0:01

Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class,

0:03

a production of iHeartRadio.

0:11

Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Frye

0:14

and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. So back

0:16

in twenty twenty, we had an episode

0:19

about Crisus of Lydia, and Sollen

0:21

came up in it, and I mentioned that Solin

0:23

was on my list, and then he came

0:26

up again recently, and

0:28

when we did our most recent Eclipse episode,

0:31

another of the seven Stages of Greece, sta

0:33

Ley's of my leaders came up, and I was

0:35

like, whoops, I forgot about Solin. And

0:37

then I just randomly saw someone using

0:39

Solin as part of their username on social

0:42

media. That person was kind of being a

0:44

jerk to people, frankly, but I thought, okay,

0:46

Universe, I get it. Go back to Solin. So we're

0:49

going to do that today. But talking about

0:52

Solin comes with a pretty significant

0:54

caveat because the main biographies

0:57

about him that we have were written by Aristotle

0:59

and hundreds of years

1:01

after his death. There's a

1:04

lot of very valid examination

1:06

and criticism regarding how much

1:09

of any of the their four main biographies

1:11

that we have, how much of any of those feature

1:16

accurate content. We

1:19

don't have anything really in the way of primary

1:21

sources in terms of Salin's writing. It's

1:24

like a few lines here and there that have survived.

1:27

As historian Ivan Mortimer lynfthrote

1:30

in nineteen nineteen, quote, are

1:32

we to suppose that Aristotle owed nothing

1:34

to earlier writers? Meaning

1:36

that there's almost certainly been a

1:39

bending of truths or a shifting of truths

1:41

as one person's perspective is used

1:43

as a source and then viewed through the

1:45

lens of another writer who has their own perspective.

