14.6
And as for the ridicule which many heaped upon him for refusing the tyranny, he has written as follows;— Solon was a shallow thinker and a man of counsel void; When the gods would give him blessings, of his own will he refused. When his net was full of fish, amazed, he would not pull it in, All for lack of spirit, and because he was bereft of sense. I had certainly been willing, for the power, and boundless wealth, And to be tyrant over Athens no more than a single day, Then to have a pouch flayed from me, and my lineage blotted out.Fragment 33 (Bergk). Solon, Frag. 33 (Bergk).
15.1
Thus he represents the multitude and men of low degree as speaking of him. However, though he rejected the tyranny, he did not administer affairs in the mildest possible manner, nor in the enactment of his laws did he show a feeble spirit, nor make concessions to the powerful, nor consult the pleasure of his electors. Nay, where a condition was as good as it could well be, he applied no remedy, and introduced no innovation, fearing lest, after utterly confusing and confounding the city, he should be too weak to establish it again and recompose it for the best.
15.2
But those things wherein he hoped to find them open to persuasion or submissive to compulsion, these he did, Combining both force and justice together, Solon, Frag. 36. 14 (Bergk) as he says himself. Therefore when he was afterwards asked if he had enacted the best laws for the Athenians, he replied, The best they would receive.
15.2
Now later writers observe that the ancient Athenians used to cover up the ugliness of things with auspicious and kindly terms, giving them polite and endearing names.
