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IV.

ISOCRATES

Isocrates was the son of Theodorus of Erchia, a citizen of the middle class, an owner of slaves who made flutes, through whom he gained a competence, so that he paid for a public chorus¹ and gave his children an education² (for he had other sons, Telesippus and Diomnestus, and also a daughter), and hence he is ridiculed on account of the flutes by Aristophanes and Strattis. Isocrates was born in the eighty-sixth Olympiad, in the archonship of Lysimachus³ of Myrrhinus, being twenty-two years younger than Lysias and seven years older than Plato.⁴ In his boyhood he was as well educated as any Athenian, for he attended the lectures of Prodicus of Ceos, Gorgias of Leontini, Teisias of Syracuse, and the orator Theramenes; and when the lastnamed was in danger of being arrested by the Thirty and had fled for safety to the altar of Hestia Boulaea,⁵ everyone else was terrified, but Isocrates alone arose to speak in his aid; and at first he was silent for a long time, then afterwards he was urged to be silent by Theramenes himself, who said that his misfortune would be more painful if any of his friends should share it. And it is said that certain rhetorical teachings of Theramenes - those which go under the name of Boton - were of use to Isocrates when he was falsely accused in the courts. But when he became a man he kept away from political affairs, since he had a weak voice and a timid disposition⁶ and had lost his inherited property in the war against the Lacedaemonians. It is evident that he composed speeches for others, but he delivered only one, that on the Exchange of Property. He set up a school and turned to philosophy and to writing out the results of his thinking, and he composed his Festival Oration⁷ and some others of an advisory nature, some of which he delivered himself and some of which he prepared for others to deliver, hoping that in this way he might lead the Greeks to think as they ought. But when he failed of his purpose he gave up that sort of thing and became the head of a school, at first, as some say, at Chios, where he had nine pupils. That was the time when, as he saw the tuition fees counted out, he burst into tears and said, Now I recognize that I have sold myself to these people. He would carry on conversation with all who desired it and was the first to make a distinction between contentious speeches and those of a political character, to which latter he devoted himself. And he also instituted at Chios public offices and the same constitution which existed in his native city. He made more money than any other sophist, so that he was even a trierarch.⁸

His pupils numbered about one hundred, including among many others Timotheüs, son of Conon, with whom he visited many cities; and he composed the letters which Timotheüs sent to the Athenians, on account of which Timotheüs presented him with a talent out of the sum remaining after the relief of Samos.⁹ Pupils of his were also Theopompus¹⁰ of Chios, Ephorus of Cumae, Asclepiades who compiled the arguments of tragedies, and Theodectas of Phaselis, who afterwards wrote tragedies and whose monument stood as you go to the Bean-market along the Sacred Way which leads to Eleusis; it is now in ruins. There, too, were set up statues of the famous poets along with his; of these only the poet Homer exists now. And Leodamas the Athenian and Lacritus the Athenian law-maker and, as some say, Hypereides and Isaeus were his pupils. And they say that while he was still teaching oratory Demosthenes came to him eager to learn and said that he could not pay the thousand drachmas which he asked as tuition fee, but would give two hundred for one fifth of the instruction; whereupon Isocrates replied: We do not cut our instruction into bits, Demosthenes, but just as people sell fine fish whole, so, if you wish to be my pupil, I will sell you my course whole.

He died in the archonship of Chaerondas¹¹ after hearing in the palaestra of Hippocrates the news of the battle of Chaeroneia;¹² and he removed himself from life by abstaining from food for four days. Just before the end he declaimed the opening lines of three dramas of Euripides:

Danaüs of fifty daughters fair the sire,¹³

Pelops the Tantalid to Pisa came,¹⁴

Once Sidon’s city Cadmus having left.¹⁵

He died at the age of ninety-eight or, as some say, one hundred years, for he could not endure the sight of Greece enslaved four times.¹⁶ A year (or, as some say, four years) before his end he wrote the Panathenaic Oration;¹⁷ and for the composition of the Festival Oration he took ten (but some say fifteen) years. This, they say, he derived from the speeches of Gorgias of Leontini and Lysias. The speech on the Exchange of Property¹⁸ he wrote at the age of eighty-two years, and those against Philip shortly before his death. When he was an old man he adopted Aphareus, the youngest of the three sons of Plathanê, daughter of the orator Hippias. He acquired ample wealth, for he not only collected money from his pupils, but he also received from Nicocles, king of Cyprus, who was the son of Evagoras, twenty talents for the oration written in his honour. On account of his wealth he was envied and was proposed three times as trierarch. Twice he alleged illness and was exempted by petitions presented by his son, but the third time he undertook the duty and spent no small sum. To a father who said that he gave his son only a slave as companion he said, Go your ways, then, for you will have two slaves instead of one. He took part also in the competition offered by Artemisia in honour of Maussolus,¹⁹ but his Eulogy is not extant. He wrote also a Eulogy of Helen and a speech called the Areopagitic. He departed this life some say on the ninth day of his abstention from food, others on the fourth day at the time of the funeral of those who fell at Chaeroneia. His son Aphareus also wrote speeches. Isocrates was buried with his family near Cynosarges²⁰ on the left side of the hill-he himself, his father Theodorus, and his mother; and her sister Anaco, the orator’s aunt, and his adopted son Aphareus, and his cousin Socrates, son of Anaco Isocrates’ mother’s sister, and his brother Theodorus who had the same name as his father, and his grandsons, the sons of his adopted son Aphareus, Aphareus and his father Theodorus, and the latter’s wife Plathanê, mother of the adopted son Aphareus. And over them there were six tablets which do not now exist. On the monument of Isocrates himself was a column thirty cubits high, on which was a siren seven cubits high as a symbol; but this exists no longer. There was also a tablet near by with poets and his instructors on it, among whom was Gorgias gazing into an astrological sphere and Isocrates standing beside him. There is also a bronze statue of him, dedicated by Timotheüs, son of Conon, at Eleusis in front of the vestibule. It bears this inscription:

Here to the goddesses twain Timotheüs giveth this statue

Tribute to friend and to sage, image of Isocrates.

