THE   SEISACHTHEIA  143

for  it  happened  that  when  Solon  was  about  to  make  the  seisachtheia,
he  told  his  plan  in  advance  to  some  of  the  nobles ;  and  then,  as  the
popular  party  say,  he  was  outgeneraled  by  his  friends ;  but  as  they
say  who  wish  to  calumniate  him,  he  shared  in  the  gain.  Now  these
nobles,  borrowing  money,  bought  up  a  large  tract  of  land,  and  no
long  time  afterward,  when  the  abolition  of  debts  took  place,  they
became  wealthy ;  thus  they  say  arose  the  families  reputed  to  be  of
ancient  wealth.^  In  point  of  fact,  however,  the  account  given  by
the  popular  party  is  more  credible ;  for  it  is  not  reasonable  that  a
man  who  in  other  matters  proved  himself  so  moderate  and  so
patriotic  that,  when  it  was  permitted  him  by  conspiring  with  either
party  to  make  himself  tyrant  of  the  state,  he  incurred  the  enmity
of  both  factions  and  placed  a  higher  value  on  honor  and  on  the
safety  of  the  state  than  on  his  own  advantage  —  it  is  not  reasonable,
I  say,  that  such  a  man  should  debase  himself  in  transactions  so
mean  and  unworthy.  That  he  had  this  opportimity  the  disordered
condition  of  affairs  testifies,  and  he  himself  often  mentions  it  in  his
poems,  while  all  acknowledge  it  to  be  so.  It  is  necessary,  there-
fore, to  consider  the  charge  false.
