a right of appeal to the people from
other courts, just as Solon had done. He did not, like Solon, make two
senates, but he increased the existing one to nearly double its number.
His grounds for the appointment of quaestors was to give the consul
leisure for more important matters, if he was an honest man; and if he
was a bad man, to remove the opportunity of fraud which he would have
had if he were supreme over the state and the treasury at once. In
hatred of tyrants Poplicola exceeded Solon, for he fixed the penalty for
a man who might be proved to be attempting to make himself king, whereas
the Roman allowed any one to kill him without trial. And while Solon
justly prided himself upon his having been offered the opportunity to
make himself despot, with the full consent of his fellow-countrymen, and
yet having refused it, Poplicola deserves even greater credit for having
been placed in an office of almost despotic power, and having made it
more popular, not using the privileges with which he was entrusted.
Indeed Solon seems to have been the first to perceive that a people

"Obeys its rulers best,
When not too free, yet not too much opprest."

III. The relief of debtors was a device peculiar to Solon, which, more
than anything else confirmed the liberty of the citizens. For laws to
establish equality are of no use if poor men are prevented from enjoying
it because of their debts; and in the states which appear to be the most
free, men become mere slaves to the rich, and conduct the whole business
of the state at their dictation. It should be especially noted that
although an abolition of debt would naturally produce a civil war, yet
this measure of Solon's, like an unusual but powerful dose of medicine,
actually put an end to the existing condition of internal strife; for
the well-known probity of Solon's character outweighed the discredit of
the means to which he resorted. In fact Solon began his public life with
greater glory than Poplicola, for he was the leading spirit, and
followed no man, but entirely single handed effected the most important
reforms; while Poplicola was more enviable and fortunate at the close of
his career.

Solon himself saw his own constitution overthrown, while that of
Poplicola preserved order in the city down to the time of the civil
wars; and the reason was that Solon, as soon as he had enacted his laws,
went on his travels, leaving them written on wooden