It is a work of Leochares.

Sixty orations are current under his name, of which twenty-five are genuine according to Dionysius, twenty-eight according to Caecilius, and the rest are spurious. He was averse to public declamation, so much so that once, when three persons came to hear him, he retained two but let the third go, telling him to come the next day, since now the lecture-room had a full audience. And he used to say to his pupils that he himself gave instruction for ten minas, but would give ten thousand to anyone who would teach him self-confidence and a pleasant voice. And when he was asked how he, not being a good speaker himself, could make others so, he replied that whetstones cannot themselves cut, but make iron fit to do so. Some say that he also wrote textbooks of oratory, others that in his teaching he made use of practice, not of method. He never demanded a fee from a fellow-citizen. When his pupils went to meetings of the assembly, he told them to report to him what was said there. He was greatly grieved by the death of Socrates, and the next day he appeared in black clothing. And again, when someone asked him What is oratory? he said, the art of making small things great and great things small. And once when he was a guest at a banquet in the house of Nicocreon, despot of Cyprus, and some of those present urged him to discourse, he said, for subjects in which I am competent this is not the time; in the subjects for which this is the time I am not competent.²¹ When he saw the tragic poet Sophocles amorously following a boy, he said, Sophocles, we must not only keep our hands to ourselves, but our eyes as well.²² And when Ephorus of Cumae had left his school without learning anything and had been sent back by his father with a second tuition-fee, he called him in fun Diphorus (Twice-bringer); he took, however, great pains with him and even suggested to him the subject of his work.²³ He showred himself also prone to sexual indulgence; he used an additional mattress beside him on his bed and kept his pillow wet with saffron. And when he was young he did not marry, but in his old age he kept a mistress named Lagiscê, by whom he had a daughter who died unmarried at twelve years of age. Then he married the daughter of the orator Hippias, Plathanê, who had three sons, one of whom, Aphareus, as has been said above, he adopted. This Aphareus dedicated a bronze statue of him near the Olympieium on a column with the inscription:

Aphareus set up this statue his father Isocrates’ image,

Sacred to Zeus, to exalt gods and his ancestors’ worth.²⁴

And it is said that he rode a horse in a race when he was still a boy; for a bronze figure of him as a boy riding a horse is set up on the Acropolis in the ballground of the Arrhephoroi,²⁵ as some have said. In all his life but two lawsuits were brought against him: first when Megacleides challenged him to an exchange of property.²⁶ He did not appear in court in this suit, because he was ill, but sent his son Aphareus and won his case. The second suit was when Lysimachus challenged him to exchange property in connexion with the trierarchy; and this case he lost and performed the trierarchy. There was also a painted portrait of him in the Pompeium.²⁷ Aphareus wrote speeches, both juridical and deliberative, but not many. He also composed about thirty-seven tragedies, but the authorship of tw o of them is contested. Beginning in the archonship of Lysistratus²⁸ he presented in the twenty-eight years to the archonship of Sosigenes²⁹ six series of dramas at the City Dionysia and won the prize twice, Dionysius as his manager,³⁰ and, other poets managing, he presented two other series at the Lenaean festival.³¹ There were statues of the mother of Isocrates and Theodorus and of her sister Anaco set up on the Acropolis; of these the statue of the mother is now placed, with a changed inscription,³² near that of Hygieia, but the statue of Anaco is gone. She had two sons, Alexander by Coenus, and Sosicles by Lysias.

Vitae decem oratorum. Plutarch. Harold North Fowler (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1936.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

The Lives of the Ten Orators (English) (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. X. Fowler, Harold North, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Περὶ τῶν δέκα ἡτόρων Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol. V. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1893.) — 4 focus

