ommenced an epic poem upon
this subject, but he did not live to finish it, and nothing of it now
remains. From Egypt he went to Cyprus, where he visited the small town
of AEpia, said to have been originally founded by Demophon, son of
Theseus, and ruled at this period by the prince Philocyprus--each town
in Cyprus having its own petty prince. It was situated near the river
Clarius in a position precipitous and secure, but inconvenient and
ill-supplied, Solon persuaded Philocyprus to quit the old site and
establish a new town down in the fertile plain beneath. He himself
stayed and became _aecist_ of the new establishment, making all the
regulations requisite for its safe and prosperous march, which was
indeed so decisively manifested that many new settlers flocked into the
new plantation, called by Philocyprus _Soli_, in honor of Solon. To our
deep regret, we are not permitted to know what these regulations were;
but the general fact is attested by the poems of Solon himself, and the
lines in which he bade farewell to Philocyprus on quitting the island
are yet before us. On the dispositions of this prince his poem bestowed
unqualified commendation.

Besides his visit to Egypt and Cyprus, a story was also current of his
having conversed with the Lydian king Croesus at Sardis. The
communication said to have taken place between them has been woven by
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.

But even if no chronological objections existed, the moral purpose of
the tale is so prominent, and pervades it so systematically from
beginning to end, that these internal grounds are of themselves
sufficiently strong to impeach its credibility as a matter of fact,
unless such doubts happen to be out-weighed--which in this case they are
not--by good contemporary testimony. The narrative of Solon and Croesus
can be taken for nothing else but an illustrative fiction, borrowed by
Herodotus from some philosopher, and clothed in his own peculiar beauty
of expression, which on this occasion is more decidedly poetical than is
habitual with him. I cannot transcribe, and I hardly dare to abridge it.
The vainglorious Croesus, at the summ