The works in Part One are from the early part of Isocrates’ career (approximately 401–380), before his interest in and influence on politics had become very significant.¹ Aside from the speeches he wrote as alogographos(16 –21) or speechwriter for those lacking the expertise to compose speeches for themselves to deliver before the lawcourts, Isocrates is concerned with staking out his claims as a practitioner and teacher of public affairs, especially public speaking. Plato refers to this practice as ‘‘rhetoric’’ (rhētorikē),² but Isocrates designates his activityphilosophiaand his teaching simplypaideusisor ‘‘education’’ (see Introduction to Isocrates)....

Although this speech may seem to a modern reader to encompass simply a random collection of bland pieces of advice, it was widely read and quoted from antiquity through the Renaissance. Strangely enough, however, for a work so often identified with the values of Isocrates, its authenticity has been challenged, both in antiquity and in modern times. Nevertheless, the overwhelming consensus is that the work is Isocratean.

What we know about Demonicus and his father Hipponicus must be gleaned from the speech itself, although the author of a fourthcentury ad introduction says that he was Cyprian. Demonicus lived under a...

An encomium is technically a speech of praise, but one can almost say that there are three speeches within this speech. The first is a critique of philosophers (1–15), the second is an encomium of Theseus, the Athenian national hero (16–38), and the third is the encomium of Helen herself (39–69). The beginning of the speech has much in common withAgainst the Sophists(13), but it is addressed not against the sophists, who were primarily instructors in public speaking, but at philosophers like Plato and the other followers of Socrates, who had largely abandoned public life...

This speech has much in common withEncomium of Helen(10): besides both being epideictic speeches, they both lack any specific occasion, they both take on ‘‘unpopular’’ themes, and they both claim to be improvements on attempts made by others. But in Isocrates’ mind they may also have differed significantly: he appears to take theEncomium of Helenvery seriously throughout, but he admits in section 9 of theBusiristhat the theme of this speech is not serious. The Busiris may also be much earlier; it is commonly dated to 391–385.

The speech is addressed to Polycrates (ca....

This short work gives a quick, opening snapshot of Isocrates’ career as a teacher of politics, culture, and public speaking. It was probably written about 390. Its program shows a remarkable similarity to that ofAntidosis(15), which was written thirty-five years later, but the goals of the two works are different. Later on, Isocrates will be on the defensive, defending his career and pleading for the importance of his contribution to Athenian life and politics. In this work he is more polemical; he wants to open up a space for himself and his teaching and distance himself from other...

Like 20, this speech begins with only a reference to the witness testimony that supported the narrative of events lying behind the dispute. Much of what remains is a defense and praise of the life of the speaker’s father, the famous Athenian general Alcibiades. He had been one of Athens’ brightest lights and inspired the Athenians’ (ultimately disastrous) expedition to Sicily in 415. But after his recall on charges of impiety, he fled, eventually to the Spartans, and gave them crucial advice about how to conduct the war against Athens. Nevertheless, after falling out with the Spartans, Alcibiades again found...

The defendant in this case, Pasion, is the most famous banker (trapezitēs) of classical Athens. A former slave, he was also the father of Apollodorus, the author of several speeches later included with those of Demosthenes (see Trevett 1992). The acrimony into which the case must have brought Pasion apparently did no serious or longterm damage to his professional reputation. In time, he would even be granted citizenship for service to Athens. He died in 370/69. The prosecutor, who is the speaker, is a young man from the Bosporus (now the Crimea on the Black Sea in southern Ukraine), the...

From the speech itself the dating of 402 bc seems most likely. It is one of several speeches (by Andocides, Lysias and even, perhaps, Plato’sApology of Socrates) that result from attempts to settle scores after the Peloponnesian War and the brief but tragic tyranny of the Thirty that followed it (404–403). The Athenians were remarkably successful in bringing an end to the civil strife that had plagued the city during the several years of Athens’ decline at the end of the war and especially during the tyranny. One of the mechanisms of this success was a treaty between...

This speech is unique in having been composed for presentation in a lawcourt outside Athens. In Athens, the dispute would be called adiadikasia, which occurs when two parties make a claim to an inheritance. But this dispute takes place on the island of Aegina (an independentpolisin the Saronic Gulf about twenty-five kilometers [fifteen miles] south of Piraeus, Athens’ port), and that is where the speech is to be presented. It is therefore impossible to determine which aspects of Athenian law might also apply in this case. In fact, the issue of what city’s laws do apply is...

