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Solon tells Croesus man is chance

c. 430–425 BCE, Sardis. Solon speaking, as Herodotus tells it.

Where and when

c. 430–425 BCESardis

about 2,452 years ago

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Herodotus

, SardisSolon speaking, as Herodotus tells it

In plain words, ours

In a seventy-year life, no two days bring the same thing. A human life is all chance.

Out of all these days in the seventy years, all twenty-six thousand, two hundred and fifty of them, not one brings anything at all like another. So, Croesus, man is entirely chance.

Herodotus, Histories 1.32.4Translated by A. D. Godley (1920)Read the full passage (Herodotus, Histories 1.32.4, opens scaife.perseus.org)

What was going on, our summary

In a story Herodotus tells, the Athenian Solon is a guest of Croesus, a very rich king. Croesus is annoyed that Solon ranks ordinary men above him in happiness, and Solon answers by counting up the days in a seventy-year life.

Checked claim by claim against: the passage around the quote.

Related moments

In time order, with this one in its place. Each says why it is here.

  1. 430 BCEabout 3 years earlier Plague breaks out in Athens Same years
  2. 431/430 BCEabout 3 years earlier Athens holds a public funeral for its first war dead Same years
  3. 430 BCE, written laterabout 3 years earlier Thucydides on how the plague changed people Also about wealth, poverty and luck
  4. 429 BCEabout 2 years earlier Pericles dies Same years
  5. c. 429 BCEabout 2 years earlier Iocasta on living at random Also about wealth, poverty and luck
  6. 427 BCEAbout the same year Athens votes to kill Mytilene's men, then relents Same years
  7. c. 430–425 BCEThis momentSolon tells Croesus man is chance
  8. c. 430–425 BCEDuring it Herodotus says custom is lord of all More from Herodotus
  9. c. 430–425 BCEDuring it Herodotus on every nation's own customs More from Herodotus
  10. c. 430–425 BCEDuring it Herodotus on why he wrote his Histories More from Herodotus
  11. c. 430–425 BCEDuring it Solon on calling no one fortunate before death Same passage
  12. 425 BCEabout 2 years later Spartans surrender on Sphacteria Same years

Just before and after

The text around the quote, word for word from the same translation.

Show the passageHide the passage

The Argives made and dedicated at Delphi statues of them as being the best of men.” Thus Solon granted second place in happiness to these men. Croesus was vexed and said, “My Athenian guest, do you so much despise our happiness that you do not even make us worth as much as common men?” Solon replied, “Croesus, you ask me about human affairs, and I know that the divine is entirely grudging and troublesome to us. In a long span of time it is possible to see many things that you do not want to, and to suffer them, too. I set the limit of a man's life at seventy years; these seventy years have twenty-five thousand, two hundred days, leaving out the intercalary month. But if you make every other year longer by one month, so that the seasons agree opportunely, then there are thirty-five intercalary months during the seventy years, and from these months there are one thousand fifty days.

The quote: Out of all these days in the seventy years, all twenty-six thousand, two hundred and fifty of them, not one brings anything at all like another. So, Croesus, man is entirely chance.

To me you seem to be very rich and to be king of many people, but I cannot answer your question before I learn that you ended your life well. The very rich man is not more fortunate than the man who has only his daily needs, unless he chances to end his life with all well. Many very rich men are unfortunate, many of moderate means are lucky. The man who is very rich but unfortunate surpasses the lucky man in only two ways, while the lucky surpasses the rich but unfortunate in many.

Herodotus, Histories 1.31.5–1.32.6Translated by A. D. Godley (1920)Read the full passage (opens scaife.perseus.org)

When, and whose words

Date
c. 430–425 BCE. When the Histories were being completed (c. 430–425 BCE); the scene, Solon visiting Croesus, is set in the 6th century BCE and may be legend.
Whose words
Solon speaking, as Herodotus tells it. Who was Herodotus?
How this post was checked
  • The plain-words line was read against the quote alone by a second, independent pass, which found it adds no claim the quote does not make (2026-10-03).
  • Each claim in the summary was checked by an independent pass against only the material it cites.
  • The quote itself is checked by the build: word for word, once, at the cited section of the stored translation.

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