Greek and Jewish Contemporaries

The Hebrew prophets, Ezekiel, Daniel and Jeremiah, were (as nearly as it is possible to draw chronological parallels between the Hebrew sacred writings and contemporaneous profane history) contemporary with the Greek philosophers, Solon and Thales. The exact dates of the birth and death of Daniel are unknown, but, as nearly as can be ascertained, he became prominent in 610 B.C. Jeremiah's career is supposed to extend from 627 to 575 B.C., and Ezekiel, who was a young man when carried captive into Mesopotamia about 598 B.C., began his labors in 594 and continued them for twenty-two years.

Solon, the philosopher and lawgiver of Athens, was born in 638 B.C., and died in 559. His career is one of the most wonderful examples in history of the possibility of doing many things, all equally well. He began life as a merchant, became noted as a poet, was a successful politician, snatched victory out of the jaws of defeat as a military commander, and was classed as one of the "Seven Wise Men of Greece." (See Vol. I.) Thales was another of these seven sages. He lived between 636 and 546 B.C. He was more famous even for his scientific than for his political acquirements. He is reputed as the inventor of the now common method for discovering the height of tall objects by measuring their shadows, and was the founder of the Ionic School of Philosophy.