1:48

And even those accounts that we do have

1:51

have all been translated

1:54

by different people with some differences

1:56

that affect the way that we might perceive Salin's

1:59

life. And we're going to talk about one such difference

2:01

right out of the gate. So keep all of that in mind as

2:03

we discuss this

2:05

this merchant

2:08

slash civic leader slash

2:11

military leader. Today, as

2:13

we said, Salin is considered to be one

2:15

of the seven Sages or wise men of

2:18

Greece, and his actions are credited

2:20

with sowing the seeds of what would become Athenian

2:23

democracy. He's kind of considered

2:25

a founding father of Athens. In what is

2:27

sometimes perceived as its idealized

2:29

state, but as will become a

2:32

parent, there's really no such thing, and

2:34

a lot of people get mad anytime people

2:36

try to make changes. So

2:41

here we go. Sollin was

2:43

born around six forty

2:46

to six thirty BCE. A

2:48

lot of sources cite the year six thirty

2:50

eight BCE as the specific

2:52

year. That's tough to really substantiate,

2:55

though, given how far back that is. His

2:58

father was excess steed and

3:00

their family was considered high

3:03

ranking in the social hierarchy of

3:05

the time, they

3:07

didn't seem to have the wealth that

3:09

often came with that standing. Though his

3:11

father was believed to be descended from

3:14

Kodras, one of the so called semi

3:16

mythical kings of Athens, who

3:18

is said to have reigned after ten sixty

3:20

eight BCE. On

3:23

Solom's mother's side, he is said

3:25

to have had an intense friendship

3:27

with the son of his mother's cousin, that's a man

3:29

named Paisistratus. In

3:32

Plutarch's biography of Solin, he writes

3:34

that Soalen was said to be passionately

3:36

in love with Paisistratus. That

3:38

is according to one translation, but

3:41

another translation, which was translated

3:43

in eighteen ninety five by John Dryden, is

3:46

less direct about the possibility

3:48

of a romantic attachment between the men,

3:50

stating quote, and they say Solin

3:53

loved him, And that is the reason I suppose

3:56

that when afterward they differed about the government,

3:58

their enmity never pretty any hot

4:00

and violent passion. They remembered

4:03

their old kindnesses and retained

4:05

still in its embers, living the strong fire

4:08

of their love and dear affection. So

4:10

I point that out just to note that like obviously,

4:12

different authors would not have been as comfortable

4:15

suggesting whenever they did

4:17

their translation that these two men were

4:19

romantically affinitied towards

4:21

one another, but others are very comfortable

4:23

with it. That is just one example of the ways

4:26

that different perspectives have shifted

4:28

Salin's life story through the years. We

4:31

mentioned the already that Salin's

4:33

family was not wealthy, and part

4:35

of this was because his father quote

4:38

had impaired his estate in

4:40

sundry benevolent charities. So

4:43

Salin's father had donated family

4:45

money to various causes. In

4:47

any case, Salin had to work in

4:50

his earliest career, and he had a few

4:53

was working as a merchant or a trader. According

4:56

to the Plutarch biography, he had plenty

4:58

of friends who would have helped him out find Angeley,

5:00

but quote, since he was descended

5:02

from a family who were accustomed to

5:05

do kindnesses rather than receive

5:07

them, therefore applied himself

5:09

to merchandise in his youth. Though

5:12

others assure us that he traveled

5:14

rather to get learning and experience

5:16

than to make money. Yeah,

5:18

so he

5:21

did travel a lot, and we'll talk about it. Working

5:24

as a merchant was not stigmatized

5:26

or considered shameful in Salin's

5:28

time. Plutarch noted many great men

5:30

who have worked in the same field. The reason Plutarch

5:33

points it out is because when he was

5:35

writing many years later, that would have had a little

5:37

more stigma. Solin is

5:39

credited with writing that he was fine

5:41

with having wealth, but not if

5:43

it was gained in some wrong way. So

5:46

there's a moral element to his relationship

5:48

with money. There is also

5:50

a bit of what seems a contradiction, at

5:52

least to Plutarch, in the way that Salin

5:55

moved in the world, because Solin

5:57

considered himself to be a relatively poor

5:59

man, but he also had

6:02

plenty of experiences and a lot

6:04

of things that we would associate with wealth,

6:07

which Plutarch reconciles as being

6:09

quote due to his mercantile life,

6:11

which along with travel, came with a certain

6:14

number of luxuries, and also

6:16

the necessity of like courting people

6:18

when it came to interactions of a business nature.

6:21

But merchant work was not what Salon

6:24

became famous for. An ongoing

6:26

conflict over occupation of

6:28

the island of Salamis was what

6:31

eventually put Salon in a position of notoriety.

6:34

Athens and its neighboring city,

6:37

Magara had been at war over Salamis

6:39

for a long time. This island sat and

6:41

sits between them. Both of them

6:43

were depleted by this ongoing

6:46

conflict. At this point, Magara

6:48

held the islands, but even in Athens,

6:51

most people wanted a little bit

6:53

of time to just rest and recuperate.

6:56

According to that Dryden translation,

6:58

there were even laws on the books in

7:00

Athens that quote, no one in the future,

7:03

on pain of death, should move in writing

7:05

or orally that the city take up its

7:07

contention for Salamis. Uh

7:10

Salon apparently did not agree with the idea

7:12

of just taking a breather from this war,

7:15

and he found it to be so disgraceful

7:18

that the leadership of Athens was like, let's

7:20

just drop this. Uh.

7:22

He found it so disgraceful that, according to Plutarch,

7:24

he created a ruse to enable

7:27

himself to speak out on the matter, even

7:29

though that was illegal. Yeah, So

7:31

that ruse was that Salen pretended

7:34

to be mad, or, as Dryden

7:36

translates it, out of his head,

7:38

and his family is said to have actually

7:40

shared the information that Salon

7:43

was not in his right mind with authorities,

7:45

kind of laying this groundwork that

7:48

he clearly, you know, should not be held accountable

7:50

for things that he said, so that if

7:53

and when he said something that was perceived as illegal

7:55

or inappropriate, everyone would know he's

7:57

not really responsible, and thus he would

7:59

have the death penalty. This

8:02

was all part of a bigger plan because it set the stage

8:05

for an oration that Salen had been preparing.

8:08

He had written it out and memorized it, and

8:10

when he felt ready, he walked out into the marketplace

8:14

and it was already crowded, but a crowd continued

8:16

to gather and he addressed those present,

8:18

and this was a poem that he called Salamis,

8:21

and it opened with the lines quote, behold

8:23

in me a herald come from lovely

8:25

Salamis with a song and ordered

8:28

verse instead of a harangue. This

8:31

poem, which was one hundred verses

8:33

long, was apparently quite moving and

8:35

inspired not only praise but also

8:38

a renewed desire to once again take

8:40

Salamis back from Magara and to

8:43

change that law. And when the decision

8:45

was made to return to warring

8:48

over the island, Athenians put Solin

8:50

in charge of the military effort. So

8:53

this does kind of open the question of why a merchant

8:56

would be put in such a position and also

8:59

why he was willing to risk the death

9:01

penalty to speak out about the issue in

9:03

the first place. While Plutarch

9:06

characterizes this as a matter of Athenian

9:08

pride, there are other factors that should

9:11

be considered. For one,

9:13

Salin's family was from Salamis, Salin

9:15

was born there, so he did feel an attachment

9:18

to that island and he wanted it to be

9:20

part of Athenian territory. But

9:23

there was also a matter of money.

9:26

In an article titled Solon and the Meagarian

9:28

Question, which was published in the Journal of Hellenistic

9:30

Studies in nineteen fifty seven, writer

9:33

A French notes quote the war for Salamis

9:36

was most probably fought to make possible

9:38

the free use to Athenian ships

9:40

of the ports of southern Attica, as

9:42

well as to open the route to the Isthmus

9:44

of Corinth. Perhaps even

9:46

with Salamis in enemy hands, Athenian ships

9:49

or ships trading with Athenians had

9:52

managed to run into the ports of southern Attica,

9:54

and no doubt the attempted molesting of such

9:57

ships had helped to keep the struggle alive.

