Solon the law-giver once entered the
assembly and urged the Athenians to overthrow the tyranny before it became all-powerful. And
when no man paid attention to him, he put on his full armour and appeared in the market-place,
although an old man, and calling upon the gods as witnesses he declared that by word and deed,
so far as in him lay, he had brought aid to the fatherland when it was in peril. But since the
populace did not perceive the design of Peisistratus, it turned out that Solon, though he spoke
the truth, was disregarded.
[2]
And it is said that Solon also
predicted the approaching tyranny to the Athenians in elegiac verse1:“
From cloud is born the might of snow and hail
And from bright lightning's flash the thunder comes.
And from great men a city finds its doom;
The people in their ignorance have bowed
In slavery to a monarch's single rule.
For him who puts too far from shore 'tis hard
The harbour later on to make; but now
At once one needs must think of everything.
”
[3]
And later, when the tyranny was
already established, he said2:“
If now you suffer grievous things because
Of your own cowardice, charge not this fate
Unto the gods' account; for you yourselves
Exalted these men's power by giving them
A guard, and on this count have you put on
The yoke of evil slavery. Each by each
With fox's steps you move, but meeting all
Together trifling judgement do you show.
For to man's tongue and shifty word you look,
But to the deed he does you ne'er give heed.
”
[4]
Peisistratus urged Solon to
hold his peace and to share with him in the advantages arising from the tyranny. And when he
could find no means to change Solon's purpose, but saw in fact that he was ever more and more
aroused and steadfastly threatening to bring him to punishment, he asked him upon what
resources he relied in his opposition to his designs. And we are told that Solon replied, "Upon
my old age."Const. Exc. 4, pp. 286-287.[Herodotus, who lived in the time of Xerxes,
gives this account3: After
the Assyrians had ruled Asia for five hundred years
they were conquered by the Medes, and thereafter no king arose for many generations to lay
claim to supreme power, but the city-states, enjoying a regimen of their own, were administered
in a democratic fashion; finally, however, after many years a man distinguished for his
justice, named Cyaxares, was chosen king among the Medes. He was the first to try to attach to
himself the neighbouring peoples and became for the Medes the founder of their universal
empire; and after him each of his successive descendants extended the kingdom by adding a great
deal of the adjoining country, until the reign of Astyages, who was conquered by Cyrus and the
Persians.4 We
have for the present given only the most important of these events in summary and shall later
give a detailed account of them one by one when we come to the periods in which they fall; for
it was in the second year of the Seventeenth Olympiad,5 according to Herodotus,
that Cyaxares was chosen king of the Medes.]Diod.
2.32.2-3.[When Astibaras, the king of the Medes, died of old age in Ecbatana, his son Aspandas, whom the Greeks call Astyages,
succeeded to the throne. And when he had been defeated by Cyrus the Persian, the kingdom passed
to the Persians. Of them we shall give a detailed and exact account at the proper
time.]Diod. 2.34. 6.
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Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.
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