Ἰσοκράτης

[1] 5 Ἰσοκράτης Θεοδώρου μὲν ἦν παῖς τοῦ Ἐρχιέως τῶν μετρίων πολιτῶν, θεράποντας αὐλοποιοὺς κεκτημένου καὶ εὐπορήσαντος ἀπὸ τούτων, ὡς καὶ χορηγῆσαι καὶ παιδεῦσαι τοὺς υἱούς· ἦσαν γὰρ 10 αὐτῷ καὶ ἄλλοι, Τελέσιππος καὶ Διόμνηστος· ἦν δὲ καὶ θυγάτριον· ὅθεν εἰς τοὺς αὐλοὺς 836f κεκωμῴδηται ὑπʼ Ἀριστοφάνους καὶ Στράττιδος. γενόμενος δὲ κατὰ τὴν ὀγδοηκοστὴν ἕκτην ὀλυμπιάδα Λυσιμάχου Μυρρινουσίου ἄρχοντος, νεώτερος μὲν Λυσίου 15 δυσὶ καὶ εἴκοσιν ἔτεσι, πρεσβύτερος δὲ Πλάτωνος ἑπτά, παῖς μὲν ὢν ἐπαιδεύετο οὐδενὸς ἧττον Ἀθηναίων, ἀκροώμενος Προδίκου τε τοῦ Κείου καὶ Γοργίου τοῦ Λεοντίνου καὶ Τισίου τοῦ Συρακουσίου καὶ Θηραμένους τοῦ ῥήτορος· οὗ καὶ συλλαμβανομένου 20 ὑπὸ τῶν τριάκοντα καὶ φυγόντος ἐπὶ τὴν Βουλαίαν Ἑστίαν, ἁπάντων καταπεπληγμένων, μόνος ἀνέστη βοηθήσων καὶ πολὺν χρόνον ἐσίγησε 837a κατʼ ἀρχάς, ἔπειτα ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ παρῃτήθη, εἰπόντος ὀδυνηρότερον αὐτῷ συμβήσεσθαι εἴ τις τῶν φίλων ἀπολαύσει τῆς συμφορᾶς· καὶ ἐκείνου τινὰς οὔσας τέχνας αὐτῷ φασι συμπραγματεύσασθαι, ἡνίκα ἐν 5 τοῖς δικαστηρίοις ἐσυκοφαντεῖτο, αἳ εἰσιν ἐπιγεγραμμέναι Βότωνος. ἐπεὶ δʼ ἠνδρώθη, τῶν μὲν πολιτικῶν πραγμάτων ἀπέσχετο ἰσχνόφωνὸς τʼ ὢν καὶ εὐλαβὴς τὸν τρόπον καὶ τὰ πατρῷα· ἀποβεβληκὼς ἐν τῷ πρὸς Λακεδαιμονίους πολέμῳ· ἄλλοις δὲ 10 μεμελετηκὼς φαίνεται, ἕνα δὲ μόνον εἰπὼν λόγον,, τὸν περὶ τῆς Ἀντιδόσεως. διατριβὴν δὲ συστησάμενος, 837b ἐπὶ τὸ φιλοσοφεῖν καὶ γράφειν ἃ διανοηθείη ἐτράπετο, καὶ τόν τε Πανηγυρικὸν λόγον καί τινας ἄλλους τῶν συμβουλευτικῶν, οὓς μὲν αὐτὸς γράφων 15 ἀνεγίνωσκεν οὓς δʼ ἑτέροις παρεσκεύαζεν, ἡγούμενος οὕτως ἐπὶ τὸ τὰ δέοντα φρονεῖν τοὺς Ἕλληνας προτρέψεσθαι. διαμαρτάνων δὲ τῆς προαιρέσεως, τούτων μὲν ἀπέστη σχολῆς δʼ ἡγεῖτο, ὣς τινές φασι, πρῶτον ἐπὶ· Χίου, μαθητὰς ἔχων ἐννέα· ὅτε καὶ 20 ἰδὼν τὸν μισθὸν ἀριθμούμενον εἶπε δακρύσας ὡς ἐπέγνων ἐμαυτὸν νῦν τούτοις πεπραμένον ὡμίλει δὲ τοῖς βουλομένοις, χωρίσας πρῶτος τοὺς ἐριστικοὺς λόγους τῶν πολιτικῶν, περὶ οὓς ἐσπούδασε. 837c καὶ ἀρχὰς δὲ καὶ περὶ τὴν Χίον κατέστησε καὶ τὴν 25 αὐτὴν τῇ πατρίδι πολιτείαν · ἀργύριόν τε ὅσον οὐδεὶς σοφιστῶν εὐπόρησεν, ὡς καὶ τριηραρχῆσαι. ἀκροαταὶ δʼ αὐτοῦ ἐγένοντο· εἰς ἑκατόν; ἄλλοι τε πολλοὶ καὶ Τιμόθεος ὁ Κόνωνος, σὺν ᾧ καὶ πολλὰς πόλεις ἐπῆλθε, συντιθεὶς τὰς πρὸς Ἀθηναίους ὑπὸ Τιμοθέου 5 πεμπομένας ἐπιστολάς· ὅθεν ἐδωρήσατο αὐτῷ τάλαντον τῶν ἀπὸ Σάμου περιγενομένων. ἐμαθήτευσε δʼ αὐτῷ καὶ Θεόπομπος ὁ Χῖος, καὶ Ἔφορος ὁ Κυμαῖος καὶ Ἀσκληπιάδης ὁ τὰ τραγῳδούμενα συγγράψας καὶ Θεοδέκτης ὁ Φασηλίτης·,ὁ τὰς τραγῳδίας 10 ὕστερον γράψας, οὗ ἐστι τὸ μνῆμα ἐπὶ τὴν Κυαμῖτιν πορευομένοις κατὰ τὴν ἱερὰν ὁδὸν τὴν 837d ἐπʼ Ἐλευσῖνα, τὰ νῦν κατερηρειμμένον· ἔνθα καὶ τοὺς ἐνδόξους τῶν ποιητῶν ἀνέστησε σὺν αὐτῷ, ὧν Ὅμηρος ὁ ποιητὴς σῴζεται μόνος· Λεώδαμὸς τʼ 15 Ἀθηναῖος καὶ Λάκριτος ὁ νομοθέτης Ἀθηναίοις· ὡς δὲ τινές φασι, καὶ Ὑπερείδης καὶ Ἰσαῖος. καὶ Δημοσθένη δʼ ἔτι ῥητορεύοντί φασι μετὰ σπουδῆς προσελθεῖν αὐτῷ, καὶ χιλίας μὲν ἃς εἰσεπράττετο οὐκ ἔχειν φάναι παρασχεῖν, διακοσίας δὲ δώσειν, 20 ἐφʼ ᾧ τε τὸ πέμπτον μέρος ἐκμαθεῖν τὸν δʼ ἀποκρίνασθαι 837e ὡς οὐ τεμαχίζομεν Δημόσθενες, τὴν πραγματείαν ὥσπερ δὲ τοὺς καλοὺς ἰχθῦς ὅλους πωλοῦμεν, οὕτω κἀγώ σοι, εἰ βούλοιο μαθητεύειν, ὁλόκληρον ἀποδώσομαι τὴν τέχνην ἐτελεύτα δʼ ἐπὶ Χαιρώνδου ἄρχοντος, ἀπαγγελθέντων τῶν περὶ 5 Χαιρώνειαν ἐν τῇ Ἱπποκράτους; παλαίστρᾳ πυθόμενος, ἐξαγαγὼν αὑτὸν τοῦ βίου τέτταρσιν ἡμέραις διὰ τοῦ σιτίων ἀποσχέσθαι, προειπὼν τρεῖς ἀρχὰς δραμάτων Εὐριπίδου

