person
Solon
Athenian lawgiver and one of the Seven Sages of Greece (c. 638-558 BC).
Reading notes
- Ad Atticum 10.1 §2 the law of Solon
The Athenian lawgiver Solon was traditionally said to have made it a capital offence to remain neutral in civil strife, forcing every citizen to take a side. Cicero invokes the law only to set it aside, justifying his own attempt at non-alignment between Caesar and Pompey.
- Ad M. Brutum 1.15 §3 Solon's saying
Solon (c. 638–558 BC), Athenian statesman and lawgiver, was counted the wisest of the canonical Seven Sages of Greece; Cicero attributes to him the maxim that the commonwealth rests on two pillars — reward and punishment — a version of which appears in Solon's own fragments and was a commonplace of political philosophy.
- On the Ends of Good and Evil §3.75 that one of the Seven Sages, with no wisdom, counselled to Croesus
An allusion to the Herodotean story of Solon's warning to Croesus that no man should be called happy until his life has ended well. Cicero, as a Stoic here, faults this counsel: the wise man is happy throughout, not only at death's verdict.
- On Duties §1.108 Solon, who, so that his life might be safer
Solon, the Athenian lawgiver, who feigned madness to evade a law against urging the recovery of Salamis and thereby roused the city to take it. Cicero lists the ruse among examples of shrewd statesmanlike cunning.