It is commonly believed that the beginning of this speech, which would have contained the narrative of events, has been lost. But it is possible that the speaker, who makes a point of his poverty, was able to afford only this short, prepared speech. The testimony of witnesses, together with his own improvised connecting comments, may have provided the bulk of the narrative. It was the function of this text, then, only to underline the importance of the affair. The speaker seems to attempt to obscure whether the speech arose from agraphē hybreōs(a public suit forhybris, ‘‘wanton...

This speech, which was composed a short time after the tyranny of the Thirty in 404/403, illustrates how tangled personal relationships became at that time. It was written for a man named Nicias, who attempted to liquidate and hide his assets from the tyranny. He gave some of his money (he says it was three talents) to a relative named Euthynus for safekeeping, but Euthynus allegedly failed to return onethird of it later. The suit Nicias has brought is thusa parakatathēkēs dikē, a suit to recover a deposit, and it shares many of the same lines of argumentation as...

The speeches contained in Part Two,Evagoras(9),To Nicocles(2),Nicocles(3),Areopagiticus(7), andAntidosis(15), are texts that characterize Isocrates as teacher. Together these five speeches show that ‘‘teacher’’ in classical Athens need not mean ‘‘sophist,’’ the figure caricatured in Aristophanes’Cloudsand in the dialogues of Plato as the unscrupulous charlatan who makes promises and then disappoints and charges enormous fees for his lectures and displays. Isocrates’ pedagogical identity demonstrates that rhetorical teaching—teaching that is articulated in rhetorical texts—may be an important mode of political activity, albeit one that is quite distinct from the...

Evagoras, generally dated to 370, is an encomium written for a festival held by the king Nicocles to commemorate his deceased father, Evagoras. The subject of the speech was ruler of Salamis in east Cyprus, and his life is largely known from this speech.

Evagoras claimed to be a descendant of Teucer, who had founded and named the colony after his own Greek city. As king, Evagoras made Salamis a Hellenic outpost, encouraging settlement of Greeks in his kingdom (9.47–50). He was a friend of the Athenian general Conon and supported Greek military undertakings, including the decisive Athenian victory...

Isocrates justifies writingTo Nicoclesby noting that, where ordinary individuals have many sources of instruction and correction— for example, laws, poetry, friends, and enemies—because of their social status and power, monarchs have none to teach them (2. 2–5). Kings are, however, precisely the people who require instruction more than any other. Isocrates writes within a particular didactic genre, the instruction of rulers, for which there were precedents in earlier literature (e.g., Homer,Odyssey1.253–305, Hesiod,Works and Days202–214 and 239–267, and the Solon-Croesus exchange at Herod. 1.30–33).¹ The presentation of material in...

Nicoclesis the final work in Isocrates’ Cyprian trilogy. Speeches 9 and 3 dramatize the instruction of Nicocles in his role as ruler, and in this third work, the former pupil of the rhetorician shows that he has learned his lessons well as he in turn assumes the role of political teacher. He offers a self-justification that draws attention to his virtues in a way that is reminiscent of the rhetorician’s instructive encomium of Evagoras (cf. 3.29–46 and the introduction to Isocrates speech 9), and takes it upon himself to instruct his subjects in their duties and obligations. Significant...

TheAreopagiticusis generally thought to have been composed between 358 and 352, either just before, during, or just after the disastrous Social War (357–355) in which Athens was left with a weakened naval empire after her stronger allies, Chios, Cos, Rhodes, and Byzantium, gained their independence from the Confederacy. The positive and confident mood of the work (7.1–3) suggests a date before the war, perhaps 358/7,¹ but the speech also raises issues of particular poignancy for the conflict and its outcome. The speech is one that expresses strong dissatisfaction with the current democracy and espouses a return...

In classical Athens, the wealthiest citizens were liable to perform liturgies, a form of taxation that required them to finance various public concerns. These might relate to a festival, such as the training of a chorus (chorēgeia), or the fleet, such as the command and maintenance of a ship in the fleet (triērarchia). More rarely, the liturgy might entail the advance payment of a tax, known asproeisphora. The liturgy system was one which ensured that rich citizens expended some of their resources in the interests of the community as a whole, and while it was burdensome (e.g., Xen.,Oeconomicus...