Δαναὸς ὁ πεντήκοντα θυγατέρων πατήρ 10

Πέλοψ ὁ Ταντάλειος εἰς Πῖσαν μολών·

Σιδώνιὸν ποτʼ ἄστυ Κάδμος ἐκλιπών

837f ὀκτὼ καὶ ἐνενήκοντα ἔτη βιοὺς ἢ ὥς τινες ἑκατόν, οὐχ ὑπομείνας τετράκις ἰδεῖν τὴν Ἑλλάδα καταδουλουμένην· πρὸ ἐνιαυτοῦ ἢ ὥς τινες πρὸ τεσσάρων 15 ἐτῶν τῆς τελευτῆς συγγράψας τὸν Παναθηναϊκόν. τὸν δὲ Πανηγυρικὸν ἔτεσι δέκα συνέθηκεν, οἱ δὲ δεκαπέντε λέγουσιν, ὃν μετενηνοχέναι ἐκ τῶν Γοργίου τοῦ Λεοντίνου καὶ Λυσίου τὸν δὲ περὶ τῆς Ἀντιδόσεως δύο καὶ ὀγδοήκοντα ἔτη γεγονώς· τοὺς 20 δὲ πρὸς Φίλιππον ὀλίγῳ πρότερον τοῦ θανάτου. 838a ἐγένετο δʼ αὐτῷ καὶ παῖς; Ἀφαρεὺς πρεσβύτῃ ὄντι ἐκ Πλαθάνης τῆς Ἱππίου τοῦ ῥήτορος ποιητός, τῶν δὲ τῆς γυναικὸς τριῶν παίδων ὁ νεώτατος. εὐπόρησε δʼ ἱκανῶς οὐ μόνον ἀργύριον εἰσπράττων τοὺς γνωρίμους, ἀλλὰ καὶ παρὰ Νικοκλέους τοῦ Κυπρίων βασιλέως, ὃς· ἦν υἱὸς Εὐαγόρου, εἴκοσι τάλαντα λαβὼν ὑπὲρ τοῦ πρὸς αὐτὸν γραφέντος λόγου ἐφʼ 5 οἷς φθονηθεὶς τρὶς προεβλήθη τριηραρχεῖν, καὶ δὶς μὲν ἀσθένειαν σκηψάμενος διὰ τοῦ παιδὸς παρῃτήσατο, τὸ δὲ τρίτον ὑποστὰς ἀνήλωσεν οὐκ ὀλίγα. πρὸς δὲ τὸν εἰπόντα πατέρα ὡς οὐδὲν ἀλλʼ ἢ ἀνδράποδον συνέπεμψε τῷ παιδίῳ τοιγαροῦν ἔφη ἄπιθι· 10 838b δύο γὰρ ἀνθʼ ἑνὸς ἕξεις ἀνδράποδα ἠγωνίσατο δὲ καὶ τὸν ἐπὶ Μαυσώλῳ τεθέντα ὑπʼ Ἀρτεμισίας ἀγῶνα· τὸ δʼ ἐγκώμιον οὐ σῴζεται. ἐποίησε δὲ καὶ εἰς Ἑλένην ἐγκώμιον καὶ Ἀρεοπαγιτικόν. ἐξελθεῖν δὲ τοῦ βίου οἱ μὲν ἐναταῖόν φασι σίτων ἀποσχόμενον, 15 οἱ δὲ τεταρταῖον ἅμα ταῖς ταφαῖς τῶν ἐν Χαιρωνείᾳ πεσόντων. συνέγραψε δʼ αὐτοῦ καὶ ὁ παῖς Ἀφαρεὺς λόγους. ἐτάφη δὲ μετὰ τῆς συγγενείας πλησίον Κυνοσάργους ἐπὶ τοῦ λόφου ἐν ἀριστερᾷ αὐτός τε καὶ ὁ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ Θεόδωρος 20 καὶ ἡ μήτηρ αὐτοῦ· ταύτης τʼ ἀδελφὴ τηθὶς τοῦ ῥήτορος Ἀνακὼ καὶ ὁ ποιητὸς υἱὸς Ἀφαρεὺς καὶ ὁ 838c ἀνεψιὸς αὐτοῦ Σωκράτης, μητρὸς Ἰσοκράτους ἀδελφῆς Ἀνακοῦς υἱὸς ὤν, ὃ τʼ ἀδελφὸς αὐτοῦ ὁμώνυμος τοῦ πατρὸς Θεόδωρος καὶ οἱ υἱωνοὶ αὐτοῦ, τοῦ ποιηθέντος αὐτῷ παιδὸς Ἀφαρεὺς. Ἀφαρεὺς. καὶ ὁ τούτου πατὴρ Θεόδωρος; ἥ τε γυνὴ Πλαθάνη, μήτηρ δὲ τοῦ ποιητοῦ Ἀφαρέως. ἐπὶ μὲν οὖν τούτων τράπεζαι ἐπῆσαν ἕξ, αἳ νῦν οὐ σῴζονται· αὐτῷ 5 δʼ Ἰσοκράτει ἐπὶ τοῦ μνήματος ἐπῆν κίων τριάκοντα πηχῶν, ἐφʼ οὗ σειρὴν πηχῶν ἑπτὰ συμβολικῶς, ὃς 838d νῦν οὐ σῴζεται. ἦν δὲ καὶ αὐτοῦ τράπεζα πλησίον ἔχουσα ποιητάς τε καὶ τοὺς διδασκάλους αὐτοῦ, ἐν οἷς καὶ Γοργίαν εἰς σφαῖραν ἀστρολογικὴν βλέποντα 10 αὐτόν τε τὸν Ἰσοκράτην παρεστῶτα. ἀνάκειται δʼ αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐν Ἐλευσῖνι εἰκὼν χαλκῆ ἔμπροσθεν τοῦ προστῴου ὑπὸ Τιμοθέου τοῦ Κόνωνος, καὶ ἐπιγέγραπται

