Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/165

SOLON AND CRCESUS. 14j Besides his visit to Egypt and Cyprus, a story was also current of his having conversed with the Lydian king Croesus, at Sardis ; and the communication said to have taken place between them, has been woven hy Herodotus into a sort of moral tale, which forms one of the most beautiful episodes in his whole history. Though this tale has been told and retold as if it were genuine history, yet, as it now stands, it is irreconcilable with chronology, although, very possibly, Solon may at some time or other have visited Sardis, and seen Croesus as hereditary prince. 1 1 Plutarch tells us that several authors rejected the reality of this interview as being chronologically impossible. It is to be recollected that the question all turns upon the interview as described by Herodotus and its alleged sequel ; r or that there may have been an interview between Solon and Croesus at Sardis, at some period between B. c. 594 and 560, is possible, though not shown. It is evident that Solon made no mention of any interview with Croesus in his poems ; otherwise, the dispute would have been settled at once. Now this, in a man like Solon, amounts to negative evidence of some value for he noticed in his poems both Egypt and the prince Philokyprus in Cyprus, and had there been any conversation so impressive as that which Ilcrodotus relates, between him and Croesus, he could hardly have failed to mention it. "Wcsseling, Larchcr, Yolney, and Mr. Clinton, all try to obviate the chro nological difficulties, and to save the historical character of this interview, but in my judgment unsuccessfully. See Mr. Clinton's F. II. ad ann. 546 0. c., and Appendix, c. 17, p. 298. The chronological data are these, Croesus was born in 595 B. c., one year before the legislation of Solon : he succeeded to his father at the age of thirty-five, in 560 B. c. : he was over- thrown, and Sardis captured, in 546 B. c., by Cyrus. Mr. Clinton, after Wcsseling and the others, supposes that Croesus was king jointly with his father Halyattes, during the lifetime of the latter, and that Solon visited Lydia and conversed with Croesus during this joint reign in 570 B. c. " We may suppose that Solon left Athens in B. c. 575, about twenty years after his archonship, and returned thither in B. c. 565, about five years before the usurpation of Peisistratus." (p. 300.) Upon which hypothesis we may remark : 1. The arguments whereby Wesseling and Mr. Clinton endeavor to show that Croasus was king jointly with his father, do not sustain the conclusion The passage of Xikolaus Damaskenus, which is produced to show that it was Halyattes (and not Croesus) who conquered Karia, only attests that Halyat- tes marched with an armed force into Karia (eirt Kapiai a-pa-evuv) : this same author states, that Croesus was deputed by Halyattes to govern Adramyttiun and the plain of TMb& (upx flv uT^oSedeiynevo^ ), but Mr. Clintos