"Mourned let me die; and may I,
when life ends,
Occasion sighs and sorrows to my
friends,''
is evidence to Poplicola's happiness;
his death did not only draw tears from his friends and acquaintance, but
was the object of universal regret and sorrow through the whole city, the
women deplored his loss as that of a son, brother, or common father. ``Wealth
I would have,'' said Solon, ``but wealth by wrong procure would not,''
because punishment would follow. But Poplicola's riches were not only justly
his, but he spent them nobly in doing good to the distressed. So that if
Solon was reputed the wisest man, we must allow Poplicola to be the happiest;
for what Solon wished for as the greatest and most perfect good, this Poplicola
had, and used and enjoyed to his death.
And as Solon may thus be said to
have contributed to Poplicola's glory, so did also Poplicola to his, by
his choice of him as his model in the formation of republican institutions;
in reducing, for example, the excessive powers and assumption of the consulship.
Several of his laws, indeed, he actually transferred to Rome, as his empowering
the people to elect their officers, and allowing offenders the liberty
of appealing to the people, as Solon did to the jurors. He did not, indeed,
create a new senate, as Solon did, but augmented the old to almost double
its number. The appointment of treasurers again, the quaestors, has a like
origin; with the intent that the chief magistrate should not, if of good
character, be withdrawn from greater matters; or, if bad, have the greater
temptation to injustice, by holding both the government and treasury in
his hands. The aversion to tyranny was stronger in Poplicola; any one who
attempted usurpation could, by Solon's law, only be punished upon conviction;
but Poplicola made it death before a trial. And though Solon justly gloried,
that, when arbitrary power was absolutely offered to him by circumstances,
and when his countrymen would have willingly seen him accept it, he yet
declined it; still Poplicola merited no less, who, receiving a despotic
command, converted it to a popular office, and did not employ the whole
legal power which he held. We must allow, indeed, that Solon was before
Poplicola in observing that-
"A people always minds its rulers
best
When it is neither humoured nor
oppressed.''
The remission of debts was peculiar
to Solon; it was his great means for confirming the citizens' liberty;
for a mere law to give all men equal rights is but useless, if the poor
must sacrifice those rights to their debts, and, in the very seats and
sanctuaries of equality, the courts of justice, the offices of state, and
the public discussions, be more than anywhere at the beck and bidding of
the rich. A yet more extraordinary success was, that, although usually
civil violence is caused by any remission of debts, upon this one occasion
this dangerous but powerful remedy actually put an end to the civil violence
already existing, Solon's own private worth and reputation overbalancing
all the ordinary ill-repute and discredit of the change. The beginning
of his government was more glorious, for he was entirely original, and
followed no man's example, and, without the aid of any ally, achieved his
most important measures by his own conduct; yet the close of Poplicola's
life was more happy and desirable, for Solon saw the dissolution of his
own commonwealth, Poplicola maintained the state in good order to the civil
wars. Solon, leaving his laws, as soon as he had made them, engraved in
wood, but destitute of a defender, departed from Athens; whilst Poplicola,
remaining both in and out of office, laboured to establish the government.
Solon, though he actually knew of Pisistratus's ambition, yet was not able
to suppress it, but had to yield to usurpation in its infancy; whereas
Poplicola utterly subverted and dissolved a potent monarchy, strongly settled
by long continuance; uniting thus to virtues equal to those, and purposes
identical with those of Solon, the good fortune and the power that alone
could make them effective.
In military exploits, Daimachus of
Plataea will not even allow Solon the conduct of the war against the Megarians,
as was before intimated; but Poplicola was victorious in the most important
conflicts, both as a private soldier and commander. In domestic politics,
also, Solon, in play, as it were, and by counterfeiting madness induced
the enterprise against Salamis; whereas Poplicola, in the very beginning,
exposed himself to the greatest risk, took arms against Tarquin, detected
the conspiracy, and, being principally concerned both in preventing the
escape of and afterwards punishing the traitors, not only expelled the
tyrants from the city, but extirpated their very hopes. And as, in cases
calling for contest and resistance and manful opposition, he behaved with
courage and resolution, so, in instances where peaceable language, persuasion,
and concession were requisite, he was yet more to be commended; and succeeded
in gaining happily to reconciliation and friendship, Porsenna, a terrible
and invincible enemy. Some may, perhaps, object that Solon recovered Salamis,
which they had lost, for the Athenians; whereas Poplicola receded from
part of what the Romans were at that time possessed of; but judgment is
to be made of actions according to the times in which they were performed.
The conduct of a wise politician is ever suited to the present posture
of affairs; often by foregoing a part he saves the whole, and by yielding
in a small matter secures a greater; and so Poplicola, by restoring what
the Romans had lately usurped, saved their undoubted patrimony, and procured,
moreover, the stores of the enemy for those who were only too thankful
to secure their city. Permitting the decision of the controversy to his
adversary, he not only got the victory, but likewise what he himself would
willingly have given to purchase the victory, Porsenna putting an end to
the war, and leaving them all the provision of his camp, from the sense
of the virtue and gallant disposition of the Romans which their consul
had impressed upon him. |
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