other.
Thev were at least distinguished from each other by
the mode of their military service; the one furnishing
the cavalry, the other the heavy-armed infantry. But,
tor their exclusion from the dignities occupied by the
wealthy few, they received a compensation in the
comparative lightness of their burdens. They were
assessed, not in exact proportion to the amount of
their incomes, but at a much lower rate; the nominal
value of their property being for this purpose reduced
below the truth, that of the knights by one sixth, that
of the third class by one third. The fourth class was
excluded from all share in the magistracy, and from
the honours and duties of the full-armed warrior, the
expense of which would, in general, exceed their means:
by land they served only as light troops; in later times
they manned the fleets. In return, they were exempt-
ed from all direct contributions, and they were permit-
ted to take a part in the popular assembly, as well as
in the exercise of those judicial powers which were
now placed in the hands of the people. We shall
shortly have occasion to observe how amply this boon
compensated for the loss of all the privileges that were
withheld from them. Solon's classification takes no
notice of any other than landed property; yet, as the
example of Solon himself seems to prove that Attica
must already have carried on some foreign trade, it is
not unlikely that there were fortunes of this kind equal
to those which gave admission to the higher classes.
But '? '. can hardly be supposed that they placed their
possessors on a level with the owners of the soil; it
is more probable that these, together with the newly-
adopted citizens, without regard to their various de-
grees of affluence, were all included in the lowest
rlass. Salon's system then made room for all free-
men, but assigned to them different places, varying
with their visible means of serving the state. His
general aim in the distribution of power, as he himself
explains it in a fragment which Plutarch has preserved
from one of his poems, was to give such a share to the
commonalty as would enable it to protect itself, and to
the wealthy as much as was necessary for retaining
their dignity; in other words, for ruling the people
without the means of oppressing it. He threw his
strong shield, he says, over both, and permitted neither
to gain an unjust advantage. The magistrates, though
elected upon a different qualification, retained their an-
cient authority; but they were now responsible for
the exercise of it, not to their own body, but to the
governed. The judicial functions of the archons were
perhaps preserved nearly in their full extent; but ap-
peals were allowed from their jurisdiction to courts
numerously composed, and filled indiscriminately from
all classes. (P/uf. , Sol. , 18. ) Solon could not fore-
see the change of circumstances by which this right
of appeal became the instrument of overthrowing the
equilibrium which he hoped to have established on a
? olid basis, when that which he had designed to exer-
cise an extraordinary jurisdiction became an ordinary
tribunal, which drew almost all causes to itself, and
? ? overruled every other power in the state. He seems to
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:18 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SUP
SOPHOCLES.
(3 witness the partial overthrow of his system in the
usurpation of Pisistratus. (Vid. Pisistratus. )--It is
sot certain how long he survived this inroad upon his
institutions; one account, apparently the most authen-
tic, places his death in the year following thst in
which the revolution occurred (B. C. 559). The lei-
sure of his retirement from public life was to the last
devoted to the Muses: and if we might trust Pla-
to's assertions on such subjects, he was engaged at
'lie time of his death in the composition of a great po-
em, in which he had designed to describe the flourish-
ing state of Attica before the Ogygian flood, and to
celebrate the wars which it waged with the inhabitants
of the vast island which afterward sank in the Atlantic
Ocean. On the fragments of this poem, preserved in
the family, Plato, himself a descendant of Solon, pro-
fesses to have founded a work which he left unfinished,
but in which he had meant to exhibit hit imaginary
state in life and action. It is certainly not improba-
ble that Solon, when the prospect of his country be-
came gloomy, and his own political career was closed,
indulged his imagination with excursions into an ideal
world, where he may have raised a social fabric as un-
l. ke as possible to the realitv which he had before his
eyes at home, and perhaps suggested by what he had
seer, or heard in Egypt. It is only important to ob-
serve that the fact, if admitted, can lead to no safe
conclusions ss to his abstract political principles, and
tan still less be allowed to sway our judgment on the
design and character of his institutions. (Thirluall's
Greece, vol. 2, p. 23, sa/q )--Solon is generally ranked
under the gnomic poets, and some fragments of his
C reductions in this department have been preserved
y the ancient writers. Of these the finest is his
"prayer to the Muses. " The fragments of Solon
are found in the collections of H. Stephens, Winter-
ton, Brunck, Gaisford, and Boissonnade. --(Scholl,
Hist. Lit. Gr. , vol. 1, p. 238. )
Sih. vmi, a people of Lycia, of whom an account is
giren under the head of Lycia.
