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.
General
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