SOLOMON – The Judgment of St. Capitello of the Ducal Palace (15th cent.) – Venice.
Solomon began by securing his throne, even in execution of wishes expressed by David, who had told him to benefit certain persons to whom he was indebted and to do justice to others. He had Adonijah, the possible rival, and Joab, the chief of his supporters, put to death; he deposed the high priest Abiathar and replaced him with Zadok.
The religious inauguration of the kingdom with a sacrifice of 1,000 victims at Gibeon, where the Mosaic tabernacle was then located (2 Chron. 1:3), revealed the fundamental theocratic conception that the new sovereign had of his authority and his love for solemn cultural manifestations. On that occasion, God, appearing to the king in a dream, granted his request for “a docile heart to govern his people, to distinguish good from evil,” giving him “a wise and discerning mind” and also other gifts he had not requested: a long reign and wealth (1 Kings 3:4–14). The famous “judgment of Solomon” soon provided an example of the king’s wisdom (ibid. 3:16–28), which became proverbial.
Of this wisdom, celebrated as surpassing that of every other man and “of all the Easterners and the Egyptians,” whose vast sapiential literature is partly known, the king gave outstanding literary examples through the composition of “3,000 proverbs,” sententious and moral sayings, and “100 songs” or lyrical compositions, drawing on his extensive knowledge of plants and animals (ibid. 4:29–34). Sayings of the *mašal* type are partly included in the Book of Proverbs (v.), where under Solomon’s name 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 “collected” in the time of Hezekiah and that another already existed, which can only be that of 10:1ff., thus to be considered earlier. It cannot be said with certainty whether the sayings collected by Hezekiah drew from oral tradition or from scattered writings, as A. Vaccari prefers. The fame of the great king’s wisdom remained alive in the memory of posterity, as shown by the attribution to him of certain books, which today are considered with high probability (Song of Songs [v.]) or with certainty (Ecclesiastes [v.]) to be his.
As for Solomon’s government, an administrative document preserved in 1 Kings 4:1–24 reports the division he introduced in his kingdom, partly innovative in character (the division does not coincide with the ancient one of the twelve tribes), and which essentially lasted until the exile, as shown by inscriptions on ostraca and jar handles found in Judea (cf. D. Diringer, *Le iscrizioni antico-ebraiche palestinesi*, Florence 1934, chaps. 2, 4).
The primary purpose of this reform was the collection of tribute, which Solomon greatly increased in line with the heavy expenses he incurred for the grand constructions that characterized his reign. The taxes, partly in the form of labor service, weighed on all the people, but especially on the northern tribes and the descendants of the ancient Canaanites, in the process of merging with the descendants of the nomadic immigrants. Tribute could be increased also because of the growing prosperity of the Israelites during Solomon’s peaceful reign. He was fond of splendor and culture, an intelligent promoter of economic and commercial activity both internally and abroad. The good relations already existing with Tyre in David’s time were strengthened. Solomon’s diplomatic skill with Egypt achieved a success that must then have seemed incredible: the king of the small Palestinian state obtained in marriage a daughter of the Pharaoh (perhaps Siamun of the 21st Dynasty).
To develop trade, which overall must have been quite profitable, though critical periods also occurred (cf. 1 Kings 9:10–14), fortified posts 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 expanded. The fleet that Solomon built reached locations in southern Arabia and the African coast, from which it transported precious goods that supplied Mediterranean markets through many routes. The visit of the Queen of Sheba (1 Kings 10:1–13), queen of the northern Arabian kingdom, was proof of this breadth of the sovereign’s interests.
Solomon’s reign was also famous for its constructions, the most important of which was the Temple-Palace complex (ibid. 5–9), two groups of buildings distinct but harmoniously connected, as required by the service, partly common to both (on the site and construction criteria, V. TEMPLE). Solomon availed Hiram (v.), king of Tyre, who sent skilled workers, Hiram (v.) stood out, and materials, including cedars of Lebanon, which the Phoenician king had cut and transported to the port of Joppa, from where the Jews transported them to Jerusalem. When construction was finished, the Ark of the Covenant was brought to its new home, 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 Solomon’s works in Jerusalem was completed with the construction of a terrace (millo: ibid. 11:27), which joined the site of the Temple and the Palace (Moriah) to the “City of David” (Ophel), and with an expansion of the city walls (1 Kings 9:15) (v. JERUSALEM, II).
