# Solon — Histories character guide

> Solon in Histories by Herodotus.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Solon the Athenian

**First appearance:** 0002-book-i-clio

## Snapshot

Athenian lawgiver who tours the great courts of the East and tells Croesus, to his face, that no man should be called happy while he lives.

## Who they are

Solon arrives at Sardis as a wandering sage, the man who gave Athens its laws and then left to see the world. Croesus shows him his treasuries and expects flattery; instead he gets the argument that fortune is a wheel and only a good death seals a good life. That exchange becomes the moral spine of the Histories' opening book, teaching readers how to weigh every rise and fall that follows.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/histories_se/characters/solon
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