10:00

But it is hard to believe that any great volume

10:02

of trade would have regularly passed this

10:04

dangerous way, and that there was a volume

10:06

of trade is fairly substantiated

10:09

not only by the Athenian success against

10:11

Magara, implying the existence

10:13

of substantial naval strength, but

10:15

also by the career of Solon himself,

10:18

by Solomon's measures affecting international

10:20

trade, and by the distribution of early

10:23

Attic pottery. So to

10:26

sum that up a bit, Solin's oration was

10:28

likely informed and motivated by

10:31

his work. If Solomis was

10:33

not controlled by Athens, Athenian

10:35

merchants like himself were likely

10:37

losing some of their potential business. Even

10:41

in the Plutarch account, two different

10:43

versions of how the Athenian effort

10:46

to retake Salamis played out, and

10:48

one the Athenians led a trap.

10:51

That's another ruse that was attributed

10:53

to Solon, and this trap,

10:55

they sent a fake informant to

10:57

the Megarians to tell them where the quote

11:00

chief Athenian women were

11:02

making their usual sacrifices to series.

11:05

This was suggesting that the Megarians

11:08

could easily capture the women there. But

11:10

when the troops of Magara acted on

11:12

this information and arrived at the Cape

11:15

of Colias, the Athenians were waiting

11:17

there. They were not women, they

11:19

were clean shaven men who had disguised

11:21

themselves as women. According

11:23

to Plutarch's version, none of the Megarians

11:26

got away. The Athenians were able

11:28

to sail to Salamis very easily and seize

11:30

it. As an aside, the Cape

11:33

of Colias was an area to the west

11:35

of that region of Attica, that's the historical

11:38

region of Attica that contained the city

11:40

of Athens. So in the second

11:42

possible way that things went down, Salin

11:45

got a message from the oracle at Delphi

11:47

that he had to make offerings to the heroes

11:50

of Salamis, which he did, and

11:52

then he gathered five hundred men of Athens

11:54

and mounted a small fleet and anchored

11:57

off the coast of Salamis, and when

11:59

a Megarian show went out to scout the area,

12:02

Saloon's men took it, and then they sailed

12:04

that ship back to Salamis for a

12:06

sneak attack. At the same time,

12:08

Salon mounted a ground assault, and while

12:11

he and the men with him engaged the army

12:13

of Megara, the men who were on that ship

12:15

were able to attack from the other side.

12:18

But this actually doesn't sound like a

12:20

win. Both sides continued

12:22

to fight, and eventually Spartans

12:25

were called in to arbitrate the situation.

12:28

The Spartans who examined the information

12:30

and made their determinations over who the victor

12:32

was were, according to Plutarch, Critulaitis,

12:35

Amampharidas, Hipsychitis,

12:38

Annexilis, and Cleomenes. And

12:41

they heard both sides of things, which included

12:43

some wheeling and dealing about various

12:45

people being given citizenship in Athens

12:48

as a potential way to work things out, and also

12:51

how the dead were to be buried, And

12:53

then they ultimately determined that Salin's

12:55

Athenian forces had won the battle

12:58

and the island up.

13:00

We'll talk about the responsibility Solon

13:02

was given after his military triumph

13:05

first, though we will pause for a sponsor

13:07

break.

13:17

As a result of his massive success

13:19

at Salamis, Solen was made the arkhon

13:21

of Athens, So that word arkhan

13:24

lends itself to a little bit of fuzziness, depending

13:26

on what definition you're looking at.

13:29

Beginning in six point eighty two BCE, Athens

13:31

had moved to a governance structure in which arkhan

13:34

served for one year terms of

13:36

leadership. This was a change

13:38

from the previous setup where arkans had lifetime

13:41

appointments, and of course that's a change from

13:43

a whole previous thing. But for the context

13:45

of arkon, to become an arkon, you

13:47

had to be elected, but you were elected by

13:50

previous arkhans. Commoners,

13:52

so to speak, did not have a voice. This

13:54

evolved over the course of a couple of decades

13:57

to be almost a committee or council

13:59

style of power structure called the areopagus,

14:02

where nine arkons led Athens.

14:05

Plutarch's description of Solon in this role,

14:07

which he likely stepped into in the five

14:10

nineties BCE, mentions

14:12

it as singular, though sometimes he's

14:14

called the chief Arkon, so he is

14:16

either the only one or the one that is leading

14:18

this group, depending on which translation you look at.

