In fact, however, you will find that among our public men who are living today or who have but lately passed away those who give most study to the art of words are the best of the statesmen who come before you on the rostrum, and, furthermore, that among the ancients it was the greatest and the most illustrious orators who brought to the city most of her blessings.

First of all was Solon.For Solon and Cleisthenes as authors of Athenian democracy see Isoc. 7.16. For when he was placed at the head of the people, he gave them laws, set their affairs in order, and constituted the government of the city so wisely that even now Athens is well satisfied with the polity which was organized by him. Next, Cleisthenes, after he had been driven from Athens by the tyrants, succeeded by his eloquence in persuading the Amphictyons to lend him money from the treasury of Apollo,For the Amphictyonic Council see Isoc. 5.74, note. The family of the Alcmaeonidae, to which Cleisthenes belonged, won the favor of this council by their aid in rebuilding the temple of Apollo which had been burned in 548 B.C. The story that Cleisthenes and his party got funds from the Amphictyony is found also in Dem. 21.144. But the facts are confused; see Beloch, vol. ii. p. 387. and thus restored the people to power, expelled the tyrants, and established that democracy to which the world of Hellas owes its greatest blessings.

After him, Themistocles,The commander of the Athenian fleet at the battle of Salamis. placed at the head of our forces in the Persian War, counselled our ancestors to abandon the citySee Isoc. 4.96; Isoc. 6.43.(and who could have persuaded them to do this but a man of surpassing eloquence?), and so advanced their circumstances that at the price of being homeless for a few days they became for a long period of time the masters of the Hellenes.