SOLOMON (Heb. Šēlōmōh "perfect, fortunate," Gk. Σαλομῶν, Σολομῶν). - Third king of Israel (between 970 and 932 B.C.) of the united period, remembered in popular memory as the type of the wise and lavish king. The history of his reign is narrated in 1 Kings 1-11 and 2 Chron. 1-9.
Son of David and of Bathsheba, widow of Uriah, he was designated for the succession, with the favor of his mother, of Nathan and certain courtiers, by David himself, already declining from old age, and anointed in all haste by the high priest Zadok at Gihon (v.), in opposition to his elder brother Adonijah (v.), who, supported by a group of old ministers, attempted to reach the throne by a coup de main, having himself anointed by Abiathar at the spring of Rogel (v.).
S. began by providing for the security of his throne, also in execution of the wishes expressed to him by the dying David, who had told him to benefit certain persons to whom he was indebted and to do justice to others. He had the possible rival Adonijah killed, along with the chief of his supporters, the military commander Joab, and he deposed the high priest Abiathar, replacing him with Zadok.
The religious inauguration of the reign with a sacrifice of 1000 victims at Gibeon, where the Mosaic tabernacle was then located (1 Par. 1, 3), showed the fundamentally theocratic conception that the new sovereign had of his authority, and his character, fond of solemn cultic manifestations. On that occasion God, appearing to the King in a dream, granted his request to have "a mind docile to govern his people, to discern good from evil," conceding to him "a wise and perspicacious mind" and also other goods that he had not asked for: a long reign and riches (1 Kings 3, 4-14). The famous "judgment of S." soon afterward gave an example of the King's wisdom (ibid. 3, 16-28), which became proverbial.
Of this wisdom, celebrated as superior to that of any other man and "of all the Orientals and the Egyptians," whose vast sapiential literature is in part known, the King gave distinguished literary proofs with the composition of "3000 proverbs," sententious and moral sayings, and of "1005 songs" or lyric compositions, making use of his extensive knowledge of plants and animals (ibid. 4, 29-34). Sayings of the mālāl type in part flowed into the book of Proverbs (v.), where under the name of S. are found the two collections 10, 1-22, 16 and 25, 1-29, 27. The title of the second of these collections (cf. 25, 1) indicates that it was "gathered" in the time of Hezekiah and that another already existed, which can only be that of 10, 1 ff., to be considered therefore earlier. It cannot be said with certainty whether Hezekiah's men gathered the sayings from oral tradition or from scattered writings, as A. Vaccari prefers. The reputation for wisdom of the great King remained alive in the memory of posterity, as is shown by the attribution to him of certain books, which today are considered with all probability (Song of Songs [v.]), or with certainty (Ecclesiastes [v.]; Wisdom [v.]) to be of later date.
As for the government of S., an administrative document preserved in 1 Kings 4, 1-24 reports the division that he introduced in his Kingdom, in part of an innovative character (the partition does not coincide with the ancient one of the 12 tribes), and which then lasted in substance until the exile, as is shown by writings on ostraca and handles of amphorae found found in Judea (cf. D. Diringer, Le iscrizioni antico-ebraiche palestinesi, Florence 1934, chaps. 2, 4).
The chief purpose of this reorganization was the collection of tribute, which S. greatly increased, in keeping with the heavy expenses he incurred for the grandiose constructions that characterized his reign. The taxes, in part in the form of labor service, weighed on the whole people, but especially on the northern tribes and the great-grandsons of the ancient Canaanites, in the process of progressive fusion with the descendants of the immigrant nomads. The tribute could be increased also because of the increased well-being of the Israelites during the peaceful reign of S. This king, fond of pomp and culture, was an intelligent promoter of economic and commercial activity, at home and abroad. The good relations already existing with Tyre in the time of David were strengthened. The skill of S.'s diplomacy with Egypt achieved a success that must then have seemed incredible: the King of the small Palestinian state obtained as wife a daughter of the Pharaoh (perhaps Siamun, of the XXI dynasty).
To develop commerce, which on the whole must have been quite profitable, although critical periods also occurred (cf. 1 Kings 9, 10-14), fortified points were established to protect roads and caravan centers, with the introduction of cavalry and war chariots; above all the facilities of the port of Ezion-geber (v.) were enlarged. The fleet that S. built there reached places in southern Arabia and on the African coast, whence it transported precious goods, which supplied the Mediterranean markets along many routes. The visit of the Queen of the northern Arabian kingdom of Sheba (1 Kings 10, 1-13) was a proof of this breadth of interests on the part of the sovereign.
The reign of S. was famous also for its constructions, of which the most important was the Temple-Palace complex (ibid. 5-9), two groups of distinct buildings, but harmoniously linked to each other, according as the service required, in part common to both (on the site and the construction criteria, v. TEMPIO). S. availed himself of the work of Hiram (v.), King of Tyre, who sent specialized workers, among whom the metal-caster Hiram (v.) stands out, and materials, among which the cedars of Lebanon, which the Phoenician King had cut and transported as far as the port of Joppa, whence the Hebrews transported them to Jerusalem. When the construction was finished, the Ark of the covenant was transported to the new seat, and the Temple was inaugurated with a long ceremony, including a speech and an elevated prayer by the King (1 Kings 8).
