Rather this idea seems to have arisen as a means of explaining the strange error made by Diodorus in considering Nicocles as the eunuch who assassinated Evagoras.
Based on statements of his panegyrist Isocrates (who addressed two of his orations to him and has made him the subject of another), under his rule his kingdom flourished, he replenished the treasury, which had been exhausted by his father's wars, without oppressing his subjects with exorbitant taxes, and behaved in all respects as the model of a mild and equitable ruler.
In addition, the orator praises him for the purity of his domestic relations; although Theopompus and Anaximenes of Lampsacus (ap.
p. 531) state that he was a person of luxurious habits who had vied with Straton, king of Sidon, in the splendour and refinement of his feasts and other sensual indulgences.
Theopompus and Anaximenes of Lampsacus also state that Nicocles ultimately perished as the result of a violent death, but neither the date nor the circumstances surrounding this event are recorded.