Solon moreover is said to have purposely worded his laws vaguely and
with several interpretations, in order to increase the powers of these
juries, because persons who could not settle their disputes by the
letter of the law were obliged to have recourse to juries of the people,
and to refer all disputes to them, as being to a certain extent above
the laws. He himself notices this in the following verses:
"I gave the people all the strength they needed,
Yet kept the power of the nobles strong;
Thus each from other's violence I shielded,
Not letting either do the other wrong."
Thinking that the weakness of the populace required still further
protection, he permitted any man to prosecute on behalf of any other who
might be ill-treated. Thus if a man were struck or injured, any one else
who was able and willing might prosecute on his behalf, and the
lawgiver by this means endeavoured to make the whole body of citizens
act together and feel as one. A saying of his is recorded which quite
agrees with the spirit of this law. Being asked, what he thought was the
best managed city? "That," he answered, "in which those who are not
wronged espouse the cause of those who are, and punish their
oppressors."
XIX. He established the senate of the Areopagus of those who had held
the yearly office of archon, and himself became a member of it because
he had been archon.
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