14:21

Plutarch quotes the oracle of Delphi

14:23

calling Solon the pilot of

14:25

Athens, and that's because he was

14:27

considered chief Arkon. The rest that

14:30

would have been there acted as a council kind

14:32

of under him, and that too, was

14:34

a setup that had evolved. There were different

14:36

names for different positions within that group

14:39

of the rest of the Arkans, but

14:41

having a chief Arkon had led to infighting

14:44

among the aristocratic families, who

14:46

all wanted their guide to be the chief

14:48

Arkhan. Of course, some Arkons

14:50

in various points had refused to give up their power

14:53

when their year was up, and that led to additional

14:55

infighting. H this was a

14:57

time when Athens really needed a

14:59

good life. There was

15:01

a very unbalanced situation

15:04

playing out economically. Most of

15:06

the wealth was in the hands of just a handful

15:08

of Athenians. In terms

15:10

of landholdings, almost all

15:13

the agricultural land that supported

15:15

people with food was owned

15:17

by that small ruling group, and

15:19

they had acquired it on the cheap when

15:22

struggling farmers had needed to sell it.

15:24

The rest of the people were in situations similar

15:26

to indentured servitude or sharecropping,

15:30

and that progressed into enslavement.

15:33

The common people who worked the land had

15:36

to pay one sixth of the value

15:38

of their crops to the owners of that land,

15:40

and if their payments fell short for any

15:42

reason, their debts were

15:44

paid with their own bodies or those of

15:46

their families. They basically became enslaved

15:49

to the landowners. In some

15:51

cases, people became enslaved

15:53

when they took loans from the wealthy they

15:56

offered their families as collateral.

15:59

They're really just wasn't any

16:01

way to gain enough income working

16:04

the lands to pay off a

16:06

debt, So this was a losing arrangement

16:08

for anybody except people who were already

16:11

wealthy. And then once a person became

16:13

enslaved, they could be forced to continue

16:15

working as farmers or they could

16:17

be sold off. Yeah, in some cases

16:19

they were sold off to people in

16:22

other countries or other city states. So it

16:25

was just a completely unstable

16:27

structure. This entire economic

16:29

problem was further complicated by the

16:31

politics at the time. The leadership

16:34

positions of Athens could only

16:36

be held by members of the aristocracy,

16:38

and they were certainly not going

16:40

to amend any laws to lose their power

16:43

over everyone else, since

16:45

most people were in some degree of predicament

16:47

or danger in terms of owing landowners'

16:50

money or being enslaved to them, or

16:52

being on the precipice of that situation.

16:55

The vast majority of Athens was

16:57

calling for reform, and Sullen,

17:00

who was outside of this particular

17:02

structure as a merchant, but who was

17:04

also from a noble family and

17:06

who was perceived as the hero who had

17:08

retaken Salamis, was looked

17:10

to as the person who could figure this whole

17:13

problem out. According

17:15

to Plutarch, quote, then the wisest

17:17

of the Athenians, perceiving Solon

17:19

was, of all men, the only one not implicated

17:22

in the troubles, that he had not joined

17:24

in the exactions of the rich and was not

17:26

involved in the necessities of the poor, pressed

17:29

him to succor the commonwealth and compose

17:31

the differences. He was

17:33

specifically asked to mediate the resolution

17:36

and to find a way that Athenians

17:38

and Athens could move forward before

17:40

the city state tore itself apart from

17:42

the inside. Plutarch

17:45

and Aristotle described Soloon as being really

17:47

reluctant to take this role because he knew

17:49

no matter what he did, he was likely going

17:51

to anger people. He had

17:53

apparently become known for saying, according

17:55

to Plutarch quote, when things are even, there

17:58

can never be war. But it

18:00

seems that everyone, regardless of their

18:02

wealth, perceived this to mean that

18:04

they would get the best end of the deal in

18:06

terms of what evenness meant. So

18:09

the wealthy thought that this meant everyone

18:11

would get their fair amount based on their

18:13

value and standing in society, which would

18:15

mean they still got a whole bunch of money or

18:17

a whole bunch of land, while the poor

18:19

interpreted it as being a promise to divide

18:22

wealth and prosperity of Athens evenly

18:25

among all of its citizens. When

18:27

he started this new role in five ninety

18:30

four BCE, Salin made some bold

18:32

moves. His first move is

18:34

frequently described as a racing all

18:37

debt, but that might be an overstatement.

18:40

It appears that the real way he altered

18:42

the debt system was to create

18:44

laws that forbade anyone from

18:46

using themselves or their family as

18:49

financial collateral, and he

18:51

enabled people to claim the land

18:53

that they worked as farmers, so that gave

18:55

them the financial footing to pay off

18:58

their debts. He also emancipated

19:00

people who had been enslaved because of

19:02

debt. Incidentally, he

19:05

was embroiled, according to Plutarch, in a

19:07

mild scandal over the idea of

19:10

forgiving debts. Apparently,

19:12

as he was working through his ideas and what

19:14

he was going to do, he spoke with some of

19:16

his friends about his plan to enact

19:18

debt forgiveness. And then those friends

19:21

with the inside tip went and borrowed a

19:23

bunch of money and purchased land with it in

19:25

anticipation of the debt soon being

19:27

erased. But again, debts

19:29

weren't canceled outright. A lot of them were

19:31

restructured and their interest agreements

19:33

amended to more reasonable terms. And

19:36

Solin himself had people who owed

19:38

him money and he fully forgave those

19:40

debts, and that kind of helped silence his

19:42

critics on the matter. But his friends

19:45

who did not reverse their

19:47

dealings they had made were pretty much perceived

19:50

as weasels after that. Naturally,

19:52

this whole debt forgiveness thing was

19:54

not popular with the aristocracy because

19:56

they felt like their wealth had been diminished.

