Solon
one of the seven sages of Greece, and the celebrated legislator of Athens; born in Salamis, in the 7th ce 1tury B. C. After having enhanced the glory of his country by recovering Salamis, he was chosen archon 594 B. c., and having received full power to do whatever he judged needful, he set himself to the task of improving the condition of his countrymen. He abolished most of the cruel laws of Draco, and formed a new constitution founded on the principle of making property, not birth, the title to the honors and offices of the State. He made many special laws also relating to trade and commerce, marriage, disposition of property by will, etc., caused them to be engraved on wooden cylinders, and is said to have bound the Athenians by an oath not to make any changes in his code for 10 years. He then left the country, to avoid being obliged to make any alteration in them, and visited Egypt, t Cyprus, and Lydia. On his return, after an absence of 10 years, he found the State torn by party violence, and his kinsman SOLON Pisistratus aiming at the sovereignty, which he soon seized. Solon then withdrew from public life and is supposed to have died at the age of 80, about 558 в. c.