[35]
In the first place, the scattered settlements and villages of which the state was composed he united, and made Athens into a city-state1 so great that from then even to the present day it is the greatest state of Hellas: and after this, when he had established a common fatherland and had set free the minds of his fellow-citizens, he instituted for them on equal terms that rivalry of theirs for distinction based on merit, confident that he would stand out as their superior in any case, whether they practised that privilege or neglected it, and he also knew that honors bestowed by high-minded men are sweeter than those that are awarded by slaves2. And he was so far from doing anything contrary to the will of the citizens
1 A reference to the συνοικισμός attributed to Theseus, i.e., the uniting of the scattered villages in Attica into a polis or city-state. Cf. Thuc. 2.15.
2 With this passage （Isoc. 10.34-35） Isoc. 4.38-89, with note, should be compared.
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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