Τιμόθεος φιλίας τε χάριν ξύνεσίν τε προτιμῶν 15

Ἰσοκράτους εἰκὼ τήνδʼ ἀνέθηκε θεαῖς·

Λεωχάρους ἔργον, φέρονται δʼ αὐτοῦ λόγοι ἑξήκοντα, ὧν εἰσι γνήσιοι κατὰ μὲν Διονύσιον εἰκοσιπέντε κατὰ δὲ Καικίλιον εἰκοσιοκτώ, οἱ δʼ ἄλλοι κατεψευσμένοι, εἶχε δʼ ἀλλοτρίως πρὸς ἐπίδειξιν, ὡς ἀφικομένων 20 838e ποτὲ πρὸς αὐτὸν τριῶν ἐπὶ τὴν ἀκρόασιν τοὺς μὲν δύο κατασχεῖν τὸν δὲ τρίτον ἀπολῦσαι, φάμενος εἰς τὴν ἐπιοῦσαν ἥξειν νῦν γὰρ αὐτῷ τὸ θέατρον εἶναι ἐν ἀκροατηρίῳ. εἰώθει δὲ καὶ πρὸς τοὺς γνωρίμους αὑτοῦ λέγειν, ὡς αὐτὸς μὲν δέκα μνῶν διδάσκοι, τῷ δʼ αὐτὸν διδάξαντι τόλμαν καὶ εὐφωνίαν δώσειν δεκακισχιλίας. καὶ πρὸς τὸν ἐρόμενον διὰ τί οὐκ ὢν αὐτὸς ἱκανὸς ἄλλους ποιεῖ, εἶπεν ὅτι καὶ αἱ ἀκόναι αὐταὶ μὲν τέμνειν οὐ δύνανται 5 τὸν δὲ σίδηρον τμητικὸν ποιοῦσιν. εἰσὶ δʼ 838f οἳ καὶ τέχνας αὐτὸν λέγουσι συγγεγραφέναι, οἱ δʼ οὐ μεθόδῳ ἀλλʼ ἀσκήσει χρήσασθαι. πολίτην δʼ οὐδέποτʼ εἰσέπραξε μισθόν. προσέταττε δὲ τοῖς γνωρίμοις εἰς τὰς, ἐκκλησίας ἀπαντῶσιν ἀναφέρειν αὐτῷ 10 τὰ εἰρημένα. ἐλυπήθη δὲ καὶ οὐ μετρίως ἐπὶ τῷ Σωκράτους θανάτῳ καὶ μελανειμονῶν τῇ ὑστεραίᾳ προῆλθε. πάλιν δʼ ἐρομένου τινὸς αὐτὸν τί ῥητορική, εἶπε τὰ μὲν μικρὰ μεγάλα τὰ δὲ μεγάλα μικρὰ ποιεῖν. ἑστιώμενος δέ ποτε παρὰ Νικοκρέοντι 15 τῷ Κύπρου τυράννῳ, προτρεπομένων αὐτὸν τῶν παρόντων διαλεχθῆναι, ἔφη οἷς μὲν ἐγὼ δεινὸς οὐχ ὁ νῦν καιρός, οἷς δʼ ὁ νῦν καιρὸς οὐκ ἐγὼ δεινός. Σοφοκλέα δὲ τὸν τραγικὸν θεασάμενος ἑπόμενον ἐρωτικῶς παιδί, εἶπεν οὐ μόνον δεῖ, 20 839a Σοφόκλεις, τὰς χεῖρας ἔχειν παρʼ αὑτῷ, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς. τοῦ δὲ Κυμαίου Ἐφόρου ἀπράκτου τῆς σχολῆς ἐξελθόντος καὶ πάλιν ὑπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς Δημοφίλου πεμφθέντος; ἐπὶ δευτέρῳ μισθῷ, παίζων Δίφορον αὐτὸν ἐκάλει· ἐσπούδασε μέντοι ἱκανῶς περὶ τὸν ἄνδρα καὶ τὴν ὑπόθεσιν τῆς χρείας αὐτὸς ὑπεθήκατο. ἐγένετο δὲ καὶ πρὸς τὰ ἀφροδίσια καταφερής, ὡς ὑποπάστῳ παρειλκυσμένῳ ἐν τῇ κοίτῃ χρῆσθαι, κρόκῳ διάβροχον ἔχοντα τὸ προσκεφάλαιον. 5 839b καὶ νέον μὲν ὄντα μὴ γῆμαι, γηράσαντα δʼ ἑταίρᾳ συνεῖναι ὄνομα ἦν Λαγίσκη, ἐξ ἧς ἔσχε θυγάτριον ὃ γενόμενον ἐτῶν δώδεκα πρὸ γάμων ἐτελεύτησεν. ἔπειτα Πλαθάνην τὴν Ἱππίου τοῦ ῥήτορος γυναῖκα ἠγάγετο τρεῖς παῖδας ἔχουσαν, ὧν τὸν Ἀφαρέα ὡς 10 προείρηται ἐποιήσατο, ὃς καὶ εἰκόνα αὐτοῦ χαλκῆν ἀνέθηκε πρὸς τῷ Ὀλυμπιείῳ ἐπὶ κίονος καὶ ἐπέγραψεν

Ἰσοκράτους Ἀφαρεὺς πατρὸς εἰκόνα τήνδʼ ἀνέθηκε

Ζηνί, θεούς τε σέβων καὶ γονέων ἀρετήν.