Somnus, son of Erebus and Nox, was one of the
deities of the lower world, and the god of Sleep. The
Latin poet Ovid (Met. , 11, 592, seqq. ), probably after
some Grecian predecessor, as was usually the case,
gives a beautiful description of the Cave of Sleep, near
:hi- land of the Cimmerians, and of the cortege which
. here attended on him, as Morpheus, Icelos or Phor-
3f ler, and Phantasos; the first of whom takes the form
ol man to appear in dreams, the second of animals, the
? liird of inanimate objects. (Keighlley's Mythology,
a. 200. )
Sonus, a river of India, falling into the Ganges, and
now the Saone ot Son. As this river towards its ori-
gin is called Ando-nadi, it appears that the name An-
domain (given also in Arrian), or. rather, Ando-natis,
can denote no other than it. (Plin. , 6, 18. )
Sophknk, a country of Armenia, between the prin-
cipal stream of the Euphrates and Mount Masius. It is
now called Zoph. (Dio Cass. , 36, 36. --Plin. , 5,12. )
Sophoclfs, a celebrated tragic poet, born at Colo-
nic, a village little more than a mile from Athens,
B. C. 495. He was, consequently, thirty years junior
to iEschylus, and fifteen senior to Euripides, the for-
mer having been born B. C. 525, and the latter B. C.
480. --Sophilus, his father, a man of opulence and re-
spectability, bestowed upon his son a careful educa-
tion in all the literary and personal accomplishments
? ? if Ilia age and country. The powers of the future
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:18 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOPHOCLES.
? trier produced, was to read before the court hia
CEdipus at Colonua, t piece which he had just com-
po*>>d; or, according to others, that beautiful chorus
oni in which he celebrates the loveliness of his fa-
vourite residence (Cic. ,dc Fin. , 5, 1). The admiring
judges instantly arose, dismissed the cause, and ac-
companied the aged poet to his house with the utmost
honour and respect Sophocles was spared the mis-
ery of beholding the utter overthrow of his declining
country. Early in the year 405 B. C. , some months
before the defeat of jEgospotamos put the finishing
stroke to the misfortunes of Athens, death came gen-
tly upon the venerable old man, full of years and glory.
The accounts of his death are very diverse, all tending
to the marvellous. later and Neanthes state that he
was choked by a grape; Satyrus makes him to expire
from excessive exertion, in reading aloud a long para-
graph out of the Antigone; others ascribe his death
to extreme joy at being proclaimed the Tragic victor.
Not content with the singularity of his death, the
ancient recorders of his life add prodigy to his funeral
also. He died when the Athenians were cooped up
within their walls, and the Lacedemonians were in
possession of Decelea, the place of his family sepul-
chre. Bacchus twice appeared in a vision to Lysan-
der, tho Spartan general, and bid him allow the inter-
ment; which accordingly took place with all due so-
lemnity. Pausanias, however, tells the story some-
what differently (1, 21). Ister slates, moreover, that
:he Athenians passed a decree to appoint an annual
sacrifice to so admirable a man. (Fir. Anon. )--Sev-
en tragedies alone remain out of the great number
which Sophocles composed; yet among these seven
we probably possess the most splendid productions of
lis genius. Suidas makes the number which lie wrote
one hundred and twenty-three. Aristophanes, the
grammarian, one hundred and thirty, seventeen of
which he deemed spurious. Bockh considers both
statements erroneous. It appears from the argument
. 0 the Antigone, that this play was exhibited a little
before the generalship of Sophocles, B. C. 441, and
that this was his thirty-second drama; and it is known
ihat Sophocles began to exhibit B. C. 468. Hence
Bockh argues that, as during the first twenty-seven
/cars of his dramatic career he produced thirty-two tra-
gedies, so during the remaining thirty-six years it is not
probable he composed many more than this number.
He therefore supposes that the true number is seventy,
>>r nearly so. To Iophon, the son of Sophocles, he re-
ers many of the plays which bore the father's name;
others he ascribes to the favourite grandson, Sopho-
eles, son of Ariston, by his wife or mistress Theoris.
The result of Bockh s investigation is, that of the one
nundred and six dramas whose titles remain, only twen-
ty-six can, with any certainty, be assigned to the elder
Sophocles. (Bockh. a J Trag. Grac. ,c. 8,seqq. )--The
personal character of Sophocles, without rising into
spotless excellence or exalted heroism, was honoura-
ble, calm, and amiable. In his younger days he seems
? o have been addicted to intemperance in love and wine
(Oic, Off. , 1, iO. --Athen. , 13, p. 603. ) And a say-
ing of his, recorded by Plato, Cicero, and Athemeus,
while it confirms the charges just mentioned, would
ilso imply that years had cooled the turbulent passions
of his youth. "I thank old sge," said the poet, " for
ielivering me from the tyranny of my appetites. " Yet
even in his later days, the charms of a Theoris and
ar. Archippe sre reported to have been too powerful for
? ? the still susceptible dramatist. Aristophanes, who, in
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 09:18 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/uva. x001045523 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? SOPHOCLES.
SOts
1? oj bia r. ghts within those limits.
