[46]
1 since in addition to those which the city herself sets up, she prevails upon the rest of the world also to offer prizes;2 for the judgements pronounced by us command such great approbation that all mankind accept them, gladly. But apart from these considerations, while the assemblages at the other great festivals are brought together only at long intervals and are soon dispersed, our city throughout all time3 is a festival for those who visit her.
1 In Isoc. 15.295 is a similar picture of the attractions and advantages of life in Athens.
2 The meaning may be that prize-winners in Athens are awarded similar prizes in conpetitions elsewhere.
3 The Panathenaic and the Dionysiac festivals were held every year, whereas the Olympic and Pythian games came only once in four years, and the Nemean and Isthmian games once in two years. Festival followed upon festival in Athens, and Isocrates' statement is almost literally true. Thucydides says the same thing, Thuc. 2.38, and Xenophon declares that the Athenians celebrate twice as many festivals as the other Greeks, Xen. Const. Ath. 3.8.
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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