Solon had the magnanimity to preclude, by his own hand, a dangerous temptation to his own ambition, and assigned death to the man who aspired to the sole dominion of the commonwealth.
He put a check to the jobbing interests and importunate canvass of individuals, by allowing no one to propose a law in favour of a single person, unless he had obtained the votes of six thousand citizens; and he secured the quiet of a city exposed to the license of powerful factions, by forbidding men to appear armed in the streets, unless in cases of imminent exigence.
XI.

The most memorable of Solon's sayings illustrates the theory of the social fabric he erected.

When asked how injustice should be banished from a commonwealth, he answered, "by making all men interested in the injustice done to each;" an answer imbodying the whole soul of liberty.

His innovations in the mere forms of the ancient constitution do not appear to have been considerable; he rather added than destroyed.

Thus he maintained or revived the senate of the aristocracy; but to check its authority he created a people.
The four ancient tribes [204], long subdivided into minor sections, were retained.