[13]
a river which by its nature provides not only protection to the land, but also its means of subsistence in abundance, being impregnable and difficult for foes to conquer, yet convenient for commerce and in many respects serviceable to dwellers within its bounds. For in addition to the advantages I have mentioned, the Nile has bestowed upon the Egyptians a godlike power in respect to the cultivation of the land; for while Zeus is the dispenser1 of rains and droughts to the rest of mankind, of both of these each Egyptian has made himself master on his own account.
1 Cf. Hom. Il. 4.84.
Isocrates. Isocrates with an English Translation in three volumes, by George Norlin, Ph.D., LL.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1980.
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