When this enlightened and disinterested man had finished his work of legislation, 494 B.C., he visited Egypt and Cyprus, and devoted his leisure to the composition of poems.  He also, it is said, when a prisoner in the hands of the Persians, visited Croesus, the rich king of Lydia, and gave to him an admonitory lesson on the vicissitudes of life.  After a prolonged absence, Solon returned to Athens about the time of the usurpation of his kinsman Peisistratus (560 B.C.), who, however, suffered the aged legislator and patriot to go unharmed, and even allowed most of his laws to remain in force.

The constitution and laws of Athens continued substantially for about a hundred years after the archonship of Solon, when the democratic party under Cleisthenes gained complete ascendency.  Some modification of the laws was then made.  The political franchise was extended to all free native Athenians.  The command of the military forces was given to ten generals, one from each tribe, instead of being intrusted to one of the archons.  The Ecclesia, a formal assembly of the citizens, met more frequently.  The people were called into direct action as dikasts, or jurors; all citizens were eligible to the magistracy, even to the archonship; ostracism,—­which virtually was exile without disgrace,—­became a political necessity to check the ascendency of demagogues.

Such were the main features of the constitution and jurisprudence of Athens when the struggle between the patricians and plebeians of Rome began, to which we now give our attention.  It was the real beginning of constitutional liberty in Rome.  Before this time the government was in the hands either of kings or aristocrats.  The patricians were descendants of the original Latin, Sabine, and Etruscan families; the plebeians were the throng of common folk brought in by conquest or later immigration,—­mostly of Latin origin.  The senate was the ruling power after the expulsion of the kings, and senators were selected from the great patrician families, who controlled by their wealth and influence the popular elections, the army and navy, and all foreign relations.  Consuls, the highest magistrates, who commanded the armies, were annually elected by the people; but for several centuries the consuls belonged to great families.  The constitution was essentially aristocratic, and the aristocracy was based on wealth.  Power was in the hands of nobles, whether their ancestors were patricians or plebeians, although in the early ages of the Republic they were mostly patricians by birth.  But with the growth of Rome new families that were not descended from the ancient tribes became prominent,—­like the Claudii, the Julii, and the Servilii,—­and were incorporated with the nobility.  There are very few names in Roman history before the time of Marius which did not belong to this noble class.  The plebs, or common people, had at first no political privileges whatever, not even the right of suffrage, and were not allowed to marry into patrician rank.  Indeed, they were politically and socially oppressed.