The great series of Solomonic works at Jerusalem was completed with the construction of a terrace (māllā; ibid. 11, 27), by which the site of the Temple and the Palace (Moriah) was joined to the "city of David" (Ophel), and with an enlargement of the walls (1 Kings 9, 15) of the city (v. GERUSALEMME, II).
But the private life of S., opulent and happy lord of the ancient East, marked a progressive moral decadence. S. formed for himself a harem with an exaggerated number of women (1 Kings 11, 3; cf. Cant. 6, 8), many of them foreign and idolatrous, toward whom the theocratic king, builder of the temple of Yahweh, was so weak as to build in Jerusalem and its surroundings little temples to pagan divinities, to which he himself paid some cult (ibid. 11, 1-8).
To the Lord's indignation for these sins the biblical narrator, overcoming the evident inclination that is grasped in all the testimonies to attenuate the shadows that are cast on the figure of the glorious and peaceful King, links the condemnation to the scission of the monarchy (ibid. 11, 1-13), which in fact occurred at the death of S. (932 B.C.), prepared for some time by internal rivalries between the tribes of the north and of the south and occasioned by the discontent over the fiscal burdens that the departed King had imposed.
In the New Testament he is remembered for his proverbial splendor (Mt. 6, 29) and wisdom (ibid. 12, 42). In the Western patristic tradition in general the judgment on him is unfavorable, on account of his final idolatry; less so among the Greeks. Dante remembers him with honor among the Wise (Par., X, 109-16).
Bibliography4 works
Giovanni Rinaldi
ARCHAEOLOGY. - Funerary art completely ignored the figure of Solomon, but from Pompeii there has come down to us a parodic scene of his judgment, which shows what his fame was among the ancients (cf. J. B. Frey, Les Juifs à Pompei, in Rev. bibl., 42 [1933], pp. 375-81, pl. 22). Early medieval Christian art has yielded a 7th-century fresco example in the underground church of S. Maria in Via Lata in Rome (Wilpert, Mosaiken, p. 689, pl. 37, 1). Other similar scenes are scattered here and there in minor monuments, of which the oldest and most valuable is the one depicted on the back of a silver reliquary preserved in the church of S. Nazario in Milan, from the 4th century (K. Hoffmann, s. v. in LThK, IX, p. 128). Of particular interest is a Byzantine carving on a dark agate, in a certain oriental manner that might be derived from vase painting (cf. A. de Longpérier, Une intaille antique inédite, in Comptes rendus de la Soc. des Inscript. et Belles Lettres, 24 [1880], pp. 275-80). There also remain a miniature from the manuscript (gr. 510) of St. Gregory of Nazianzus and an ivory from the late 9th century (E. Molinier, Catalogue des ivoires de la Bibl. nat., Paris 1897, p. 18, fig. 8), both in the National Library of Paris; an engraved stone (Notizie Scavi, 1882, p. 323); an ivory in Berlin and a cast glass in the form of a medallion (O. Wulff, Altehr. u. mittelalt. byzant. u. ital. Bildwerke, I, Berlin 1909, p. 237, pl. 56, no. 1152), provided that it is a question of the judgment of Solomon and not of the massacre of the innocents.
In the Middle Ages the figure of Solomon, who already in Flavius Josephus (Antiq. Iud., VIII, II, 5) had taken on exorcistic powers, is transformed into that of a true and proper magician, to whom popular belief, fed by legends from every country, attributes powers granted directly by God (cf. the indignation of Origen, In Matthaeum, 110: PG 13, 1757). A whole series of small objects, amulets, talismans of every kind, stones, has been inspired by this belief, depicting Solomon with a halo and a long crusader's lance in his right hand, the sign of the cross in the exergue, rushing on horseback and piercing the demon in the likeness of a woman (G. Schlumberger, Mélanges d'archéologie byzantine, Paris 1895, pp. 116-40). In this sense Solomon will be the prototype of the Christian St. George, with the difference that in him pagan and Christian beliefs converge, permeated with mythological elements, rather than derived from Judaism. The only example outside this tradition is an Ostian medallion reported by G. Calza (v. art. cit. in bibl., p. 85), which represents Solomon standing with a shaft in his left hand and a stick in his right, intent on stirring the contents of a striped vase. On the back of such medallions are engraved magical symbols of every kind, while the meaning of the representations on both sides is sometimes illustrated by legends (Σραγίς Σολομῶνος, etc.). These objects are from the 3rd-8th centuries.
Another testimony of popular veneration for Solomon are the invocations for his protection, in which his name occurs together with angels and saints. Thus, for example, in a papyrus of the Library of Oslo Solomon is also associated with Christ (L. A. Constans, Une amulette chrétienne sur papyrus, in Journal des Savants, 1922, pp. 181-82); while on a silver tablet he is invoked together with the angel Mechlia (W. Fröhner, Sur une amulette basilidienne inédite du Musée Napoléon III, in Bull. d. antiquités de Normandie, 4 [1867], pp. 217-31; cf. other examples in Bull. d'arch. crist., 5 [1869], p. 62; Revue des études grecques, 16 [1903], p. 42).
Finally, to Solomon is linked that « signum » or « sigillum Salomonis » effective against magical and demonic snares
SALOMONE - The Judgment of S. Engraving by the master "B. M." (late 15th century).
which seems derived from astrological elements, such as the pentalpha and the hexalpha (on the relations between astrology and magic: F. Cumont, Les religions orientales dans le paganisme romain, IV, Paris 1929, pp. 168-79, 292-96, with bibliography).