19:59

The whoorr also were not really happy

20:01

because they thought the wealth of Athens

20:04

could be redistributed in a way that would

20:06

give them more of it. Solin

20:09

noted in his writing that any other man

20:11

would have made himself rich with the power

20:13

of the Arkon. Eventually, the initial

20:15

fury over the changes died down

20:18

those changes were accepted. His

20:20

debt relief efforts later came to

20:22

be known as seisachthea, which

20:24

translates to shaking off of burdens.

20:28

But Solin went further than that in

20:30

changing Athens completely in his time

20:32

as Arkan. He also laid

20:34

out a completely new class system,

20:37

and this was designed to appease the wealthy

20:39

by still giving them positions of leadership

20:41

within the government, and to appease

20:44

those of the lower classes by still giving

20:46

them a voice in how Athens was run.

20:49

He wrote a verse about his new system that

20:51

went like this quote, such power

20:53

I gave the people as might do, abridged

20:56

not what they had now lavish knew

20:58

those that were great and wealth, health and high in place.

21:01

My council likewise kept from all

21:03

disgrace before them. Both

21:05

I held my shield of might, and let

21:07

not either touch the others. Right, The

21:11

new system was based on what any given

21:13

person had, and used

21:15

that as a way to sort them into four

21:17

categories. These accountings

21:19

of holdings. They're translating slightly

21:21

differently depending on what translation

21:24

you're reading. For example, in

21:26

that John Dryden translation, the

21:28

first group, called the pentacosoid

21:30

medem noi, had to

21:32

have an estate that was worth quote, five hundred

21:35

measures of fruit, dry and liquid.

21:38

Other translations assign a value to that

21:40

measure that's more recognizable to modern

21:42

readers, so the requirement is described

21:45

as being that their land needed to yield at least

21:47

five hundred bushels of produce.

21:50

The second group was the hypaeus. These

21:53

were people whose production level was

21:55

three hundred to five hundred bushels per year

21:57

or quote, that could keep a horse.

22:00

Next was the zugatai, with two hundred

22:03

to three hundred bushels, and the last

22:05

group was the thetes, whose produce was

22:07

estimated at less than two hundred bushels.

22:10

People who worked the land as laborers

22:12

but did not own it were automatically put

22:14

into that last group as well. It kind of

22:16

became a catch all. And

22:18

the reason for all this accounting and

22:20

sorting was that in Solon's new system,

22:23

different levels of the social strata would

22:25

have different degrees of agency in

22:27

government. So members of the first

22:29

two classes could hold public office.

22:32

Members of the third class could hold lesser

22:35

roles in government. Members of the

22:37

fourth thetes group could not hold public

22:39

office, but they could quote come

22:41

to assembly and act as jurors.

22:45

Clutarch describes this as an

22:47

enormous privilege, noting that

22:49

this meant they had a say in all the many disputes

22:52

that were argued legally. But to some

22:54

historians it seems more likely that

22:56

overall the lives of people

22:59

in the Thetes class didn't change all that

23:01

much, although they did have legal equality

23:03

in a way they hadn't had before. Some

23:06

of this, according to Plutarch, was because he

23:08

was cagey about the way he wrote

23:10

his laws. Quote. Besides, it

23:13

is said that he was obscure and ambiguous

23:16

in the wording of his laws on purpose

23:18

to increase the honor of his courts.

23:20

For since their differences could not be adjusted

23:23

by the letter, they would have to bring

23:25

all their causes to the judges, who

23:28

thus were, in a manner masters

23:30

of the laws, so knowing

23:32

that any dispute would have a lot of gray

23:35

area no matter the social class

23:37

levels of each of the parties involved, they

23:39

would have to go before a court to make their

23:41

cases, so everyone's positions

23:44

would be heard. So

23:46

that sounds like maybe a pretty clever

23:48

trick on Solin's part, But it has gotten

23:50

a lot of criticism over the centuries,

23:53

and we're going to talk about some of that criticism

23:55

after we hear from the sponsors who keep the show

23:57

going. The

24:07

vague nature of Solin's law writing

24:10

has been criticized by many overtime,

24:12

most notably by Aristotle. Aristotle

24:15

did not believe the story that Salen had

24:17

carefully crafted nebulous laws to

24:19

ensure a sort of equality. Writing quote.

