Others have been lawgivers, either in their own or in
foreign cities, whose affairs they have administered; and of these
some have only made laws, others have framed constitutions; for
example, Lycurgus and Solon did both. Of the Lacedaemonian
constitution I have already spoken. As to Solon, he is thought by some
to have been a good legislator, who put an end to the exclusiveness of
the oligarchy, emancipated the people, established the ancient
Athenian democracy, and harmonized the different elements of the
state. According to their view, the council of Areopagus was an
oligarchical element, the elected magistracy, aristocratical, and
the courts of law, democratical. The truth seems to be that the
council and the elected magistracy existed before the time of Solon,
and were retained by him, but that he formed the courts of law out
of an the citizens, thus creating the democracy, which is the very
reason why he is sometimes blamed. For in giving the supreme power
to the law courts, which are elected by lot, he is thought to have
destroyed the non-democratic element. When the law courts grew
powerful, to please the people who were now playing the tyrant the old
constitution was changed into the existing democracy. Ephialtes and
Pericles curtailed the power of the Areopagus; Pericles also
instituted the payment of the juries, and thus every demagogue in turn
increased the power of the democracy until it became what we now
see.
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