71
For in what respect did he lack utter felicity? Such ancestors Fortune gave to him as to no other man, unless it has been one sprung from the same stock, and so greatly in body and mind did he excel others that he was worthy to hold sway over not only Salamis but the whole of Asia also: and having acquired most gloriously his kingdom he continued in its possession all his life: and though a mortal by birth, he left behind a memory of himself that is immortal, and he lived just so long that he was neither unacquainted with old age, nor afflicted with the infirmities attendant upon that time of life.Evagoras seized the power not later than 411 B.C., when the Athenian orator Andocides, in exile, found him reigning. He died in 374-373 B.C. Isocrates, in his depiction of the happy lot of the king, naturally must ignore the fact that Evagoras seems to have been assassinated !
72
In addition to these blessings, that which seems to he the rarest and most difficult thing to win—to be blessed with many children who are at the same time good—not even this was denied him, but this also fell to his lot. And the greatest blessing was this: of his offspring he left not one who was addressed merely by a private title: on the contrary, one was called king,A reference to Nicocles. others princes, and others princesses. In view of these facts, if any of the poets have used extravagant expressions in characterizing any man of the past, asserting that he was a god among men, or a mortal divinity, all praise of that kind would be especially in harmony with the noble qualities of Evagoras.
