Concept

Isocrates

Overview

Isocrates (; Ancient Greek: Ἰσοκράτης [isokrátɛ̂ːs]; 436–338 BC) was an ancient Greek rhetorician, 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.

Greek rhetoric is commonly traced to Corax of Syracuse, who first formulated a set of rhetorical rules in the fifth century BC. His pupil Tisias was influential in the development of the rhetoric of the courtroom, and by some accounts was the teacher of Isocrates. Within two generations, rhetoric had become an important art, its growth driven by social and political changes such as democracy and courts of law. Isocrates starved himself to death, reportedly out of disappointment with the loss of Greek liberty following the Battle of Chaeronea, two years before his 100th birthday.

Isocrates wrote a number of works calling on the Greeks to unite and invade the Persian empire. He addressed a number of Greek leaders asking them to undertake such a campaign, and later in his life he saw Philip II of Macedon as the ruler who could accomplish this task. He did not live to see the conquest of the Persian empire by Philip's son and successor, Alexander the Great.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

In the original texts

Passages from public-domain books where Isocrates is discussed.

For, as you know, Socrates is introduced in almost the last page of the Phaedrus speaking in these words:--"At present, O Phaedrus, Isocrates is quite a young man; but still I delight in telling the expectations which I have of him." "What are they?" says he.
Marcus Tullius Cicero, The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 4
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PHAEDRUS: Isocrates the fair:--What message will you send to him, and how shall we describe him? SOCRATES: Isocrates is still young, Phaedrus; but I am willing to hazard a prophecy concerning him. PHAEDRUS: What would you prophesy? SOCRATES: I think that he has a genius which soars above the orations of Lysias, and that his character is cast in a finer mould.
Plato, Phaedrus
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In ancient times, before any charities of this kind had been established for the education of indigent people to the learned professions, the rewards of eminent teachers appear to have been much more considerable. Isocrates, in what is called his discourse against the sophists, reproaches the teachers of his own times with inconsistency. "They make the most magnificent promises to their scholars," says he, "and…
Adam Smith, An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
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From this time, therefore, bidding farewell to other sorts of learning and study, he now began to exercise himself, and to take pains in declaiming, as one that meant to be himself also an orator. He made use of Isaeus as his guide to the art of speaking, though Isocrates at that time was giving lessons; whether, as some say, because he was an orphan, and was not able to pay Isocrates his appointed fee of ten minae…
Plutarch, Plutarch
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Wherefore as I bore the censure of others with indifference, when I had the good fortune to be applauded by Cato; thus Isocrates, with the approbation of Plato, may slight the judgment of inferior critics. For in the last page of the Phaedrus, we find _Socrates_ thus expressing himself;--'Now, indeed, my dear Phaedrus,' said he, 'Isocrates is but a youth: but I will discover to you what I think of him.'--'And what…
Marcus Tullius Cicero, Cicero's Brutus or History of Famous Orators
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Isocrates

Overview

In the original texts

Philosophers who discussed Isocrates

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