Isocrates

Īsŏcrătes, is, m., = Ἰσοκράτης,

• Isocrates, a celebrated orator and teacher of rhetoric at Athens, a pupil of Gorgias and the friend of Plato, Cic. Or. 52, 176; id. de Or. 2, 13, 57; id. Brut. 56, 204; Quint. 10, 1, 79 et saep.—
• II Deriv.: Īsŏcrătēus or -īus, a, um, adj., of or pertaining to Isocrates, Isocratic: mos, Cic. Or. 61, 207; id. Fam. 1, 9, 23.—Subst.: Īsŏcrătīus, ĭi, m., a pupil of Isocrates, Lucil. ap. Gell. 18, 8, 1.

Īsocratēs, is, m. (Ἰσοκράτης), ein berühmter Rhetor in Athen, Schüler des Prodikus und Gorgias, Lehrer vieler ausgezeichneter Männer, Verfasser vieler Reden, von denen 21 noch erhalten sind, der aus angeborener Schüchternheit und aus Mangel an durchdringender Stimme nie öffentlich aufzutreten wagte, der aber durch kluge Ratschläge dem Staate nützte und den Sturz des Staates nach der Schlacht bei Chäronea sich so zu Herzen nahm, daß er sich selbst (89 Jahre alt) durch Hunger tötete (338 v. Chr.), Cic. Brut. 32. Quint. 10, 1, 79: Genet. Isocrati, Cic. or. 190; ad Att. 2, 1, 1: Akk. Isocraten, Cic. de sen. 23. Quint. 3, 1, 14. – Dav. Īsocratēus u. Īsocratīus, a, um (Ἰσοκράτειος), isokrateisch, mos, Vic.: ratio, Cic.: quod ἄτεχνον et Eisocratium est, Lucil. 186 (bei Gell. 18, 8, 2). – Plur. subst., Īsocratiī, ōrum, m., die Schüler od. Nachahmer des Isokrates, die Isokratiker, Gell. 18, 8, 1.

Īsŏcrătēs, (14) is, m. (Ἰσοκράτης), Isocrate [célèbre rhéteur athénien] : Cic. de Or. 2, 57 ; Or. 176.

Isocrătes

(Ἰσοκράτης). The fourth among the ten Attic orators (q.v.). He was born at Athens in B.C. 436, the son of Theodorus, the wealthy proprietor of a flute manufactory, who provided for his son a thorough education. Accordingly, he had the advantage of being instructed by Prodicus, Protagoras, Theramenes, and above all by Gorgias, his character was also moulded by the influence of Socrates, although he never belonged to the more restricted circle of that philosopher's pupils.

Bashfulness and a weak voice prevented him from taking part in public life. After the fall of the Thirty, as his father had lost his means in the calamitous years that closed the Peloponnesian War, he turned his attention to composing forensic speeches for others. After having taught rhetoric at Chios (probably about B.C. 404), he returned to Athens in 403, and there opened a regular school of rhetoric about 392. It was largely attended by both Athenians and non-Athenians, and gained for him considerable wealth. The total number of his pupils has been given at one hundred, including Timotheus, son of Conon , the orators Isaeus , Hyperides, and Lycurgus, and the historians Ephorus and Theopompus. Each pupil paid him 1000 drachmae. Isocrates also had friendly relations with foreign princes, especially with Evagoras of Cyprus and his son Nicocles, who loaded him with favours. He kept himself completely aloof from any personal share in the public life of his day; yet attempted to influence the political world, not only within the narrow bounds of his native land, but also throughout the whole of Greece, by a series of rhetorical declamations, not intended to be delivered, but only to be read. This he did in the first place in his Panegyricus (Πανηγυρικός), which he published in B.C. 380, after spending ten or, according to another account, as many as fifteen years over its preparation. It is a kind of festal oration, eulogizing the services of Athens to Greece, exhorting the Spartans peacefully to share the supremacy with Athens, and calling on the Greeks to lay aside all internal dissensions and to attack the barbarians with their united strength. In the ninetieth year of his age, in a discourse addressed to Philip in B.C. 346, he endeavoured to induce that monarch to carry out his policy by reconciling all the Greeks to one another and leading their united forces against the Persians. Other discourses relate to the internal politics of Athens. Thus, in the Areopagiticus (B.C. 354), he recommends his fellow-citizens to get rid of the existing weaknesses in their political constitution by returning to the democracy as founded by Solon and reconstituted by Clisthenes, and by reinstating the Areopagus as the supreme tribunal of censorship over public decorum and morality. He retained his mental and bodily powers unimpaired to an advanced age, and in his ninety-eighth year completed the Panathenaicus, a discourse in praise of Athens. He lived to see the total wreck of all his hopes for a regeneration of Greece, and died B.C. 338, a few days after the battle of Chaeronea. He is said to have died of voluntary starvation, owing to his despair at the downfall of Greek liberty; but this account of his death, made familiar to the English world by Milton in his fifth English sonnet, must be considered as doubtful.

