Isocrates

The Oratory of Classical Greece

by Isocrates, George Norlin (Translator)

The importance of Isocrates for the study of Greek civilisation of the fourth century BCE is indisputable. From 403 to 393 he wrote speeches for Athenian law courts, and then became a teacher of composition for would-be orators. After setting up a school of rhetoric in Chios he returned to Athens and established there a free school of 'philosophia' involving a practical education of the whole mind, character, judgment, and mastery of language. This school had famous pupils from all over the Greek world, such as the historians Ephorus and Theopompus and orators Isaeus, Lycurgus, and Hypereides. Isocrates also wrote in gifted style essays on political questions, his main idea being a united Greece to conquer the Persian empire. Thus in his fine Panegyricus (written for the 100th Olympiad gathering in 380) he urged that the leadership should be granted to Athens, possibly in conjunction with Sparta. In the end he looked to Philip of Macedon, but died just as Philip's supremacy in Greece began.

Twenty-one discourses by Isocrates survive; these include political essays, treatises on education and on ethics, and speeches for legal cases. Nine letters are also extant; they are concerned more with public than with private matters. The Loeb Classical Library edition of Isocrates is in three volumes. Volume I contains six discourses: To Demonicus, To Nicocles, Nicocles or The Cyprians, Panegyricus, To Philip, and Archidamus. Five are in Volume II: Areopagiticus, On the Peace, Panathenaicus, Against the Sophists, Antidosis. Volume III contains Evagoras, Helen, Busiris, Plataicus, Concerning the Team of Horses, Trapeziticus, Against Callimachus, Aegineticus, Against Lochites, and Against Euthynus, as well as the nine extant letters and a comprehensive index.

Genres: Philosophy, Classics, History, Ancient History, Ancient

560 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1929

About the author

Isocrates (/aɪ.ˈsɒk.rə.ˌtiːz/; Ancient Greek: Ἰσοκράτης; 436–338 BC), an ancient Greek rhetorician, was one of the ten Attic orators. Among the most influential Greek rhetoricians of his time, Isocrates made many contributions to rhetoric and education through his teaching and written works.

Reviews

[Paul, · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked Antidosis and Against the Sophists. We would do well to heed their warnings.

Who does not know that words carry greater conviction when spoken by men of good repute than when spoke by men who live under a cloud, and that the argument which is made by a man's life is of more weight than that which is furnished by his words?

If all who are engaged in the profession of education were willing to state the facts instead of making greater promises than they can possibly fulfill, they would not be in such bad repute with the lay public.

But it is not sophists alone who are open to criticism, but also those who profess to teach political discourse. For the latter have no interest whatever in the truth, but consider that they are masters of an art if they can attract great numbers of students by the smallness of their charges and the magnitude of their professions and get something out of them.

For ability, whether in speech or in any other activity, is found in those who are well endowed by nature and have been schooled by practical experience. Formal training makes such men more skillful and more resourceful in discovering the possibilities of a subject; for it teaches them to take from a readier source the topics which they otherwise hit upon in haphazard fashion. But it cannot fully fashion men who are without natural aptitude into good debaters or writers, although it is capable of leading them on to self-improvement and to a greater degree of intelligence on many subjects.

I hold that there does not exist an art of the kind which can implant sobriety and justice in depraved natures.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Also see the general introduction, by the editor George Norlin, pp. ix-xlv, in Volume I, available online from the Internet Archive, as a PDF file:
https://ia800902.us.archive.org/13/it...

[Gerasimos Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

We read "On the Peace" in Ancient Greek in school.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Actually just read the Areopagiticus.

Apparently, it's an important work of oratory, and you can see why he was persuasive. However, his claims of "we suck now, but everyone was awesome in the past" doesn't sound very convincing.

[James Violand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Isocrates, one of the great orators of ancient Athens, supports his position in five speeches by relying on Attic history. The reader glimpses the grandeur that was Athens.

[enchatedfire]

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