15 839c λέγεται δὲ καὶ κελητίσαι ἔτι παῖς ὤν· ἀνάκειται γὰρ ἐν ἀκροπόλει χαλκοῦς ἐν τῇ σφαιρίστρᾳ τῶν Ἀρρηφόρων κελητίζων ἔτι παῖς ὤν, ὡς εἶπόν τινες. δύο δʼ ἐν ἅπαντι τῷ βίῳ συνέστησαν αὐτῷ ἀγῶνες πρότερος μὲν εἰς ἀντίδοσιν προκαλεσαμένου αὐτὸν 20 Μεγακλείδου, πρὸς ὃν οὐκ ἀπήντησε διὰ νόσον, τὸν δʼ υἱὸν πέμψας Ἀφαρέα ἐνίκησε· δεύτερος δὲ Λυσιμάχου αὐτὸν προκαλεσαμένου περὶ τριηραρχίας εἰς ἀντίδοσιν ἡττηθεὶς δὲ τὴν τριηραρχίαν ὑπέστη. ἦν δʼ αὐτοῦ καὶ γραπτὴ εἰκὼν ἐν τῷ Πομπείῳ. ὁ δʼ Ἀφαρεὺς συνέγραψε μὲν λόγους οὐ πολλοὺς δέ, δικανικούς τε καὶ συμβουλευτικούς· ἐποίησε δὲ καὶ τραγῳδίας περὶ ἑπτὰ καὶ τριάκοντα, ὧν ἀντιλέγονται 839d δύο. ἀρξάμενος δʼ ἀπὸ Λυσιστράτου διδάσκειν 5 ἄχρι Σωσιγένους ἐν ἔτεσιν εἰκοσιοκτὼ διδασκαλίας ἀστικὰς καθῆκεν ἓξ καὶ δὶς ἐνίκησε διὰ Διονυσίου, καθεὶς καὶ διʼ ἑτέρων ἑτέρας δύο Ληναϊκάς. τῆς δὲ μητρὸς αὐτῶν Ἰσοκράτους καὶ Θεοδώρου καὶ τῆς ταύτης ἀδελφῆς Ἀνακοῦς εἰκόνες ἀνέκειντο ἐν ἀκροπόλει· 10 ὧν ἡ τῆς μητρὸς παρὰ τὴν Ὑγίειαν νῦν κεῖται μετεπιγεγραμμένη, ἡ δʼ Ἀνακοῦς οὐ σῴζεται. ἔσχε δὲ δύο υἱούς, Ἀλέξανδρον μὲν ἐκ Κοινοῦς Σωσικλέα δʼ ἐκ Λυσίου.

Translations (1)

Lives of the Ten Orators Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. V. Goodwin, William W., editor; Barcroft, Charles, translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.) — 4 focus

IV.

ISOCRATES.

ISOCRATES was the son of Theodorus, of Erchia, reckoned among the middle class of citizens, and a man who kept servants under him to make flutes, by which he got so much money as enabled him not only to bring up his children after the most genteel manner, but likewise to maintain a choir. For besides Isocrates, he had other sons, Telesippus and Diomnestus, and one daughter. And hence, we may suppose, those two comical poets, Aristophanes and Stratis, took occasion to bring him on the stage. He was born in the eighty-sixth Olympiad,¹ Lysimachus being archon, about two and twenty years after Lysias, and seven before Plato. When he was a boy, he was as well educated as any of the Athenian children, being under the tuition of Prodicus the Cean, Gorgias the Leontine, Tisias the Syracusan, and Theramenes the rhetorician. And when Theramenes was to be apprehended by the order of the Thirty Tyrants, and flying for succor to the altar of the senate, only Isocrates stood his friend, when all others were struck with terror. For a long time he stood silent; but after some time Theramenes advised him to desist, because, he told him, it would be an aggravation of his grief, if any of his friends should come into trouble through him. And it is said that he made use of certain institutions of rhetoric composed by Theramenes, when he was slandered in court; which institutions have since borne Boton’s name.

When Isocrates was come to man’s estate, he meddled with nothing of state affairs, both because he had a very weak voice and because he was something timorous; and besides these two impediments, his estate was much impaired by the loss of a great part of his patrimony in the war with the Lacedaemonians. It is evident that he composed orations for others to use, but delivered only one, that concerning Exchange of Property. Having set up a school, he gave himself much to writing and the study of philosophy, and then he wrote his Panegyrical oration, and others which were used for advice, some of which he delivered himself, and others he gave to others to pronounce for him; aiming thereby to persuade the Greeks to the study and practice of such things as were of most immediate concern to them. But his endeavors in that way proving to no purpose, he gave those things over, and opened a school in Chios first, as some will have it, having for a beginning nine scholars; and when they came to him to pay him for their schooling, he weeping said, Now I see plainly that I am sold to my scholars. He admitted all into his acquaintance who desired it. He was the first that made a separation between wrangling pleas and political arguments, to which latter he rather addicted himself. He instituted a form of magistracy in Chios, much the same with that at Athens. No schoolmaster ever got so much; so that he maintained a galley at his own charge. He had more than a hundred scholars, and among others Timotheus the son of Conon was one, with whom he visited many cities, and composed the epistles which Timotheus sent to the Athenians; who for his pains gave him a talent out of that which he got at Samos. Theopompus likewise the Chian, Ephorus the Cumaean, Asclepiades who composed arguments for tragedies, and Theodectes of Phaselis, who afterwards wrote tragedies, were all Isocrates’s scholars. The last of these had a monument in the way to the shrine of Cyamites, as we go to Eleusis by the Sacred Way, of which now remains only rubbish. There also he set up with his own the statues of other famous poets, of all which only Homer’s is to be seen. Leodamas also the Athenian, and Lacritus who gave laws to the Athenians, were both his scholars; and some say, Hyperides and Isaeus too. They add likewise, that Demosthenes also was very desirous to learn of him, and because he could not give the full rate, which was a thousand drachms, he offered him two hundred, the fifth part, if he would teach him but the fifth part of his art proportionable: to whom Isocrates answered, We do not use, Demosthenes, to impart our skill by halves, but as men sell good fish whole, or altogether, so if thou hast a desire to learn, we will teach thee our full art, and not a piece of it. He died in the year when Charondas was chief magistrate,² when, being at Hippocrates’s public exercise, he received the news of the slaughter at Chaeronea; for he was the cause of his own death by a four days’ fast, which he then made, pronouncing just at his departure the three verses which begin three tragedies of Euripides

Danaus, father of the fifty sisters,—

Pelops, son of Tantalus, in quest of Pisa,—

Cadmus, in time past, going from Sidon.

