Nicocles or the Cyprians

But the greatest difference is this: men under other governments give attention to the affairs of state as if they were the concern of others; monarchs, as if they were their own concern;[*](But it was, he says elsewhere, the virtue of the old democracy that they did not slight the commonwealth, but cared for it as their personal concern, Isoc. 4.76; Isoc. 7.24-25.) and the former employ as their advisers on state affairs the most self-assertive of their citizens, while the latter single out and employ the most sagacious; and the former honor those who are skilful in haranguing the crowd, while the latter honor those who understand how to deal with affairs.

And not only in matters of ordinary routine and of daily occurrence do monarchies excel, but in war they have compassed every advantage;[*](The same point is made by Dem. 1.4.) for in raising troops, and handling them so as to mislead and forestall the enemy, and in winning people over, now by persuasion, now by force, now by bribery, now by other means of conciliation, one-man rule is more efficient than the other forms of government. And of this one may be assured by facts no less than by words;

for, in the first place, we all know that the empire of the Persians attained its great magnitude, not because of the intelligence of the population, but because they more than other peoples respect the royal office; secondly, that Dionysius,[*](Dionysius, the elder, became tyrant of Syracuse in 406 B.C.) the tyrant, taking charge of Sicily when the rest of it had been devastated by war and when his own country, Syracuse, was in a state of siege, not only delivered it from the dangers which then threatened, but also made it the greatest of Hellenic states;

and again, we know that while the Carthaginians and the Lacedaemonians, who are the best governed peoples of the world,[*](Socrates and his followers idealized, in contrast to the slackness of Athens, the rigorous rule of such states as Sparta and Crete. See, for example, Plat. Crito 52e. Aristotle couples in his praise, as Isocrates here, the Spartans and the Carthaginians: Aristot. Pol. 1272b 24 ff.) are ruled by oligarchies at home, yet, when they take the field, they are ruled by kings. One might also point out that the state[*](Athens.) which more than any other abhors absolute rule meets with disaster when it sends out many generals,[*](As in the disasters at Syracuse and Aegospotami.) and with success when it wages war under a single leader.