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St Photius the Great, tr. Freese, 1920; selections

159. Codex 159: Isocrates, Orations, Letters

Read the twenty-one Orations and nine Letters of Isocrates.¹ His “deliberative”² speeches are those To Demonicus and To Nicodes, containing useful advice; a second to Nicocles, and one On the Peace. The object of the Panegyricus is the consideration of the means of ensuring harmony amongst the Greeks themselves, and of the best methods for carrying on war against the barbarians, but by far the greater part is devoted to a glorification of the Athenians. The Areopagiticus is also one of the “deliberative” speeches, inciting the Athenians to virtue by the praise of their ancestors,.and by censuring their descendants. The Plataicus and the Archidamus are also “deliberative”; in the latter he urges the Spartans to make war against the Thebans on the question of the Messenians. In the oration Against the Sophists he attacks his political opponents. The next speech is an Encomium of Busiris,³ as the title indicates. The eleventh is an Encomium of Helen. The twelfth, Evagoras,⁴ is a eulogy of that king, dedicated to his son Nicocles. The Philippus is a “deliberative” speech, recommending Philip to endeavour to promote harmony amongst the Greeks and devote his attention to a united advance against the barbarians in Asia. The Panathenaicus is a eulogy of Athens and the ancestors of the Athenians, which he says he began to write when he was ninety-four years of age, but was prevented by a three-years’ severe attack of illness from completing it until he was ninety-seven. The speech called Antidosis (exchange of properties) appears to belong to the class of “forensic” speeches and contains a defence against the slanders of one Lysimachus against him. This speech, the longest of those of this class, was composed when he was eighty-two years of age, and the matter is more mixed and varied than that of the rest; he inserts extracts from his other speeches, in order to show that he is not corrupting the young men, but promoting the common welfare. The speech Against Callimachus, as also the Aegineticus (dealing with a claim to inheritance), the speech Against Euthynus on behalf of Nicias, the Trapeziticus (an action against a banker), and Against Lochites (a claim for damages for outrage and assault) are also “forensic.” These are the twenty-one orations of Isocrates that we have read. Of his nine Letters, one is addressed to Dionysius the tyrant of Sicily, another to Archidamus, two to Philip, one to Alexander, one to Antipater, one to Timotheus, and the ninth to the Archons of Mytilene.⁵

This writer preferred to give instruction in rhetoric rather than take part in the management of public affairs, like the other nine orators, of whom Demosthenes was one; although even before their time he had a great reputation as a rhetorician, and, later, was in no way considered their inferior. His chief characteristics, as at once becomes obvious to the reader, are purity and distinctness, and excessive care in the workmanship of his speeches, which frequently degenerates into superfluous orderliness and over-elaboration. His infinite capacity for taking pains generates want of taste rather than of resourcefulness in argument He lacks impressiveness,⁶ sincerity, and liveliness,⁷ but in his political orations he makes admirable use of dignity and perspicuity in equal proportions. His style is feeble, and the use of evenly-balanced clauses ad nauseam, as much as anything else, shows his excessive attention to petty detail. But we acknowledge the general excellence of his language, and only make these criticisms to point out where it has gone astray and does not do justice to itself. For, in comparison with some of those who undertake to compose speeches, even his faults appear, virtues.

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