also
directed their march. The Megarians marched out from the city to repel
the latter, and during the heat of the engagement Solon, with his
Megarian ship and Athenian crew, sailed directly to the city. The
Megarians, interpreting this as the return of their own crew, permitted
the ship to approach without resistance, and the city was thus taken by
surprise. Permission having been given to the Megarians to quit the
island, Solon took possession of it for the Athenians, erecting a temple
to Enyalius, the god of war, on Cape Sciradium, near the city of
Salamis.

The citizens of Megara, however, made various efforts for the recovery
of so valuable a possession, so that a war ensued long as well as
disastrous to both parties. At last it was agreed between them to refer
the dispute to the arbitration of Sparta, and five Spartans were
appointed to decide it--Critolaidas, Amompharetus, Hypsechidas,
Anaxilas, and Cleomenes. The verdict in favor of Athens was founded on
evidence which it is somewhat curious to trace. Both parties attempted
to show that the dead bodies buried in the island conformed to their own
peculiar mode of interment, and both parties are said to have cited
verses from the catalogue of the _Iliad_--each accusing the other of
error or interpolation. But the Athenians had the advantage on two
points: first, there were oracles from Delphi, wherein Salamis was
mentioned with the epithet Ionian; next Philaeus and Eurysaces, sons of
the Telamonian Ajax, the great hero of the island, had accepted the
citizenship of Athens, made over Salamis to the Athenians, and
transferred their own residences to Brauron and Melite in Attica, where
the _deme_, or _gens_, Philaidae still worshipped Philaeus as its
eponymous ancestor. Such a title was held sufficient, and Salamis was
adjudged by the five Spartans to Attica, with which it ever afterward
remained incorporated until the days of Macedonian supremacy. Two
centuries and a half later, when the orator AEschines argued the Athenian
right to Amphipolis against Philip of Macedon, the legendary elements of
the title were indeed put forward, but more in the way of preface or
introduction to the substantial political grounds. But in the year 600
B.C. the authority of the legend was more deep-seated and operative, and
adequate by itself to determine a favorable verdict.

In addition to the conquest of Salamis, Solon increased his reputation
by espousing the cause of the Delphia