Isocrates, Against the Sophists, George Norlin (Translator), 19

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[19] Now as for the sophists who have lately sprung up and have very recently embraced these pretensions,¹ even though they flourish at the moment, they will all, I am sure, come round to this position. But there remain to be considered those who lived before our time and did not scruple to write the so-called arts of oratory.² These must not be dismissed without rebuke, since they professed to teach how to conduct law-suits, picking out the most discredited of terms,³ which the enemies, not the champions, of this discipline might have been expected to employ—

Against the Sophists. Isocrates. George Norlin (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1928.

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Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.

Current edition Perseus

Against the Sophists (English) (Isocrates, Vol 2. Norlin, George, translator. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1929 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Κατὰ τῶν σοφιστῶν Perseus (Isocrates, Vol 2. Norlin, George, editor. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1929 (printing).) — 19 focus

[19] οἱ μὲν οὖν ἄρτι τῶν σοφιστῶν ἀναφυόμενοι καὶ νεωστὶ προσπεπτωκότες ταῖς ἀλαζονείαις, εἰ καὶ νῦν πλεονάζουσιν, εὖ οἶδʼ ὅτι πάντες ἐπὶ ταύτην κατενεχθήσονται τὴν ὑπόθεσιν. λοιποὶ δʼ ἡμῖν εἰσιν οἱ πρὸ ἡμῶν γενόμενοι καὶ τὰς καλουμένας τέχνας γράψαι τολμήσαντες, οὓς οὐκ ἀφετέον ἀνεπιτιμήτους· οἵ τινες ὑπέσχοντο δικάζεσθαι διδάξειν, ἐκλεξάμενοι τὸ δυσχερέστατον τῶν ὀνομάτων, ὃ τῶν φθονούντων ἔργον ἦν λέγειν, ἀλλʼ οὐ τῶν προεστώτων τῆς τοιαύτης παιδεύσεως, καὶ ταῦτα τοῦ πράγματος,

Notes on the current edition

Against the Sophists

1. The sophist before mentioned. The teaching of the older sophists is discussed in Antidosis.

2. Especially the first to write such treatises, Corax and Tisias of Syracuse . τέχνη, like ars in Latin, was the accepted term for a treatise on rhetoric.

3. Again and again Isocrates expresses his repugnance to this kind of oratory, and in general it was in bad odor. The precepts of Corax (Crow), for example, were called “the bad eggs of the bad Corax.”

Isocrates Against the Sophists 19

George Norlin (Translator)

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