From as early as Homer (and undoubtedly much earlier) the Greeks placed a high value on eff ective 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...

One of the very few facts we know about Isaeus is that he was a professional speechwriter (logographos). The man behind the speeches, however, is almost entirely obscure. His name does not appear in the historical record until the critical essay written about him in the late first century bce by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and Dionysius himself already had little or no reliable information about his subject.¹ His birthplace was either Athens (according to Hermippus) or Chalcis (according to Demetrius of Magnesia),² but if he did not play a prominent role in Athenian politics, this does not necessarily indicate that...

Cleonymus,¹ son of Polyarchus, died childless, leaving his estate in a will to some relatives whose precise number and relationship to him cannot be determined.² The validity of the will was challenged in a rival inheritance claim (diadikasia) made by Cleonymus’ nephews, one of whom delivered the present speech. It is a possible, but by no means necessary, inference from remarks made by the speaker that the opponents were twice as many in number, since he claims their friends and relatives thought the two parties deserved an equal share in the estate (1.2, 35; cf. 28) and that the nephews...

In Athenian law, a direct male heir had the right of automatic succession to an estate without the verdict of a court.¹ If anybody made a rival claim (diadikasia) to the Archon, the direct heir could block it by the process of declaration (diamartyria), in which he presented a witness (martys) that the estate was not actionable because there were legitimate sons of the deceased. The rival claimant was then entitled to prosecute themartysfor false witness by adikē pseudomartyriōn. If he lost this case, the direct heir inherited; if he won, the heir was forced to abandon...

This speech was delivered at another trial for false witness.¹ Pyrrhus adopted by will his nephew Endius, a son of his sister (3.1, 56). After Pyrrhus’ death, Endius inherited without opposition and held the estate for over twenty years. Since he had no children, however, within two days of his death, rival claimants to Pyrrhus’ estate came forward. Xenocles claimed the estate on behalf of his wife, Phile, saying that she was the legitimate daughter of Pyrrhus, and he tried to seize some of the property (3.22); but he was opposed by Endius’ younger brother (the unnamed speaker) on behalf...

Nicostratus died while serving abroad as a mercenary, after being away from Athens for eleven years. He left an estate of two talents, which was claimed by a number of people. All of them eventually desisted, with the exception of the brothers Hagnon 1 and Hagnotheus, whose claim was challenged by Chariades. Chariades alleged that he had served as a mercenary with Nicostratus and was his business partner (4.18, 20, 26), and he also produced a will to the effect that he had been adopted by Nicostratus as his son and heir. Hagnon and Hagnotheus disputed the genuineness of the...

Dicaeogenes II, the son of Menexenus I, was killed in a sea battle off Cnidus, probably in 411.¹ The wealth and prominence of his family are reflected in his service as the commander of the Paralus, one of the state triremes (5.6), but he had no sons or brothers to inherit his large estate. He did, however, have four sisters, all of whom were married and stood to share the estate, but Proxenus, a descendant of the tyrant slayer Harmodius who was married to the sister of Menexenus I,² produced a will whereby Dicaeogenes II adopted his son, Dicaeogenes III,³...

Euctemon of Cephisia, a wealthy landowner, had three sons, Philoctemon, Ergamenes, and Hegemon, and two daughters. The daughters were both married with children, but none of the sons had any off spring, and all three predeceased their father. Philoctemon was the last to survive, and before his death in action off Chios (6.27), probably during the 370s, he allegedly made a will in which he adopted his nephew Chaerestratus, the son of Phanostratus and one of his sisters. Chaerestratus, however, did not have the will recognized by a court, and when he claimed the estate on Euctemon’s death at the...

The brothers Eupolis, Mneson, and Thrasyllus I jointly inherited a large estate from their father, who was probably named Apollodorus.¹ Mneson died childless, and Thrasyllus died on the Sicilian expedition of 415–413, leaving a son, Apollodorus II, who was a minor and therefore came under the guardianship of his uncle, Eupolis. According to the speaker, Eupolis misappropriated the whole of Mneson’s estate, half of which belonged by law to Apollodorus, and embezzled his nephew’s property. Meanwhile, Apollodorus’ mother had remarried, and her second husband, Archedamus, brought him up in his own house. When Apollodorus reached the age of majority,...

Ciron died at an advanced age (8.37), leaving a daughter but no son. The daughter (according to the speaker) was the child of his first marriage to his first cousin, the daughter of his mother’s sister. This wife died after four years (8.7); their daughter was married first and without issue to Nausimenes of Cholargus, and after his death she was married to an unnamed husband (also deceased) by whom she had two sons, the elder of whom is the speaker (8.8, 31, 36). Ciron’s second marriage was to the half-sister of Diocles of Phlya, who survived him, but their...

Astyphilus, the son of Euthycrates, died during military service at Mytilene on Lesbos. His estate was seized by his first cousin Cleon, who produced a will that had been deposited with Hierocles, Astyphilus’ maternal uncle, and in which Cleon’s son, who may have been called Myronides (see below), was adopted by Astyphilus as his own son (9.5). Astyphilus’ mother, however, after the death of her first husband had remarried to Theophrastus, and their son (Astyphilus’ half-brother and also Cleon’s first cousin) contested the estate on his own return from military service (9.3) by the present speech. He claimed that the...

Aristarchus I, the brother of Aristomenes, had two sons, Cyronides and Demochares, and two daughters. Cyronides was adopted as the son of his maternal grandfather Xenaenetus I and so passed out of the family, leaving Demochares as heir (10.4). When Aristarchus I died, Aristomenes became the children’s guardian, but Demochares died when still a minor along with one of his sisters; hence (the speaker argues), the surviving daughter of Aristarchus I became the heiress to the estate,¹ which in the normal course of events would have passed to her son when he reached maturity. Since she was unmarried, she could...

The suit in which this speech was delivered is one of the few examples in the Attic orators in which we have a speech from the opposing side, though in this instance Demosthenes 43,Against Macartatus, was delivered in a subsequent action. It is also one of the relatively rare occasions on which we know the outcome of the trial: Isaeus’ client, Theopompus, won the case. The survival of the two speeches enables us to reconstruct with some confidence much of the complex stemma of the family of Buselus of Oeum, though (as with the surviving accounts of the embassy...

This speech is, strictly speaking, a fragment, since it is preserved by Dionysius of Halicarnassus in his essay on Isaeus (Isaeus17). It further differs from the preceding speeches in that its subject matter is civic rights; together with some other fragments, this indicates that Isaeus did not restrict himself solely to matters of inheritance.

Euphiletus, son of Hegesippus, was struck off the register of the deme Erchia during one of the periodic revisions of the register. He brought suit against the demesmen and two arbitrators found in his favor (12.11),¹ but the demesmen refused to back down, and Euphiletus...