The dispute was referred to the Spartans, who eventually awarded possession of the island to Athens on the strength of the case that Solon put to them. The Megarians, however, refused to give up their claim. Supported by Pisistratus, he defeated the Megarians either by means of a cunning trick or more directly through heroic battle around 595 BC. After repeated disasters, Solon was able to improve the morale of his troops through a poem he wrote about the island. When Athens and Megara were contesting the possession of Salamis, Solon was made leader of the Athenian forces. "Solon demands to pledge respect for his laws", book illustration (Augsburg 1832) Fourth-century BC orators, such as Aeschines, tended to attribute to Solon all the laws of their own, much later times. Ancient authors such as Philo of Alexandria, Herodotus, and Plutarch are the main sources, but wrote about Solon long after his death. Modern knowledge of Solon is limited by the fact that his works only survive in fragments and appear to feature interpolations by later authors and by the general paucity of documentary and archaeological evidence covering Athens in the early 6th century BC. He wrote poetry for pleasure, as patriotic propaganda, and in defence of his constitutional reform. His reforms failed in the short term, yet he is often credited with having laid the foundations for Athenian democracy. He is remembered particularly for his efforts to legislate against political, economic and moral decline in archaic Athens. 560 BC) was an Athenian statesman, lawmaker and poet.
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