ἰσχὺν δὲ τοῖς νόμοις πᾶσιν εἰς ἑκατὸν ἐνιαυτοὺς ἔδωκε· καὶ κατεγράφησαν εἰς ξυλίνους ἄξονας ἐν πλαισίοις περιέχουσι στρεφομένους, ὧν ἔτι καθʼ ἡμᾶς ἐν Πρυτανείῳ λείψανα μικρὰ διεσώζετο· καὶ προσηγορεύθησαν, ὡς Ἀριστοτέλης φησί, κύρβεις. καὶ Κρατῖνος ὁ κωμικὸς εἴρηκέ που· πρὸς τοῦ Σόλωνος καὶ Δράκοντος οἷσι νῦν / φρύγουσιν ἤδη τὰς κάχρυς τοῖς κύρβεσιν. /
All his laws were to have force for a hundred years, and they were written on axones, or wooden tablets, which revolved with the oblong frames containing them. Slight remnants of these were still preserved in the Prytaneium when I was at Athens, and they were called, according to Aristotle, kurbeis. Cratinus, also, the comic poet, somewhere says:— By Solon, and by Draco too I make mine oath, / Whose kurbeis now are used to parch our barley-corns. /
ἔνιοι δέ φασιν ἰδίως ἐν οἷς ἱερὰ καὶ θυσίαι περιέχονται, κύρβεις, ἄξονας δὲ τοὺς ἄλλους ὠνομάσθαι, κοινὸν μὲν οὖν ὤμνυεν ὅρκον ἡ βουλὴ τοὺς Σόλωνος νόμους ἐμπεδώσειν, ἴδιον δʼ ἕκαστος τῶν θεσμοθετῶν ἐν ἀγορᾷ πρὸς τῷ λίθῳ, καταφατίζων, εἴ τι παραβαίη τῶν θεσμῶν, ἀνδριάντα χρυσοῦν ἰσομέτρητον ἀναθήσειν ἐν Δελφοῖς.
But some say that only those tablets which relate to sacred rites and sacrifices are properly called kurbeis, and the rest are called axones. However that may be, the council took a joint oath to ratify the laws of Solon, and each of the thesmothetai, or guardians of the statutes, swore separately at the herald’s stone in the market-place, vowing that if he transgressed the statutes in any way, he would dedicate at Delphi a golden statue of commensurate worth.
συνιδὼν δὲ τοῦ μηνὸς τὴν ἀνωμαλίαν,καὶ τὴν κίνησιν τῆς σελήνης οὔτε δυομένῳ τῷ ἡλίῳ πάντως οὔτʼ ἀνίσχοντι συμφερομένην, ἀλλὰ πολλάκις τῆς αὐτῆς ἡμέρας καὶ καταλαμβάνουσαν καὶ παρερχομένην τὸν ἥλιον, αὐτὴν μὲν ἔταξε ταύτην ἕνην καὶ νέαν καλεῖσθαι, τὸ μὲν πρὸ συνόδου μόριον αὐτῆς τῷ παυομένῳ μηνί, τὸ δὲ λοιπὸν ἤδη τῷ ἀρχομένῳ προσήκειν ἡγούμενος, πρῶτος, ὡς ἔοικεν, ὀρθῶς ἀκούσας Ὁμήρου λέγοντος, τοῦ μὲν φθίνοντος μηνός, τοῦ δʼ ἱσταμένοιο, / τὴν δʼ ἐφεξῆς ἡμέραν νουμηνίαν ἐκάλεσε. τὰς δʼ ἀπʼ εἰκάδος οὐ προστιθείς, ἀλλʼ ἀφαιρῶν καὶ ἀναλύων, ὥσπερ τὰ φῶτα τῆς σελήνης ἑώρα, μέχρι τριακάδος ἠρίθμησεν.
Observing the irregularity of the month, and that the motion of the moon does not always coincide with the rising and setting of the sun, but that often she overtakes and passes the sun on the same day, he ordered that day to be called the Old and New, assigning the portion of it which preceded the conjunction to the expiring month, and the remaining portion to the month that was just beginning. He was thus the first, as it would seem, to understand Homer’s verse, which speaks of a day when This month is waning, and the next is setting in, / and the day following this he called the first of the month. After the twentieth he did not count the days by adding them to twenty, but by subtracting them from thirty, on a descending scale, like the waning of the moon.
ἐπεὶ δὲ τῶν νόμων εἰσενεχθέντων ἔνιοι τῷ Σόλωνι καθʼ ἑκάστην προσῄεσαν ἡμέραν, ἐπαινοῦντες ἢ ψέγοντες ἢ συμβουλεύοντες ἐμβάλλειν τοῖς γεγραμμένοις ὅ τι τύχοιεν ἢ ἀφαιρεῖν, πλεῖστοι δʼ ἦσαν οἱ πυνθανόμενοι καὶ ἀνακρίνοντες καὶ κελεύοντες αὐτὸν ὅπως ἕκαστον ἔχει καὶ πρὸς ἣν κεῖται διάνοιαν ἐπεκδιδάσκειν καὶ σαφηνίζειν,
No sooner were the laws of Solon put into operation than some would come to him every day with praise or censure of them, or with advice to insert something into the documents, or take something out. Very numerous, too, were those who came to him with inquiries and questions about them, urging him to teach and make clear to them the meaning and purpose of each several item.
