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SOL——SOLONIAN CONSTITUTION.
sodalitas. Both Horace aud Ovid were members of one.]
Sol. The Italian sun-god, identified with the Greek Helios (q.v.).
Solarium. A sundial (see gnomon) ; also the flat roof of the Roman dwelling-house (see house, 2).
Soldiers. Greek, sue warfare. Roman, see legion. For the game of ".soldiers" (ludus latrunciilOruin), see games.
S616a. The shoe usually worn by Romans when at home. Outside the house they wore it only when going out to dinner. During the meal itself it was taken off. It was a strong sole of wood, cork, or leather, which was fastened on the foot by two straps. One of these passed between the great toe and the second toe, and was connected by a buckle or otherwise with a strap running lengthwise over the instep. The second strap went round the ankle. (See cuts to sandamum.)
Solldus. A Roman gold coin, introduced by- the emperor Constantine about 312 a.d., which remained in use until the downfall of the Byzantine empire ; its weight was -fj lb., its value 12s. 8%d. (See further under coinage.)
Solinus (Gains lullus). A Roman writer who composed, probably in the second half of the 3rd century a.d., a collection of JHCmSrablKa (Collectanla Kerum Mimora-bttium, better known by its later title PdlyhistSr). The most important portion (the geographical) is an abstract of a treatise on geography compiled from Pliny’s Natural History.
Sollum. See baths and chairs.
Solon. Of Athens, son of Execestldes, born about 640 b.c., died 559, the famous Athenian lawgiver. (See below on the solonian constitution.) He is one of the " Seven Wise Men." He also holds a high position amongst the lyric, and especially amongst the elegiac, poets of Greece. The noble patriotism and kindly wisdom which marked the whole of his life found expression in his poems, which were in part connected with the political condition of his own city, and were also intended to teach universal principles of humanity in an appropriate poetical form. His elegies are said to have amounted to 5,000 lines in all.
Among his political elegies may be mentioned that on Salamls, by which, in his earlier years, he roused his fellow citizens to reconquer that island when it had been taken from them by the Megariaus; also his Exhortations to the Athenians. To his
ethical elegies belong the Exhortations to Himself. Of the last two poems in particular we possess extensive fragments (in which the elegiac measure is raised to a new dignity by being made the vehicle of ethical teaching. One of the finest fragments owes its preservation to its being quoted by Demosthenes, De Falsa LCyd-tiSne, § 255]. There are also some fragments of minor poems in iambics and trochaics as well as a skollon. [In Aristotle’s Constitution of Athens, 5, 12, we have several quotations from Solon‘s poems, including about twenty lines which are otherwise unknown.]
Solonian Constitution. At the time of Solon the Athenian State was almost falling to pieces in consequence of dissensions between the parties into which the population was divided. Of these the Diacrli, the inhabitants of the northern mountainous region of Attica, the poorest and most oppressed section of the population, demanded that the privileges of the nobility, which had till then obtained, should be utterly set aside. Another party, prepared to be contented by moderate concessions, was composed of the Pdrali, the inhabitants of the stretch of coast called Paralla. The third was formed by the nobles, called Pldieis or Peduici, because their property lay for the most part in the peitton, the level and most fruitful part of the country. Solon, who enjoyed the confidence of all parties on account of his tried insight and sound judgment, was chosen archon by a compromise, with full power to put an end to the difficulties, and to restore peace by means of legislation. One of the primary measures of Solon was the Seisachtheia (disburdening ordinance). This gave an immediate relief by cancelling all debts, public and private. At the same time he made it illegal for the future to secure debts upon the person of the debtor [Aristotle, Constitution of Athens, 6j.
He also altered the standard of coinage [and of weights and measures, by introducing the Euboic standard in place of the Pheidouian or yEginetan, ib. 10]. 100 new drachmae were thus made to contain the same amount of silver as 73 old drachmae.
He further instituted a timocracy (q.v.}, by which the exclusive rights which the nobles had till then possessed were set aside, and those who did not belong to the nobility-received a share in the rights of citizens, according to a scale determined by their property and their corresponding services