24:22

This, however, is not probable, and

24:24

the reason, no doubt, was that it is impossible

24:26

to attain ideal perfection when

24:29

framing a law in general terms, for

24:31

we must judge of his intentions not

24:34

from the actual results in the present day,

24:36

but from the general tenor of the rest of

24:38

his legislation. Aristotle

24:41

did, though, acknowledge that this nebulous

24:44

law writing resulted in greater representation

24:46

in the courts for the lower classes.

24:49

Another change that Salin made

24:51

was to wipe the Draconian laws

24:54

almost entirely off the books.

24:57

Draco had been a leader of Athens

24:59

a couple of decades before Solon and

25:01

had laid down a lot of very strict laws,

25:04

where the word draconian comes from.

25:07

Most crimes, even minor ones

25:09

like stealing a piece of fruit, were punishable

25:12

by death. Plutarch relays

25:14

the story of Draco being asked why

25:16

his laws insisted that even the mildest

25:19

crimes carried death sentences, and

25:21

his reply was, quote, small ones deserve

25:23

that, and I have no higher for

25:26

the greater crimes. This

25:28

ideology was very unpopular, so

25:31

Solin repealed all except for the laws

25:33

that related to homicide. Yeah,

25:35

especially when you consider that in the greater

25:37

context of the economic

25:40

problems we're talking about, where people didn't

25:42

have enough to eat, they didn't

25:44

have any money because they had to give it all towards

25:46

these mounting debts, there were probably

25:48

a lot of people stealing food, and like the

25:50

idea that they were going to die so that their

25:53

family could have bread was just

25:55

seen as really, really over the top. The

25:58

new laws under Solin were much more

26:00

reasonable. There are some varying

26:03

interpretations of how they came to

26:05

be. Salon is sometimes

26:07

credited with creating a council of four

26:09

hundred, that's one hundred men from

26:11

each of the four tribes of Athens, which, according

26:14

to Aristotle he quote, assigned

26:16

to the Council of the Areopagus the duty

26:18

of superintending the laws, acting

26:20

as before as the guardian of the constitution.

26:23

In general, it kept watch over

26:25

the affairs of state in most of the more important

26:27

matters, and corrected offenders with

26:29

full powers to inflict either fines

26:32

or personal punishment. But

26:34

it should be noted that Salon did not invent

26:36

the idea of the Council of four hundred.

26:39

Draco had done the same thing, although

26:41

his obviously worked in a different way. Aristotle

26:44

also describes the way that Salon set

26:46

his new laws in clear public

26:48

view once they were made quote.

26:51

The laws were inscribed on the wooden

26:53

stands and set up in the king's porch,

26:55

and all swore to obey them, and

26:58

the nine archons made oath upon

27:00

the stone, declaring they would dedicate

27:02

a golden statue if they should

27:05

transgress any of them. This is the

27:07

origin of the oath to that effect,

27:09

which they take to the present day. Salon

27:12

ratified his laws for one hundred

27:14

years. One hundred years sounds

27:16

like a long time, And once he thought

27:18

he had settled all of the major problems,

27:21

and set up a system that he believed would

27:23

work for all of the people of Athens.

27:26

Salon stepped down from the position of Arkhan,

27:28

and he left. He had created

27:31

legislation for inheritance, for

27:33

crimes, for how export and import

27:35

would work, for how political mechanisms

27:37

worked, laws about marriage and dowries,

27:40

and even a law that made it illegal

27:42

to speak ill of the dead. It was truly

27:44

a comprehensive package of guidelines.

27:47

And he did not want to be tempted

27:49

to change those rules. And he did not

27:52

want to hang around and let people complain to

27:54

him about those laws and try to get

27:56

him to repeal them. And so, according

27:59

to his legend, and he started traveling, leaving

28:01

Athens for ten years. Some

28:04

accounts indicate that the people of Athens

28:06

promised to abide by the laws that

28:08

Salin had set forth, and that that ten

28:10

year period was also so that they could become

28:13

completely established without people trying

28:15

to change them. Not all versions

28:17

of Salin's life story include this.

28:20

Plutarch's, for example, leaves it out, but

28:23

it does also suggest that Salin made

28:25

this decision after he had been harangued

28:27

by people for a little bit where he was just like, I'm

28:29

leaving. Salin's

28:31

first stop was Egypt, where

28:33

he's said to have studied with the most learned

28:36

priests and learned about the

28:38

lost City of Atlantis, a tale

28:40

he put into verse to bring home and share

28:42

with his fellow Greeks. He then

28:44

went to Cyprus and helped with the building

28:46

of a city by Demophon, who was the

28:48

son of Theseus. So we

28:50

mentioned at the top of the show that Solon appears

28:53

in the story of Criesus of Lydia, and

28:55

we mentioned that in our crisis episode,

28:57

but we'll go over it again in a brief version.