ὁρῶν ὅτι ταῦτα καὶ τὸ πράττειν ἄτοπον καὶ τὸ μὴ πράττειν ἐπίφθονον, ὅλως δὲ ταῖς ἀπορίαις ὑπεκστῆναι βουλόμενος καὶ διαφυγεῖν τὸ δυσάρεστον καὶ φιλαίτιον τῶν πολιτῶν (ἔργμασι γὰρ ἐν μεγάλοις πᾶσιν ἁδεῖν χαλεπόν, ὡς αὐτὸς εἴρηκε), πρόσχημα τῆς πλάνης τὴν ναυκληρίαν ποιησάμενος ἐξέπλευσε, δεκαετῆ παρὰ τῶν Ἀθηναίων ἀποδημίαν αἰτησάμενος. ἤλπιζε γὰρ ἐν τῷ χρόνῳ τούτῳ καὶ τοῖς νόμοις αὐτοὺς ἔσεσθαι συνήθεις.
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, 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.
πρῶτον μὲν οὖν εἰς Αἴγυπτον ἀφίκετο καὶ διέτριψεν, ὡς αὐτός φησι, Νείλου ἐπὶ προχοῇσι Κανωβίδος ἐγγύθεν ἀκτῆς. / χρόνον δέ τινα καὶ τοῖς περὶ Ψένωφιν τὸν Ἡλιουπολίτην καὶ Σῶγχιν τὸν Σαΐτην, λογιωτάτοις οὖσι τῶν ἱερέων, συνεφιλοσόφησε· παρʼ ὧν καὶ τὸν Ἀτλαντικὸν ἀκούσας λόγον, ὡς Πλάτων φησίν, ἐπεχείρησε διὰ ποιήματος ἐξενεγκεῖν εἰς τοὺς Ἕλληνας.
In the first place, then, he went to Egypt, and lived, as he himself says, 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, he heard the story of the lost Atlantis, and tried to introduce it in a poetical form to the Greeks.
ἔπειτα πλεύσας εἰς Κύπρον ἠγαπήθη διαφερόντως ὑπὸ Φιλοκύπρου τινὸς τῶν ἐκεῖ βασιλέων, ὃς εἶχεν οὐ μεγάλην πόλιν, ᾠκισμένην ὑπὸ Δημοφῶντος τοῦ Θησέως, περὶ τὸν Κλάριον ποταμὸν ἐν χωρίοις ὀχυροῖς μέν, ἄλλως δὲ δυσχερέσι καὶ φαύλοις κειμένην. ἔπεισεν οὖν αὐτὸν ὁ Σόλων ὑποκειμένου καλοῦ πεδίου μεταθέντα τὴν πόλιν ἡδίονα καὶ μείζονα κατασκευάσαι.
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.
καὶ παρὼν ἐπεμελήθη τοῦ συνοικισμοῦ, καὶ συνδιεκόσμησε πρός τε διαγωγὴν ἄριστα καὶ πρὸς ἀσφάλειαν, ὥστε πολλοὺς μὲν οἰκήτορας τῷ Φιλοκύπρῳ συνελθεῖν, ζηλῶσαι δὲ τοὺς ἄλλους βασιλέας· διὸ καὶ τῷ Σόλωνι τιμὴν ἀποδιδοὺς Αἰπεῖαν τὴν πόλιν καλουμένην πρότερον ἀπʼ ἐκείνου Σόλους προσηγόρευσε.
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.
καὶ αὐτὸς δὲ μέμνηται τοῦ συνοικισμοῦ· προσαγορεύσας γὰρ ἐν ταῖς ἐλεγείαις τὸν Φιλόκυπρον, νῦν δὲ (φησί) σὺ μὲν Σολίοισι πολὺν χρόνον ἐνθάδʼ ἀνάσσων / τήνδε πόλιν ναίοις καὶ γένος ὑμέτερον· / αὐτὰρ ἐμὲ ξὺν νηῒ θοῇ κλεινῆς ἀπὸ νήσου / ἀσκηθῆ πέμποι Κύπρις ἰοστέφανος· / οἰκισμῷ δʼ ἐπὶ τῷδε χάριν καὶ κῦδος ὀπάζοι / ἐσθλὸν καὶ νόστον πατρίδʼ ἐς ἡμετέρην. /
Solon himself also makes mention of this consolidation. In his elegies, namely, he addresses Philocyprus and says:— Now mayest thou long time be lord and master for the Solii here, / Dwelling in this city thyself, and thy family after thee; / But may I and my swift ship, as we leave this storied isle, / Be brought upon our way in safety by Cypris of the violet crown. / Upon this settlement of thine may she bestow favour and glory; / And upon me an auspicious return to my fatherland. /
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