Isocrates II

The Oratory of Classical Greece

by Terry L. Papillon (Translator)

This is the seventh volume in the Oratory of Classical Greece. This series presents all of the surviving speeches from the late fifth and fourth centuries BC in new translations prepared by classical scholars who are at the forefront of the discipline. These translations are especially designed for the needs and interests of today's undergraduates, Greekless scholars in other disciplines, and the general public. Classical oratory is an invaluable resource for the study of ancient Greek life and culture. The speeches offer evidence on Greek moral views, social and economic conditions, political and social ideology, law and legal procedure, and other aspects of Athenian culture that have been largely women and family life, slavery, and religion, to name just a few. The Athenian rhetorician Isocrates (436-338) was one of the leading intellectual figures of the fourth century. This volume contains his orations 4, 5, 6, 8, 12, and 14, as well as all of his letters. These are Isocrates' political works. Three of the discourses— Panathenaicus, On the Peace, and the most famous, Panegyricus —focus on Athens, Isocrates' home. Archidamus is written in the voice of the Spartan prince to his assembly, and Plataicus is in the voice of a citizen of Plataea asking Athens for aid, while in To Philip, Isocrates himself calls on Philip of Macedon to lead a unified Greece against Persia.

Genres: Philosophy, Classics, History, Ancient History, Ancient

332 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1929

Reviews

[Paul, · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked Antidosis and Against the Sophists. We would do well to heed their warnings.

Who does not know that words carry greater conviction when spoken by men of good repute than when spoke by men who live under a cloud, and that the argument which is made by a man's life is of more weight than that which is furnished by his words?

If all who are engaged in the profession of education were willing to state the facts instead of making greater promises than they can possibly fulfill, they would not be in such bad repute with the lay public.

But it is not sophists alone who are open to criticism, but also those who profess to teach political discourse. For the latter have no interest whatever in the truth, but consider that they are masters of an art if they can attract great numbers of students by the smallness of their charges and the magnitude of their professions and get something out of them.

For ability, whether in speech or in any other activity, is found in those who are well endowed by nature and have been schooled by practical experience. Formal training makes such men more skillful and more resourceful in discovering the possibilities of a subject; for it teaches them to take from a readier source the topics which they otherwise hit upon in haphazard fashion. But it cannot fully fashion men who are without natural aptitude into good debaters or writers, although it is capable of leading them on to self-improvement and to a greater degree of intelligence on many subjects.

I hold that there does not exist an art of the kind which can implant sobriety and justice in depraved natures.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Also see the general introduction, by the editor George Norlin, pp. ix-xlv, in Volume I, available online from the Internet Archive, as a PDF file:
https://ia800902.us.archive.org/13/it...

[Gerasimos Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

We read "On the Peace" in Ancient Greek in school.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Actually just read the Areopagiticus.

Apparently, it's an important work of oratory, and you can see why he was persuasive. However, his claims of "we suck now, but everyone was awesome in the past" doesn't sound very convincing.

[James Violand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Isocrates, one of the great orators of ancient Athens, supports his position in five speeches by relying on Attic history. The reader glimpses the grandeur that was Athens.

[enchatedfire]

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