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.

And, indeed, how could any one show more convincingly than through these instances that monarchy is the most excellent of governments? For we see that those who are permanently ruled by kings have the greatest powers; that those who live in well- conducted oligarchies, when it comes to matters about which they are most concerned, appoint one man, in some cases a general, in others a king, to have full powers over their armies in the field; and that those who abhor absolute rule, whenever they send out many leaders, fail to accomplish a single one of their designs.

And, if there is need to speak also of things old in story, it is said that even the gods are ruled by Zeus as king. If the saying is true, it is clear that the gods also prefer this regime; but if, on the other hand, no one knows the truth about this matter, and we by our own conjecture have simply supposed it to be so, it is a proof that we all hold monarchy in the highest esteem; for we should never have said that the gods live under it if we did not believe it to be far superior to all other governments.

Now as to polities, while it is not possible either to search out or declare every detail in which they differ from each other, yet for our present purpose, at least, enough has been said. But to show that I hold my office by natural right is a story much sooner told and less open to dispute.

For who does not know how Teucer, the founder of our race, taking with him the ancestors of the rest of our people, came hither over seas and built for them a city and portioned out the land; and that, after his other descendants had lost the throne, my father, Evagoras, won it back again by undergoing the greatest dangers, and wrought so great a change that Phoenicians no longer rule over Salaminians, while they, to whom it belonged in the beginning, are today in possession of the kingdom?[*](For this history, see introd. to II; Grote, History of Greece (new edition), ix. pp. 228 ff.; Isoc. 9.29-35.)

Now, of the matters which I proposed to discuss, it remains for me to speak to you about myself, in order that you may realize that I, who rule over you, am of such character that, not only on account of my ancestors, but of myself also, I might justly claim even greater honor than I now enjoy. For I I think you would all agree that the most sovereign of the virtues are temperance and justice,

since not only do they benefit us in themselves, but, if we should be minded to look into the natures, powers, and uses of human relations, we would find that those which do not partake[*](Almost the language of the Platonic doctrine of ideas.) of these qualities are the causes of great evils, whereas those which are attended by temperance and justice are greatly beneficial to the life of man. If, then, any of my predecessors have gained renown for these virtues, I consider that it is also my right to enjoy the same renown.

As to my sense of justice, you can best observe it from these facts:[*](We may surmise that the death of the strong resourceful Evagoras plunged the affairs of Salimis and of Cyprus into a state of confusion which was with difficulty reduced to order by his successor, but we possess no further details of this history than those which are here set down.) When I was established in power I found the royal treasury empty, all the revenues squandered, the affairs of the state in utter disorder and calling for great care, watchfulness, and outlay of money; and, although I knew that rulers of the other sort in similar straits resort to every shift in order to right their own affairs, and that they feel constrained to do many things which are against their nature, nevertheless I did not fall a victim to any of these temptations;

nay, I attended so devotedly and honorably to my duties that I left nothing undone which could contribute to the greatness of the state and advance its prosperity; and toward the citizens of the state I behaved with such mildness that no one has suffered exile or death or confiscation of property or any such misfortune during my reign.

And though Hellas was closed to us because of the war which had arisen, and though we were being robbed on every side, I solved most of these difficulties, paying to some their claims in full, to others in part, asking some to postpone theirs, and satisfying others as to their complaints by whatever means I could. Furthermore, though the inhabitants of the island were hostile to me, and the Great King, while outwardly reconciled, was really in an ugly mood,

I calmed and appeased both parties by assisting the King zealously and by treating the islanders justly. For I am so far from coveting what belongs to others that, while rulers of the other sort, when they are stronger than their neighbors by ever so little, cut off portions of their territory and seek to get the advantage of them, I did not think it right to take even the land which was offered to me, but prefer rather to hold through just means what is my own than to acquire through base means territory many times greater than that which I now possess.

But why need I take the time to speak in detail, especially when I can make clear in a word the truth about myself? For it will be acknowledged that I have never wronged any man; that, on the contrary, I have been of service to many more of my own citizens and of the Hellenes at large and have bestowed upon them both greater gifts than all who have ruled before me put together. And surely those who pride themselves on justice and who profess to be above considerations of money ought to be able to speak in such high terms of their own conduct.

And now on the subject of temperance, also, I have still more important things to recount. For, since I realized that all men are most jealous for their wives and children, being above all quick to resent offenses against them, and that wantonness in these relations is responsible for the greatest evils—many ere now, of princely rank as well as of private station, having lost their lives because of it—, I so strictly avoided all these grounds of offense that, from the time when I became king, no one can charge me with having approached any woman but my own wife.

I was not, of course, unaware that those kings also are highly thought of by the multitude who are just in their dealings with their citizens, even though they provide themselves with pleasures from outside their households; but I desired both to put myself as far above such suspicions as possible and at the same time to set up my conduct as a pattern to my people, knowing that the multitude are likely to spend their lives in practices in which they see their rulers occupied.

Then again, I considered that it is also the duty of kings to be as much better than private citizens as they are superior to them in rank; and that those kings act contrary to all reason who compel their subjects to live decently but are themselves less continent than those over whom they rule.

Moreover, I saw that while the majority of people are masters of themselves in other matters, even the best are slaves to the passions whose objects are boys and women; and therefore I wanted to show that I could be strong in those things in which I should be superior, not merely to people in general, but even to those who pride themselves on their virtue.

Furthermore, I had no patience with the perversity of men who take women in marriage and make them partners in all the relations of life, and then are not satisfied with the compacts which they have made but by their own lawless pleasures bring pain to those whom they expect never to cause them pain and who, though honest in all other partnerships, are without conscience in the partnership of marriage, when they ought to cherish this relationship the more faithfully inasmuch as it is more intimate and more precious than all others.