His courage Theseus displayed in these perilous exploits which he hazarded alone; his knowledge of war in the battles he fought in company with the whole city; his piety toward the gods in connexion with the supplications of Adrastus and the children of Heracles when, by defeating the Peloponnesians in battle, he saved the lives of the childrenCf. Eur. Heraclid. for the story and also Isocrates, Isoc. 4.56., and to Adrastus he restored for burial, despite the Thebans, the bodies of those who had died beneath the walls of the CadmeaCf. Eur. Supp. The story of Adrastus is told in detail in Isoc. 12.168 ff. Adrastus, king of Argos, led the expedition of the “Seven against Thebes” (cf. Aesch. Seven), which met with defeat.; and finally, he revealed his other virtues and his prudence, not only in the deeds already recited, but especially in the manner in which he governed our city.

For he saw that those who seek to rule their fellow-citizens by force are themselves the slaves of others, and that those who keep the lives of their fellow-citizens in peril themselves live in extreme fear, and are forced to make war, on the one hand, with the help of citizens against invaders from abroad, and, on the other hand, with the help of auxiliaries against their fellow citizens;

further, he saw them despoiling the temples of the gods, putting to death the best of their fellow-citizens, distrusting those nearest to them, living lives no more free from care than do men who in prison await their death; he saw that, although they are envied for their external blessings, yet in their own hearts they are more miserable than all other men—

for what, pray, is more grievous than to live in constant fear lest some bystander kill you, dreading no less your own guards than those who plot against you? Theseus, then, despising all these and considering such men to be not rulers, but pests, of their states, demonstrated that it is easy to exercise the supreme power and at the same time to enjoy as good relations as those who live as citizens on terms of perfect equality.

In the first place, the scattered settlements and villages of which the state was composed he united, and made Athens into a city-stateA reference to the sunoikismo/s attributed to Theseus, i.e., the uniting of the scattered villages in Attica into a polis or city-state. Cf. Thuc. 2.15. so great that from then even to the present day it is the greatest state of Hellas: and after this, when he had established a common fatherland and had set free the minds of his fellow-citizens, he instituted for them on equal terms that rivalry of theirs for distinction based on merit, confident that he would stand out as their superior in any case, whether they practised that privilege or neglected it, and he also knew that honors bestowed by high-minded men are sweeter than those that are awarded by slavesWith this passage (Isoc. 10.34-35) Isoc. 4.38-89, with note, should be compared.. And he was so far from doing anything contrary to the will of the citizens

that he made the people masters of the government, and they on their part thought it best that he should rule alone, believing that his sole rule was more to be trusted and more equitable than their democracy. For he did not, as the other rulers did habitually, impose the labors upon the citizens and himself alone enjoy the pleasures; but the dangers he made his own, and the benefits he bestowed upon the people in common.