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Also known as Isæus

Isaeus ( Isaios; fl. early 4th century BC) was one of the ten Attic orators according to the Alexandrian canon. He was a student of Isocrates in Athens, and later taught Demosthenes while working as a metic logographer (speechwriter) for others. Only eleven of his speeches survive, with fragments of a twelfth. They are mostly concerned with inheritance, with one on civil rights. Dionysius of Halicarnassus compared his style to Lysias, although Isaeus was more given to employing sophistry.

Person · Open Library

Born
ca. 420 B.C.
Died
ca. 350 B.C.
Works
35

Top works

  • Oratorum graecorum
  • Selections from the Attic Orators: Antiphon, Andocides, Lysias, Isocrates ...
  • The Speeches of Isaeus
  • Isaei Orationes cum aliquot deperditarum fragmentis
  • Isaeus

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Show 5 more facts
floruit
0400-00-00
date of birth
0420-00-00
date of death
0340-00-00
name in native language
Ἰσαῖος
Commons category
Isaeus
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Article

7 sections
Contents
  • Life
  • Works
  • Oratorical style
  • Bibliography
  • References
  • Sources
  • Further reading

Isaeus ( Isaios; fl. early 4th century BC) was one of the ten Attic orators according to the Alexandrian canon. He was a student of Isocrates in Athens, and later taught Demosthenes while working as a metic logographer (speechwriter) for others. Only eleven of his speeches survive, with fragments of a twelfth. They are mostly concerned with inheritance, with one on civil rights. Dionysius of Halicarnassus compared his style to Lysias, although Isaeus was more given to employing sophistry.

==Life== The time of his birth and death is unknown, but all accounts agree in the statement that he flourished () during the period between the Peloponnesian War and the accession of Philip II of Macedon, so that he lived between 420 and 348 BC. He was a son of Diagoras, and was born at Chalcis in Euboea; some sources say he was born in Athens, probably only because he came there at an early age and spent the greater part of his life there.

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