Isaeus

Introduction

INTRODUCTION life One of the very few facts we know about Isaeus is that he was a professional speechwriter (logographos). The man behind the speeches, however, is almost entirely obscure. His name does not appear in the historical record until the critical essay written about him in the late first century bce by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and Dionysius himself already had little or no reliable information about his subject . His birthplace was either Athens (according to Hermippus) or Chalcis (according to Demetrius of Magnesia), but if he did not play a prominent role in Athenian politics, this does not necessarily indicate that he was, like the earlier orator Lysias, a resident alien (metic) at Athens. Isaeus’ logographic activity, on the evidence of the dating of the speeches that survive, began in the very early 380s and continued until the later 340s, and so a birth date of ca. 415–410 is feasible. This date would fit with one of the two facts recorded about Isaeus by Hermippus (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Isaeus 1): first, that he studied under Isocrates, who began teaching in Athens in ca. 390. If that is the case, it is interesting that if Speech 5 is correctly dated to  E.g., “He was in his prime after the Peloponnesian War, as I deduce from his speeches, and survived until the rule of Philip” (Isaeus 1). Cf. the very brief biography in [Plut.], Lives of the Ten Orators (839e–f).  Cf. Harpocration, s.v. Isaios. Hermippus was third century, Demetrius, first century bce.  Speech 5 may be the earliest surviving speech, from 389; Speech 12 dates to 344/3. 2 isaeus 389, Isaeus either seems to have been a student for only a short time or was already writing speeches while learning the trade. Hermippus’ second fact was that Isaeus taught Demosthenes, a tradition that recurs in the pseudo-Plutarchan Lives of the two orators (839f, 844b–c), in the expanded form that Isaeus lived in Demosthenes’ house and composed for him the early speeches prosecuting his guardians. It was his teaching of Demosthenes that chiefly won Isaeus fame, according to the opening sentence of Dionysius’ essay, and one of Demosthenes’ rivals, Pytheas, accused him of “digesting the whole of Isaeus and his rhetorical technique” (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Isaeus 4). works The pseudo-Plutarchan Life records that Isaeus “left behind sixtyfour speeches, of which fifty were genuine, and his own rhetorical manuals” (839f). Eleven speeches survive, as well as an extended fragment quoted by Dionysius (Isaeus 17), which is regularly printed as Speech 12; in addition, we have from various sources (including Dionysius and the later lexicographers) the names, with fragments in some cases, of over forty lost speeches, some of which probably overlap, plus a number of other fragments and single words of unknown origin. We therefore have a good idea of the range of Isaeus’ activity, but it is clear from the surviving speeches and many of the fragments that he concentrated mainly on composing forensic speeches for suits concerned with matters of inheritance. There is some variety in the types of suit involved, including the actual inheritance claims (diadikasiai), subsequent prosecutions for false testimony (dikai pseudomartyriōn), the prosecution of a surety (dikē engyēs), and prosecution for maltreatment of an orphan (eisangelia kakōseōs orphanou ). Nevertheless, the common subject matter makes Isaeus the Attic orator closest to being a legal expert. Unfortunately, the complex nature of this material has also prompted negative evaluations of his ability, from Dionysius’ contrasting of Isaeus’ cleverness (deinotēs) with Lysias’ charm (charis) to Dobson’s evaluation of his “efficiency which is admirable, but dull.” We shall return to this topic presently  Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Isaeus 3; J. F. Dobson, The Greek Orators (London , 1919), 105. introduction 3 and merely note here the crucial importance of Isaeus’ speeches as sources in a central area of Athenian law. style and method Dionysius, as we saw, begins his essay on Isaeus with the statement that his fame was due mainly to his being the teacher of Demosthenes . Dionysius views Isaeus as a link between the older forensic style of Lysias and the mature forensic style of Demosthenes, the unquestioned master of Attic oratory. The critic, however, firmly classifies Isaeus with Lysias and Isocrates as being among the best orators of the earlier generation, not in the later group of Demosthenes , Hyperides, and Aeschines (Dionysius of...