From as early as Homer (and undoubtedly much earlier) the Greeks placed a high value on effective speaking. Even Achilles, whose greatness was primarily established on the battlefield, was brought up to be “a speaker of words and a doer of deeds” (Iliad9.443); and Athenian leaders of the sixth and fifth centuries,¹ such as Solon, Themistocles, and Pericles, were all accomplished orators. Most Greek literary genres—notably epic, tragedy, and history—underscore the importance of oratory by their inclusion of set speeches. The formal pleadings of the envoys to Achilles in theIliad, the messenger speeches in tragedy reporting...

Isocrates (436–338) differs from the other Attic Orators in that his reputation was not based on speeches that he delivered in the courts or the Assembly, or wrote for others to deliver, but rather on “speeches” (logoi) that were intended to be circulated in writing and read by others. This is important for his representation of himself and his career (and his dissociation of himself from those he called “sophists”) and for understanding the important role he played in the intellectual life of fourth-century Athens.

Early in his career Isocrates did write speeches for others to deliver in the...

This volume contains the six discourses of Isocrates not treated inIsocrates Iof this series, and all the letters. If the second section ofIsocrates Ishows Isocrates as a teacher,¹ then we could say that the discourses in this volume demonstrate how Isocrates uses his ideas on education and public discourse to address situations affecting the city orpolis. Thus, they might be called Isocrates’ political works. All of them—and we can include the letters in this—demonstrate his ability to present ideas called forth by a given political and rhetorical situation.² Three discourses,Panathenaicus, On the...

The Greeks often gathered for public celebration in their own cities, but they also celebrated (though less often) at panhellenic gatherings, which were calledpan-egyreisor panegyric festivals becauseallGreeksgather togetherto celebrate. Isocrates praises panegyric festivals in sections 43 – 44 of this speech:

Those who established panegyric festivals are justly praised for handing down such a fine custom to us where we make a peace treaty, break off any existing hostilities, and come together in the same place; after this, as we make prayers and sacrifices, we recall the common heritage we have with each other,...

In this translation, the letters are set out in their traditional order, with those pertaining to Philip and his house first (1–5), then those addressed to other persons (6–9).¹ The dating of each letter is to varying degrees conjectural, but if they were to be set out in chronological order, a good approximation would be as follows (and this is the order that Mathieu presents them in the Budé edition):

If these dates are close to correct—and that is far from certain²—then the letters all come from the second half of Isocrates’ career. They include the...