Isaios

Isaios ( Greek Ἰσαῖος Isaíos , Latinized Isaeus ; * late 5th century BC in Athens or Chalkis ; † around the middle of the 4th century BC ) was an Attic speechwriter . He is counted among the ten Attic speakers . His exact life dates are unknown.

Life

Little information about Isaios' life has survived: the descriptions in Pseudo-Plutarch , Harpokration , Photios I and in the Suda used Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Kaikilios as sources.

The dates of his life are unknown, but his earliest speech can be traced back to around 389 BC. BC , its latest to 343 BC. To date. Since he has never held any political office in his career, it is believed that he lived as a Metöke in Athens. Allegedly Isocrates or Lysias were his teachers, Isaios is said to have taught Demosthenes himself . However, the truthfulness of this information cannot be verified.

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Isaius was ascribed 64 speeches in antiquity, 50 of which were considered real. The title of 56 speeches is known today, only twelve have survived, one of them incomplete and another only fragmentary in Dionysius of Halicarnassus.

The twelve extant speeches of Jesse are:

1. About the legacy of Cleonymus ( Περὶ τοῦ Κλεωνύμου κλήρου )
2. About the legacy of Menekles ( Περὶ τοῦ Μενεκλέους κλήρου )
3. About the legacy of Pyrrhus ( Περὶ τοῦ Πύρρου κλήρου )
4. About the legacy of Nikostratos ( Περὶ τοῦ Νικοστράτου κλήρου )
5. About the legacy of Dikaiogenes ( Περὶ τοῦ Δικαιογένους κλήρου )
6. About the legacy of Philoctemon ( Περὶ τοῦ Φιλοκτήμονος κλήρου )
7. About the legacy of Apollodorus ( Περὶ τοῦ Απολλοδώρου κλήρου )
8. About the legacy of Kiron ( Περὶ τοῦ Κίρωνος κλήρου )
9. About the legacy of Astyphilos ( Περὶ τοῦ Ἀστυφίλου κλήρου )
10. For Xenainetus about the inheritance of Aristarchus ( Πρὸς Ξεναίνετον περὶ τοῦ Ἀριστάρχου κλήρου )
11. About the legacy of Hagnias ( Περὶ τοῦ Ἁγνίου κλήρου )
12. In the interest of Euphiletus ( Υπὲρ Εὐφιλήτου )

All speeches received are written for inheritance processes , usually about the validity of wills or the ranking of the heirs.

literature

Overview display

• Evangelos Alexiou: Isaios. In: Bernhard Zimmermann , Antonios Rengakos (Hrsg.): Handbook of the Greek literature of antiquity. Volume 2: The Literature of the Classical and Hellenistic Period. CH Beck, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-406-61818-5 , pp. 836-841

Investigations

• Stefano Ferrucci (Ed.): Iseo. La Successione di Kiron , Pisa 2005. ISBN 88-467-1194-7
• John Martin Lawless: Law, argument and equity in the speeches of Isaeus , Dissertation ( Brown University ) 1991.
• Liselot Huchthausen: reflections on the second speech of Isaios ( Περὶ τοῦ Μενεκλέους κλήρου ). In: Klio 46, 1965, pp. 241-262.

Web links

• Literature by and about Isaios in the catalog of the German National Library
• The speeches of Isaios, Greek and English.
• German Translation: Isäus der Redner, Stuttgart: Metzler, 1830, at Google Books: Bd. 1 Bd. 2

Remarks

1. ^ Dionysius of Halicarnassus, or. 12.