But Solon had not the power to change the whole life of his countrymen
by his laws, but rather was forced to suit his laws to existing
circumstances, and, as he saw that the soil was so poor that it could
only suffice for the farmers, and was unable to feed a mass of idle
people as well, he gave great honour to trade, and gave powers to the
senate of the Areopagus to inquire what each man's source of income
might be, and to punish the idle. A harsher measure was that of which we
are told by Herakleides of Pontus, his making it unnecessary for
illegitimate children to maintain their father. Yet if a man abstains
from an honourable marriage, and lives with a woman more for his own
pleasure in her society than with a view to producing a family, he is
rightly served, and cannot upbraid his children with neglecting him,
because he has made their birth their reproach.
XXIII. Altogether Solon's laws concerning women are very strange. He
permitted a husband to kill an adulterer taken in the act; but if any
one carried off a free woman and forced her, he assessed the penalty at
one hundred drachmas. If he obtained her favours by persuasion, he was
to pay twenty drachmas, except in the case of those who openly ply for
hire, alluding to harlots; for they come to those who offer them money
without any concealment. Moreover, he forbade men to sell their sisters
and daughters, except in the case of unchastity.
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