Isocrates (redirected from Isokrates)

Isocrates (īsŏk`rətēz), 436–338 B.C., one of the Ten Attic Orators. He was a pupil of Socrates and of the Sophists. Perhaps the greatest teacher in Greek history, he taught every younger orator of his time. He did not deliver his speeches, but either wrote for litigants (six such speeches survive) or wrote discourses to be read (15 of which remain) dealing mainly with politics and education. Panegyricus (in which he urges Hellenic unity against Persia) is his most celebrated oration. Isocrates committed suicide (according to tradition) after the defeat of Athens by Philip II of Macedon at Chaeronea.

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Isocrates

(born 436, Athens—died 338 BC, Athens) Athenian author, rhetorician, and teacher. His school, unlike Plato's more philosophical Academy, provided an education for the practical needs of society; it was given over almost entirely to rhetoric. He promoted Greek political unity and cultural superiority based on monarchy and advocated a unified Greek attack on Persia under Philip II of Macedonia to secure unity and peace in Greece. When Greece lost its independence after the Battle of Chaeronea, Isocrates, in despair, starved himself to death.

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Isocrates

436--338 bc, Athenian rhetorician and teacher