There were sixty compositions bearing his name known to antiquity, but less than half that number were considered genuine. Of the twenty-one which have come down to us, the first, the letter to Dominicus, is often regarded as spurious, but there is no reason to doubt the genuineness of nine of the ten other letters. It is only the letter prefixed to the nine in the older editions that is not genuine, having been really written by Theophylact Simocatta early in the seventh century A.D. Of the speeches, six are forensic orations, written to be delivered by others; the rest are declamations, chiefly on political subjects. By his mastery of style, Isocrates had a far-reaching influence on all subsequent Greek prose, which is not confined to oratorical composition alone. His chief strength lies in a careful choice of expression, not only in his vocabulary, but also in the rhythmical formation of his flowing periods, in a skilful use of the figures of speech, and in all that lends euphony to language. Even in Latin the oratorical prose of Cicero is, on its formal side, based chiefly on that of Isocrates; and as modern literary prose has, in its turn, been largely modelled on that of Cicero, the influence of Isocrates has endured to the present day.

The first separate edition of isocrates is that of Demetrius Chalcocondylas (Milan, 1493). The best modern editions are those of Lange (Halle, 1803); G. S. Dobson, with a Latin rendering, notes, and scholia, 2 vols. (London, 1828); Baiter and Sauppe, 2 vols. (Zürich, 1850); and separately by BenselerBlass (Leipzig, 1882). There are good editions, with English notes, of the Demonicus and Panegyricus by Sandys (London, 1872); of the Areopagiticus, with German notes by Rauchenstein (5th ed. Berlin, 1882); of the Philippus by Schneider (1875). There is an Index Graecitatis by Mitchell (Oxford, 1827). See Henn, De Isocrate Rhetore (1861); Gehlert, De Elocutione Isocratea (1874); Spengel, Isokrates und Platon (1855); Susemihl, De Vita Isocratis (1884); Blass, Attische Beredsamkeit; and Jebb, Attic Orators, vol. ii. pp. 1-34.

Isocrates

Isocrates (436-338 BC) considered himself a philosopher, not an orator or rhetorician. Although he was a poor speaker himself, he began his career as a logographer, writing speeches for others. He ceased this practice in about 390 and turned to writing and teaching. In several long essays he set forth his political views, which favored accommodation with Philip and a panhellenic unity, and his theory of education based on a broad concept of rhetoric. His school attracted pupils from the entire Greek world and became the main rival of Plato's celebrated Academy. Although Plato is better known and more highly regarded today, Isocrates had a much greater influence than his rival during the Hellenistic and Roman periods and down into modern times, for until the eighteenth century education in most European schools was based on his principles.

life and Works

Isocrates came from a wealthy Athenian family. His interest in philosophical issues led him to study with the sophists Prodicus and Gorgias, and also to associate with Socrates. In Plato's Phaedrus (Plat. Phaedrus 279a) Socrates prophecies (perhaps ironically) a bright future for him. During the Peloponnesian War his father lost most of his property, and so after the democracy was restored, Isocrates turned to logography from financial need. Six speeches for a variety of private cases survive from this period, and Isocrates probably wrote many more. Later he scorned the profession of logographer and sought to disavow this period of his past.

