Editing Rhetoric (section)

====Isocrates====
{{Main|Isocrates}}

Isocrates ({{BCE|436–338}}), like the Sophists, taught public speaking as a means of human improvement, but he worked to distinguish himself from the Sophists, whom he saw as claiming far more than they could deliver. He suggested that while an art of virtue or excellence did exist, it was only one piece, and the least, in a process of self-improvement that relied much more on honing one's talent, desire, constant practice, and the imitation of good models. Isocrates believed that practice in speaking publicly about noble themes and important questions would improve the character of both speaker and audience while also offering the best service to a city. Isocrates was an outspoken champion of rhetoric as a mode of civic engagement.<ref>{{multiref2
|1={{cite book|author=[[Isocrates]]|chapter=Against the Sophists|title=Isocrates with an English Translation|translator-first=George|translator-last=Norlin|translator-link=George Norlin|location=New York|publisher=G.P. Putnam's Sons|year=1929|volume=II|pages=160–177|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/isocrateswitheng02isocuoft/page/159/mode/1up|orig-date={{circa|{{BCE|392}}}} }}
|2={{cite book|author=[[Isocrates]]|chapter=Antidosis|title=Isocrates with an English Translation|translator-first=George|translator-last=Norlin|translator-link=George Norlin|location=New York|publisher=G.P. Putnam's Sons|year=1929|volume=II|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/isocrateswitheng02isocuoft/page/179/mode/1up|pages=181–365|orig-date={{circa|{{BCE|353}}}} }}
}}</ref> He thus wrote his speeches as "models" for his students to imitate in the same way that poets might imitate Homer or Hesiod, seeking to inspire in them a desire to attain fame through civic leadership. His was the first permanent school in [[Athens]] and it is likely that [[Plato's Academy]] and [[Aristotle's Lyceum]] were founded in part as a response to Isocrates. Though he left no handbooks, his speeches (''"[[Antidosis (treatise)|Antidosis]]"'' and ''"[[Against the Sophists]]"'' are most relevant to students of rhetoric) became models of oratory and keys to his entire educational program. He was one of the canonical "[[Ten Attic Orators]]". He influenced [[Cicero]] and [[Quintilian]], and through them, the entire educational system of the west.