Solon

Plutarch

Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives, Vol. I. Perrin, Bernadotte, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1914.

He saw that to do this was out of the question, and that not to do it would bring odium upon him, and wishing to be wholly rid of these perplexities and to escape from the captiousness and censoriousness of the citizens (for in great affairs, as he says himself,[*](Fragment 7 (Bergk).) it is difficult to please all), he made his ownership of a vessel an excuse for foreign travel, and set sail, after obtaining from the Athenians leave of absence for ten years. In this time he hoped they would be accustomed to his laws.

In the first place, then, he went to Egypt,[*](Cf. Aristot. Const. Ath. 11.1.) and lived, as he himself says,[*](Fragment 28 (Bergk).)

  1. Where Nile pours Forth his floods, near the Canobic shore.
He also spent some time in studies with Psenophis of Heliopolis and Sonchis of Sais, who were very learned priests. From these, as Plato says,[*](Plat. Tim. 22a) he heard the story of the lost Atlantis, and tried to introduce it in a poetical form to the Greeks.[*](Cf. Plut. Sol. 31.3; Plut. Sol. 32.1 f.)

Next he sailed to Cyprus, and was greatly beloved of Philocyprus, one of the kings of the island. This prince had a small city founded by Demophon, the son of Theseus and lying near the river Clarius, in a position which was strong, but otherwise incommodious and sorry. Solon therefore persuaded him to remove the city to the fair plain which lay below it, and make it more spacious and pleasant.

He also remained and took charge of the new city’s consolidation, and helped to arrange it in the best possible manner both for convenience of living and for safety. The result was that many colonists flocked to Philocyprus, and he was the envy of the other kings. He therefore paid Solon the honor of naming the new city after him, and called it Soli; its name had been Aipeia.