After a decade or so as a logographer, Isocrates abandoned that career and founded a school, first in Chios and then in Athens (in c. 388 BC), to train young men in the true practice of rhetoric. The earliest work proclaiming this new educational undertaking is probably the fragmentary Against the Sophists (c. 390), in which he attacks other teachers of rhetoric and seeks to distance himself from them on the grounds that they teach only rhetoric. His education, on the other hand, combines teaching of rhetoric with ethics and politics, thereby preparing his pupils more fully for their future lives. The school was very successful. Although only six students were enrolled at any one time, they included young men from some of the best known families all over the Greek world, and they were willing to pay a high fee for tuition. Among the students were political leaders, historians and other writers, foreign nobility, and orators, including Isaeus, Lycurgus and Hyperides. (Demosthenes, it is said, could not afford the tuition fee.)

The fame of Isocrates and of his school was spread especially by the publication of several long essays expounding his views on political, philosophical and educational issues. To mention just a few of these: Panegyricus (c. 380), which he spent about ten years composing, is Isocrates’ earliest call for Hellenic unity under the spiritual and political leadership of Athens; in Areopagiticusand On the Peace (both c. 355 BC), he advocates a policy of peace abroad and political reform at home; and in Panathenaicus (339), completed as he lay ill and near death, and especially in his longest essay Antidosis (354), Isocrates sets forth his views on broad philosophical and educational issues, as well as on political matter, all within the context of defending himself and his career and attacking the views and practices of his opponents. In his ninety-eighth year (338) he starved himself to death.

Educational Philosophy

Isocrates considered himself a teacher of philosophiabut his concept of “philosophy” differed considerably from Plato's and resembled rather what we call “practical” or “applied philosophy” (as when philosophy professors today teach courses in “business ethics” or “contemporary moral issues”- usually abortion and the like). Philosophy, for Isocrates, helped people understand political and ethical issues more clearly, while rhetoric helped them express their views clearly and persuasively to others. Isocrates was not interested in the abstract metaphysics and his moral views were less rigorously absolute than Plato's; moreover, a degree of relativism underlies his belief that rhetoric should concern itself with what is appropriate (prepon) and comes at the right time (kairos). But like Plato Isocrates attacks “sophists” (whom he sees as rivals) for having no moral values, and he affirms his own belief in rather traditional moral values, arguing that it is the job of rhetoric to express these. Novelty is important in the expression of one's views but not in the views themselves.

Style

Isocrates is also known for a characteristic style involving long complex periodic sentences full of balanced, often antithetical subordinate clauses, reinforced by Gorgianic types of assonance. The effect of individual sentences is striking, and their underlying structures can profitably be analyzed, and indeed have been analyzed by generations of students of Greek prose style. The effect of this style over dozens, and sometimes hundreds, of pages is considerably less pleasing. Unlike Demosthenes, he does not have the ability to mix different styles and he is thus best read in small doses.

Significance

As noted above, Isocrates’ significance lies primarily in his influence on later generations, who for centuries were guided by his model of education grounded in rhetoric. Since this model has little influence today, Isocrates is little read, but for the historian of rhetoric or especially of education, he cannot be ignored.

Blass, Friedrich, Die attische Beredsamkeit, 3nd ed. vol. 2. Leipzig 1892. Jebb, R. C. The Attic Orators from Antiphon to Isaeus, vol. 2. London 1893. Kennedy, George, The Art of Persuasion in Greece. Princeton 1963. Kennedy, George, “Oratory” in The Cambridge History of Classical Literature I: Greek Literature. Ed. by P. E. Easterling and B. M. W. Knox (Cambridge 1985), pp. 498-526. Marrou, H. I. A History of Education in Antiquity. London 1956. Usher, S. Greek Orators III: Isocrates. Warminster 1990. Usher, S. “The Style of Isocrates,” BICS20 (1973) 39-67. Michael Gagarin

• statue of: Paus. 1.18.8
• his repute: Paus. 1.18.8
• voluntary death: 1.18.8