ISO'CRATES, one of the Greek orators commonly called the Ten, was born at Athens n.e. 436. He studied rhetoric under Prodieus, °orgies, Tiaiae, and Theramenes, and became a master of his art. A certain timidity- and feebleness in his delivery prevented him from speaking in publio ('Panathenaious,' c. 4), and ho was therefore debarred from occupying the high stations which were open to the ambition of his contemporaries. He taught rhetoric both at Chios and at Athens, and his school was attended by numerous disciples, among whom were Xenophon, Ephorus, Theopompue, and other distinguished men of his time. Although no orator himself, he formed many orators; and Deena, Demosthenes, and others, are said to have studied under him. He is said to have charged one thousand drachma) for a complete course of oratorical instruction, and to have said to some one who observed on the largeness of the amouut, that he would willingly give ten thousand drachma) to any one who should impart to him the self confidence and the command of voice requisite in a public orator. The orations of Isocrates were either sent to the persona to whom they were addressed for their private perusal, or they were entrusted to others to deliver in public. He is said to have delivered only one himself.
Isocrates treated of great moral and political questions : his views are distinguished by a regard for virtue, and an aversion to all mean. nese and injustice. His politics were conciliatory; he was a friend of peace; he repeatedly exhorted the Greeks to concord among them selves, and to turn their arms against their common enemy Persia. In his ' Panegyrical Oration' (published about n.c. 379), which he wrote in the time of the Lacedremonian ascendency, be exhorted the Lacedre tneuians and Athenians to via with each other in a noble emulation, and to unite their forces in an expedition against Asia; and he des canted eloquently on the merits and glories of the Athenian Common wealth, on the services it had rendered to Greece, and on its high intellectual cultivation; while he defended it from the charges, urged by its enemies, of tyranny by sea, and of oppression towards its colonies. He addressed Philip of Macedon in a similar strain after his peace with Athena (s.c. 346), exhorting him to reconcile the states of Greece, and to unite their forces against Persia. He kept up a correspondence with Philip, and two of his epistles to that prince are still extant, as well as one which he wrote to the then youthful Alexander, congra tulating him on his prbficicncy in his studies. But although Isocrates was of a mild and conciliatory disposition, be displayed considerable courage on several occasions, as when be showed his sympathy for Theramenes, who had been condemned by the thirty tyrants; and lastly, he proved that though no violent partisan, he was a warm hearted patriot, when, at the news of the battle of Chmronea, he refused to take food for several days, and thus cleeed his long and honourable career at ninety-eight years of age, n.e. 338.
There are extant eight orations of Isocrates of the class called judicial, or forensic ()ohm &Kama), which are valuable for the subject matter. In his oration in favour of the Platmans he took the part of that people, who were expelled from their homes by the Theban. The oration against Euthynous, which appears to be incomplete, and may possibly never have been spoken, is a meet ingenious attempt to determine a dispute as to the restoration of a deposit of money where there was an absence of all direct testimony as to the main fact. The orator puts the probabilities on each aide in two opposite scales, and weighs them with consummate skilL Three of the oration, of laocrates —to Demonieus, to Nicocles, and the oration entitled Nicoclee, belong to the Partenetic or hortatory class, and the first two partake in some degree of the epistolary style. 'secretes" Panathenaicus' is a panegyric of Athens, which ho wrote when he was ninety-four years of age. ('Pansth.,' c. 1.) The style of Isoerates is singularly perspicuous, but highly laboured and somewhat diffuse. In Cicero's opinion it was be who Brat gave to prose writing its due rhythm. The art of Isocrates is always apparent, a circumstance which of itself diminishes in some degree the effect of his writings, and is almost inconsistent with vigour and force. The oration to Demonicue is an almost uninterrupted series of antitheses. Isocrates though he falls far below the great orator of Athens, la still a perfect master in the style which be has adopted, and has well merited the high encomium of Dionysius for the noble spirit and the rectitude of purpose which pervade his writings. This judicious critic has thus briefly summed up his comparison between Lysiss and Det entes "As to the charm of composition, Lysiaa is superior to leo. crates in the same kind that a naturally handsome person is to one made so by art : the composition of Lysias pleases naturally ; that of Isocrates aims at pleasing." Plutarch says that sixty orations went under the name of Isocrates, of which only twenty-five or twenty. eight at most were his; twenty-one of these have come down to us, together with a few epistles, probably not genuine. ' Isoorntis Opera,' Greek and Latin, were edited by the Abb6 Auger, 3 vols. Ito, Paris, 1782, with several biographies of !secreted: this edition is of small value. The beat edition of the Greek text is by Bekker ; the edition of Kew, Paris, 1807, 2 vols. 8vo, is useful. Isocrates was translated into English by Richard Sadleir, London, folio (no date); by Dinsdalo, London, 1752, 8vo ; and by °Mies, together with the Orations of Lysias, London, 1778, Ito.
(Dionysius of Halicarnassms; Life of lacerates, attributed to Plu tarch; Cicero, De Claris Oratoribut, c. 8; Quintilian, IarttL, iii. x., &c.; Photins, O. 260.)