He lived ninety-eight years, or, as some say, a hundred, not being able to behold Greece the fourth time brought into slavery. The year (or, as some say, four years) before he died, he wrote his Panathenaic oration. He labored upon his Panegyric oration ten years, or, as some tell us, fifteen, which he is supposed to have borrowed out of Gorgias the Leontine and Lysias. His oration concerning Exchange of Property he wrote when he was eighty-two years old, and those to Philip a little before his death. When he was old, he adopted Aphareus, the youngest of the three sons of Plathane, the daughter of Hippias the orator. He was very rich, both in respect of the great sums of money he exacted of his scholars, and besides that, having at one time twenty talents of Nicocles, king of Cyprus, for an oration which he dedicated to him. By reason of his riches he became obnoxious to the envy of others, and was three times named to maintain a galley; which he evaded twice by the assistance of his son and a counterfeit sickness, but the third time he undertook it, though the charge proved very great. A father telling him that he had allowed his son no other companion than one slave, Isocrates replied, Go thy way then, for one slave thou shalt have two. He strove for the prize which Aretemisia dedicated to the honor and memory of her husband Mausolus; but that oration is lost. He wrote also another oration in praise of Helen, and one called Areopagiticus. Some say that he died when he had fasted nine days, —some again, at four days’ end,—and his death took its date from the funeral solemnities of those that lost their lives at Chaeronea. His son Aphareus likewise wrote several orations.

He lies buried with all his family near Cynosarges, on the left hand of the hill. There are interred Isocrates and his father Theodorus, his mother and her sister Anaco, his adoptive son Aphareus, Socrates the son of Anaco, Theodorus his brother, bearing his father’s name, his grandsons, the sons of his adopted Aphareus, and his wife Plathane, the mother of Aphareus. On these tombs were erected six tables, which are now demolished. And upon the tomb of Isocrates himself was placed a column thirty cubits high, and on that a mermaid of seven cubits, which was an emblem of his eloquence; there is nothing now extant. There was also near it a table, having poets and his schoolmasters on it; and among the rest, Gorgias inspecting a celestial globe, and Isocrates standing by him. There is likewise a statue of his of bronze in Eleusis, dedicated by Timothy the son of Conon, before the entry of the porch, with this inscription:

To the fame and honor of Isocrates,

This statue’s sacred to the Goddesses;

The gift of Timothy.

This statue was made by Leochares. There are threescore orations which bear his name; of which, if we credit Dionysius, only five and twenty are genuine; but according to Caecilius, twenty-eight; and the rest are accounted spurious. He was an utter stranger to ostentation, insomuch that, when there came at one time three persons to hear him declaim, he admitted but two of them, desiring the third to come the next day, for that two at once were to him as a full theatre. He used to tell his scholars that he taught his art for ten minas; but he would give any man ten thousand, that could teach him to be bold and give him a good utterance. And being once asked how he, who was not very eloquent himself, could make others so, he answered, Just as a whetstone cannot cut, yet it will sharpen knives for that purpose. Some say that he wrote institutions to the art of oratory; others are of opinion that he had no method of teaching, but only exercise. He would never ask any thing of a free-born citizen. He used to enjoin his scholars being present at public assemblies to repeat to him what was there delivered. He conceived no little sorrow for the death of Socrates, insomuch that the next day he put himself in mourning. Being asked what was the use and force of rhetoric, he answered, To make great matters small, and small great. At a feast with Nicoceon, the tyrant of Cyprus, being desired by some of the company to declaim upon some theme, he made answer, that that was not a season for him to speak what he knew, and he knew nothing that was then seasonable. Happening once to see Sophocles the tragedian amorously eying a comely boy, he said to him, It will become thee, Sophocles, to restrain not only thy hands, but thine eyes. When Ephorus of Cumae left his school before he had arrived at any good proficiency, his father Demophilus sent him again with a second sum of money in his hand; at which Isocrates jocosely called him Diphorus, that is, twice bringing his fee. However, he took a great deal of pains and care with him, and went so far as to put him in the way of writing history.

He was wantonly given; and used to lie upon a mat for his bed, and his bolster was commonly made moist with saffron. He never married while he was young; but in his old age he kept a miss, whose name was Lagisce, and by her he had a daughter, who died in the twelfth year of her age, before she was married. He afterwards married Plathane, the wife of Hippias the rhetorician, who had three sons, the youngest of which, Aphareus by name, he adopted for his own, as we said before. This Aphareus erected a bronze statue to him near the temple of Jupiter, as may be seen from the inscription:

In veneration of the mighty Jove,

His noble parents, and the Gods above,

Aphareus this statue here has set,

The statue of Isocrates his father.

He is said to have run a race on a swift horse, when he was but a boy; for he is to be seen in this posture in the Citadel, in the tennis court of the priestesses of Minerva, in a statue. There were but two suits commenced against him in his whole life. One whereof was with Megaclides, who provoked him to exchange of property; at the trial of which he could not be personally present, by reason of sickness; but sending Aphareus, he nevertheless overcame. The other suit was commenced against him by Lysimachus, who would have him come to an exchange or be at the charge of maintaining a galley for the commonwealth. In this case he was overthrown, and forced to perform the service. There was likewise a painting of him in the Pompeum.