29:00

The way that one goes is that Salen decided

29:02

to visit the king he may have been summoned

29:04

to the king, and that Cresus spent their

29:06

entire visit showing off all that he had acquired,

29:09

and even had the staff of his household point

29:11

out all of the lux items that the king had

29:14

to show this visiting Athenian that he was

29:17

rich, rich, rich, And then Crisus

29:19

asked Salen who the most fortunate man

29:21

he had ever seen was, expecting,

29:24

of course, the answer to be Crisus,

29:26

but Salin said it was an Athenian named

29:28

Tellus, who had lived a good life and had

29:30

good children who all survived to adulthood

29:33

and had children of their own, and

29:35

that he had died an honorable death. And

29:38

then Crisus kept asking who the next most

29:40

fortunate man was that Salen had met, hoping

29:43

that the answer would eventually be him, but it was always

29:45

other people, often with much more

29:47

mundane lives. And finally Crisus

29:50

kind of pressed Solin about why he wasn't

29:52

on his list, and the Athenian stated that

29:54

he couldn't count any man happy until

29:57

his death, when he could see his life. In totality,

30:00

it's a pretty good story, but it's really

30:03

a parable about what's actually valuable

30:05

in life, And even though Plutarch includes

30:07

it in his account of Solin's life, he

30:10

himself kind of suggests

30:12

that it's probably fiction and notes that it

30:14

doesn't fit the actual timeline

30:16

of history, writing quote that Solon

30:19

should discourse with Creases. Some

30:21

think not agreeable with chronology, but

30:23

I cannot reject so famous and well attested

30:26

a narrative, and what is more so, agreeable

30:28

to Solon's temper and so worthy

30:30

his wisdom and greatness of mind.

30:33

The reason there were arguments about whether it could

30:35

be real is because Creases's rain would

30:37

have only begun kind of right as Solin's

30:40

ten years away from Athens would have ended.

30:42

And that's even if all of the dates

30:45

that we think we know are correct, which

30:47

of course is its own problem. A lot of them

30:49

are estimates. Back home

30:51

in Athens, things were not going

30:54

great. Initially, all of Salin's

30:56

new laws and reforms seems

30:58

to work out okay, but after a few

31:00

years there was in fighting in discord.

31:03

People started to jockey for power,

31:06

so when he got back it was kind

31:08

of a mess. People were glad to see

31:10

him, but he was too old to

31:12

really take on the job of totally reorganizing

31:15

everything again. He did meet

31:17

with leaders of the various factions

31:19

in this conflict to try to help find a

31:21

resolution, but a man

31:24

named Pessistratus ultimately

31:26

seized power. Solin was deeply

31:29

opposed to his rule and protested

31:31

it, even though he was quite old

31:33

at this point, and his friends encouraged him

31:35

to leave the city. He made speeches

31:38

to try to stop the rising tyranny

31:40

of Pisistratus. When

31:42

Salin was asked why he felt so

31:45

emboldened to challenge Pisistratus,

31:48

he answered that it was his old age.

31:51

Yeah, he was kind of like, I'm running on empty, I might

31:53

as well gun it, like I'm I'm gonna

31:55

fight the power. But

31:58

there is an interesting turn about that happened where

32:00

Pisistratus did not kill Solin,

32:02

although a lot of people expected him to instead.

32:05

According to Plutarch, he quotes so extremely

32:08

courted Solon, so honored him, obliged

32:11

him, and sent to see him that Salin

32:13

gave him his advice and approved

32:15

many of his actions. For he retained

32:18

most of Soalin's laws, observed them

32:20

himself, and compelled his friends to obey.

32:23

So there's an interesting thing here right where Pisistratus

32:26

is considered a tyrant most of the time if

32:28

you look him up today, because

32:31

he gained his power by force, But he is

32:33

also credited with making Athens very

32:36

prosperous and kind of bringing about

32:38

an age of not just prosperity

32:40

but stability. The length

32:43

of time that Salen lived after

32:45

the rule of Pisistratus is really

32:47

different among the varying accounts.

32:49

Some say just a couple of years, others

32:52

a very long time. He worked

32:54

on his verse story about Atlantis

32:56

toward the end of his life, but was not able to finish

32:59

it. It said that when he died, his ashes

33:01

were scattered around Salamis, in

33:03

accordance with his wishes. But Plutarch writes

33:06

quote, the story that his ashes were scattered

33:08

about the island Salamis is too strange

33:10

to be easily believed or be thought

33:13

anything but a mere fable, And yet

33:15

it is given, amongst other good

33:17

authors, by Aristotle the philosopher.

33:20

This cracks me up because

33:22

he's like, well, so many people said he

33:25

met Criesus. That must have happened, But

33:27

this whole scattering of ashes seems bananas.

