and might have made himself king.  He abolished the custom of selling the body of a debtor for debt, and even annulled debts in a state of general distress,—­which did not please the rich, nor even the poor, since they desired a redivision of lands such as Lycurgus had made in Sparta.  He repealed the severe laws of Draco, which inflicted capital punishment for so many small offences, retaining the extreme penalty only for murder and treason.  In order further to promote the interests of the people, he empowered any man whatever to enter an action for one that was injured.  He left the great offices of state, however, in the hands of the rich, giving the people a share in those which were not so important.  He re-established the council of the Areopagus, composed of those who had been archons, and nine were appointed annually for the general guardianship of the laws; but he instituted another court or senate of four hundred citizens, for the cognizance of all matters before they were submitted to the higher court.  Although the poorest and most numerous class were not eligible for office, they had the right of suffrage, and could vote for the principal officers.  It would at first seem that the legislation of Solon gave especial privileges to the rich, but it is generally understood that he was the founder of the democracy of Athens.  He gave the Athenians, not the best possible code, but the best they were capable of receiving.  He intended to give to the people as much power as was strictly needed, and no more; but in a free State the people continually encroach on the privileges of the rich, and thus gradually the chief power falls into their hands.

Whatever the power which Solon gave to the people, and however great their subsequent encroachments, it cannot be doubted that he was the first to lay the foundations of constitutional government,—­that is, one in which the people took part in legislation and in the election of rulers.  The greatest benefit which he conferred on the State was in the laws which gave relief to poor debtors, those which enabled people to protect themselves by constitutional means, and those which prohibited fathers from selling their daughters and sisters for slaves,—­an abomination which had long disgraced the Athenian republic.

Some of Solon’s laws were of questionable utility.  He prohibited the exportation of the fruits of the soil in Attica, with the exception of olive-oil alone,—­a regulation difficult to be enforced in a mercantile State.  Neither would he grant citizenship to immigrants; and he released sons from supporting their parents in old age if the parents had neglected to give them a trade.  He encouraged all developments of national industries, knowing that the wealth of the State depended on them.  Solon was the first Athenian legislator who granted the power of testamentary bequests when a man had no legitimate children.  Sons succeeded to the property of their parents, with the obligation of giving a marriage dowry to their sisters.  If there were no sons, the daughters inherited the property of their parents; but a person who had no children could bequeath his property to whom he pleased.  Solon prohibited costly sacrifices at funerals; he forbade evil-speaking of the dead, and indeed of all persons before judges and archons; he pronounced a man infamous who took part in a sedition.