Aphareus also wrote a few orations, both judicial and deliberative; as also tragedies to the number of thirty-seven, of which two are contested. He began to make his works public in the year of Lysistratus, and continued it to the year of Sosigenes, that is, eight and twenty years.³ In these years he exhibited dramas six times at the city Dionysiac festivals, and twice went away with the prize through the actor Dionysius; he also gained two other victories at the Lenaean festival through other actors.

There were to be seen in the Citadel the statues of the mother of Isocrates, of Theodorus, and of Anaco his mother’s sister. That of the mother is placed just by the image of Health, the inscription being changed; that of Anaco is no longer there. [Anaco] had two sons, Alexander by Coenes, and Lysicles by Lysias.

Notes on the current edition

The Lives of the Ten Orators

1. Wealthy Athenians performed in turn special services to the state called liturgies. The most expensive of these was the choregy, which involved the payment, training, and equipment of a chorus for a lyrical or dramatic performance.

2. See Isocrates, On the Exchange of Property (Or. xv.), 161.

3. 436-435 b.c.

4. Plato was born in 428-427 b.c. Lysias, according to this statement, in 459-458. But see note on 835 d above.

5. The sanctuary of this Goddess of the Senate’s Hearth was in or near the Prytaneum, which was somewhere on the northern slope of the Acropolis.

6. See Isocrates, Philip (Or. v.), 81; Panathenaic (Or. xii.), 9.

7. i.e. the Panegyric, delivered at Olympia.

8. The trierarchy was one of the liturgies which wealthy citizens were obliged to perform. Being trierarch thus showed wealth.

9. 365 b.c.

10. The text of Photius reads Xenophon the son of Gryllus and Theopompus.

11. 338-337 b.c.

12.

This popular story of Isocrates’ death is given also by Lucian (?), Macrobioi 23, Pausanias, i. 18. 8, and Plutarch, 838 below. It is made famous by Milton in his tenth sonnet:

as that dishonest victory

At Chaeronea, fatal to liberty,

Killed by report that old man eloquent

But Isocrates himself, at the end of his third letter, writes to Philip: But I am grateful to old age for this thing only, that it has continued my life to this point, so that of the things which I meditated in my youth and undertook to write in my Panegyric Oration and in that which I sent to you, I now see some being accomplished through your deeds and hope that others will be accomplished. Apparently he was well pleased with Philip’s success. See Blass, Die attische Beredsamkeit, 2nd ed., ii. p. 97.

13. From the Archelaüs; Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. p. 427, no. 228.

14. Iphigeneia in Tauris, 1.

15. From the Phrixus; Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. p. 627, no. 819. Blass, Die attische Beredsamkeit, 2nd ed., ii. p. 97, thinks these lines enumerate three intrusions of foreigners into Greece. The fourth - not mentioned - would then be that of the Macedonians under Philip.

16. Under the Athenian empire in the fifth century, by the Spartans after the Peloponnesian War, by the Thebans under Epameinondas, and by the Macedonians. All these Isocrates himself had seen. But see note d above.

17. In L.C.L. Isocrates, vol. ii. pp. 368 ff.

18. Ibid. pp. 181 ff. If anyone proposed that a certain man be obliged to perform one of the liturgies which were required of wealthy Athenians, the man of whom this was required could challenge the proposer to an exchange of properties, which might transfer the obligation.

19. Mausolus, ruler of Halicarnassus, died in 353 b.c. His widow, Artemisia, caused eulogies to be written in competition by Greek orators and completed the magnificent tomb which he had, apparently, begun. This magnificent building - the Mausoleum - was designed by Greek architects and decorated by famous Greek sculptors. The remains of the sculpture include portrait statues of Maussolus and Artemisia and are among the most highly prized possessions of the British Museum.

20. Cynosarges was a region in Athens in which was a great gymnasium.

21. cf. Moralia, 613 a.

22. Attributed to Pericles by Plutarch, Life of Pericles, chap. viii., and Cicero, De Officiis, i. 40. 144.

23. The great work of Ephorus was a history of the world (primarily of Greece) from the return of the Heracleidae to the siege of Perinthus in 340 b.c. From this work Plutarch and others derived much of their information. Ephorus was born early in the fourth century and died about 320 b.c.

24. Bergk, Poet. Lyr. Graec. ii. p. 329. The column and statue existed in the time of Pausanias (Paus. i. 18. 8). A bust in the Villa Albani in Rome may be a late copy of the head of this statue or, more probably, since Leochares was a famous sculptor, of the statue at Eleusis mentioned above.

25. This seems to have been situated near the north-west wall of the Acropolis, west of the Erechtheum: Cf. Judeich, Topographie von Athen ², p. 283. Two maidens were chosen each year to carry the peplos at the Panathenaic festival and were called Arrephoroi.

26. See note on 837 f.

27. The Pompeium was just inside the Dipylon gate, at which point the processions began. It was the storehouse for objects used in processions.

28. 369-368 b.c.

29. 342-341 b.c.

30. When a poet ( διδάσκαλος) wished to avoid the labour of presenting a play he could delegate the management to a hypodidascalus, another poet experienced in such matters. We have many instances of this practice in the didascalic notices, notably in the case of Aristophanes.

31. The City or Greater Dionysia were celebrated in March, the Rural or Lesser Dionysia in the various demes of Attica in December, and the Lenaean festival in December. At all of these dramas were performed, but new tragedies were not produced at the Rural Dionysia, and for a time the same was true of the Lenaean festival. A series of dramas comprised three tragedies and a satyr drama. The two prizes of Aphareus are recorded in an inscription, I.G. ii.² 2325 b (ed. min.).

32. Statues erected to honour one person were not infrequently transferred to another by changing the inscriptions. Dio Chrysostom in his Oration to the Rhodians condemns this practice.

Plutarch Vitae decem oratorum 4

Harold North Fowler (Translator)

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