But Solomon’s private life, opulent and happy lord of the ancient East, showed a progressive moral decline. Solomon amassed an exaggerated number of wives (1 Kings 11:3; cf. Song 6:8), many foreign and idolatrous, to whom the theocratic king, builder of the temple of Yahweh, was so weak as to build in Jerusalem and its vicinity temples to pagan deities, to which he himself offered some worship (ibid. 11:1–8).
To the Lord’s wrath at these sins the biblical narrator links the condemnation to the division of the monarchy (ibid. 11:1–13), which indeed occurred at Solomon’s death (932 BC), prepared over time by internal rivalries between the tribes of the north and south and occasioned by discontent over the heavy taxes the deceased king had imposed.
In the New Testament he is remembered for his proverbial splendor (Matt. 6:29) and wisdom (ibid. 12:42). In the Western patristic tradition, the judgment on him is generally unfavorable because of his final idolatry; less so among the Greeks. Dante recalls him with honor among the Wise (Par., X, 109–16).
Solomon – The Judgment of St. Capitello of the Ducal Palace (15th cent.) – Venice.
J. Garstang, *The heritage of Solomon*, London 1935; J. Bogrich, *Söfer und Mazkir. Ein Beitrag zur inneren Gesch. des davidisch-salomon. Grossreiches und des Königreiches Juda*, in *Zeitschr. f. d. Alt. Wissensch.*, 17 (1940–41), pp. 1–29; J. Hornell, *Naval activities in the days of Solomon and Ramesses III*, in *Antiquity*, 21 (1947), 66–73.
Giovanni Rinaldi
ARCHAEOLOGY. — Hagiographical art has entirely ignored the figure of St SOLOMON; however, a paradisiacal scene of his Judgement has survived from Pompeii, demonstrating the esteem in which he was held by the ancients (cf. J. B. Frey, *Les Juifs à Pompei*, in *Rev. bibl.*, 42 [1933], pp. 375–81, tav. 22). Early mediaeval 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, tav. 37, 1). Other similar scenes are scattered here and there in minor monuments, the oldest and most noteworthy being that depicted on the reverse of a silver casket preserved in the church of S. Nazario in Milan, dating to the 4th century (K. Hoffmann, s.V. in *L’Itik*, IX, p. 128).
Particular interest attaches to a Byzantine intaglio on a brown agate for a certain Oriental manner that seems to derive from vase-painting (cf. A. de Longpérier, *Une intaille antique inédite*, in *Comptes rendus de la Soc. des Inscr. et Belles-Lettres*, 24 [1880], pp. 275–80). There remain, moreover, a miniature in the manuscript (gr. 510) of St GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS and an ivory of the late 9th century (E. Molinier, *Catalogue des ivoires de la Bibl. nat.*, Paris 1897, p. 18, fig. 8), both in the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris; an engraved stone (*Notizie degli Scavi*, 1882, p. 323); an ivory in Berlin; and a cast glass medallion (O. Wulff, *Altchristliche und mittelalterliche byzantinische und italienische Bildwerke*, I, Berlin 1909, p. 237, tav. 56, no. 1152), provided these indeed represent the Judgement of SOLOMON and not the Massacre of the Innocents.
In the Middle Ages the figure of SOLOMON, who in FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS (*Antiquitates Judaicae*, VIII, II, 5) had already acquired exorcistic virtues, was transformed into that of a veritable magician, to whom popular belief, nourished by legends from every land, attributed 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—were inspired by this belief, depicting SOLOMON nimbed, holding a long cross-tipped lance in his right hand, the sign of the cross on his brow, hastening on horseback to pierce the demon in the guise 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, steeped in mythological elements, converge rather than derive from the Judgement of God. The sole specimen outside this tradition is an Ostian medallion noted by G. Calza (q.V. *art. cit.* in bibliography, p. 85), which shows SOLOMON standing, a staff in his left hand and a rod in his right, stirring the contents of a striped vessel. On the reverse of such medals are engraved magical symbols of every kind, while the meaning of the representations on both sides is sometimes elucidated by legends (*Σφαγῆς Σολομῶνος*, etc.). These objects date from the 3rd to the 8th centuries.
Another testimony to popular veneration of SOLOMON is found in invocations for his protection, in which his name recurs alongside those of angels and saints. Thus, for example, in a papyrus in the Library of Oslo SOLOMON is associated even 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 MELCHISEDECH (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. christ.*, 5 [1869], p. 62; *Revue des études grecques*, 16 [1903], p. 42).
Finally, to SOLOMON is linked that ‘signum’ or ‘sigillum Salomonis’, efficacious against magical snares and demonic powers, which seems to derive from astrological elements such as the pentalpha and hexalpha (for 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).