33:29

That couldn't have. Of

33:32

the two, one is very easy to be

33:34

believed. In my opinion, it just

33:36

makes me giggle. So we have noted

33:38

in this episode that Solin wrote

33:40

a lot of verse, so I thought it seemed fitting

33:42

to end with one brief line that he wrote

33:45

late in his life, which is a pretty good

33:47

piece of advice, and I feel like is very much in

33:49

the spirit of stuff you missed in history class, and

33:51

that is each day grow

33:53

older and learn something new. Sounds

33:56

great to me sure, So

33:59

finally I have knocked Solin

34:01

off of my list. All Ray and the

34:03

universe can stop sending me pro solid

34:05

propaganda. Hopefully no more

34:08

people called Solin being jerks on the

34:10

internet especially. I mean, listen,

34:12

people will always invoke any philosopher

34:15

and then kind of put together a profile of like

34:17

just being cruel and mean because

34:20

people just want to be mean on social media. That's

34:22

fine. It wasn't mean to me. I just noticed he was being

34:24

a jerk anyway. Don't be

34:26

a jerk to people online or in your life. I

34:29

have a fun piece of email

34:32

about both popcorn and the

34:34

way someone's family

34:37

connects to history we've talked about. This

34:40

is from our listener Ray,

34:42

who writes, Dear Holly and Tracy. In

34:45

the behind the Scenes about your History of Popcorn

34:47

episode, you talked about different cooking

34:49

methods and I needed to add to the list. I'm

34:52

pretty sure this was also something I got from

34:54

Alton Brown, so of course it works brilliantly.

34:57

Just tossed about a quarter cup of popcorn kernels

34:59

in a brown paper lunch bag, add

35:01

oil and seasonings if you like, and then add

35:03

afterward like air popped, fold the end,

35:05

and staple it closed. I'm going

35:07

to have an aside here. I do remember

35:10

there being a

35:13

very early version of this where

35:15

I think too it was Alton Brown that said, like you

35:18

can use a staple, it will not cause

35:21

problems in your microwave. However, if

35:23

you look up his recipe

35:25

today on Food Network or any

35:28

of the other websites that carry it, the

35:30

staple is no longer recommended. It's a

35:32

double fold that's like hard creased so

35:35

that you don't run a foul of anything in

35:37

your microwave. But

35:40

then, I'm so my aside is ended. Don't

35:42

put metal in your microwave, and microwave

35:45

three continues the same way you would store

35:47

bought microwave popcorn. Now that

35:50

I've gotten the important popcorn info in

35:52

the real reason I wanted to write to you for years

35:54

is just a fun fact that probably has little interest

35:57

to anyone outside my family and friends.

36:00

An interview about the Lower east Side Tenement

36:02

Museum sometime before I started listening.

36:05

I was excited to see it when I looked at the back

36:07

catalog, because my family's apartment

36:09

is preserved as an exhibit in that museum.

36:12

They weren't mentioned in the episodes, but I remember

36:14

going to the opening when I was a little kid, and

36:16

it was so fascinating They do an incredible

36:19

job with engaging young people and making connections

36:21

to history, even for those who aren't

36:23

literally looking at their great great aunts

36:25

and uncles. I'm also including pictures

36:28

of my senior pitbull Karma, not so

36:30

much as pet tax as an excuse to shove

36:32

pictures of my dog in someone else's face. This

36:35

week. Baby turned fifteen in January, and she's

36:37

definitely the best dog ever. No bias,

36:40

Okay, one yes,

36:42

popcorn at home, easy PC. You don't have to

36:44

buy microwave. I buy microwaves sometimes because I'm

36:46

lazy and it's pre portioned and I

36:48

don't have to think, and sometimes that's how I want to snack.

36:51

But I have often used

36:53

the paperbag trick and it works just fine. I

36:56

love the idea of knowing that your family's

36:58

apartment is part of the ten museum. That is

37:00

cool, and that is a very cool

37:03

museum. Karma

37:05

is so cute. I want to kiss

37:07

her face. Her eyes just

37:10

stare right into my heart and they're so

37:12

She's so cute. I love a pity.

37:15

You know, they

37:17

get a lot of bed press, But I have known some

37:20

of the sweetest dogs I have ever known in my life

37:22

are pip bulls who are just big hunks

37:26

of muscly adoration. They

37:28

just want to be a lappuppy and hugging

37:31

kiss all the time. I love them. Yeah, I

37:33

think there are probably

37:36

people currently typing angry emails

37:38

about metal in the microwave. I'm

37:41

just gonna say there's some nuance to

37:43

that. It's not a podcast to

37:45

give advice on it. Yeah,

37:47

listen, I just am My thing

37:50

is I was like, always steer clear of

37:52

any risk when it comes

37:55

to your snacks. There's

37:57

just no reason to take a risk for a snack.

38:00

So in the behind the

38:02

scenes I will talk about a very silly

38:04

experiment my husband and I did many mini

38:07

Oh yeah, I know exactly the experiment

38:09

you're talking about. Yes, it was so fun. I

38:11

highly recommend it in a controlled

38:13

situation. Ray. Anyway, Ray, thank you

38:15

so much for sharing pictures of karma,

38:18

once again invoking my favorite snack, and

38:20

sharing your family's connection to the Tenement Museum.

38:23

If you would like to write us, you can do so at

38:25

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38:27

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