Editing Isocrates (section)

==Career==
There is no evidence for Isocrates' participation in public life during [[Peloponnesian War]] (431–404).<ref name= Papillon2004 />

His professional career is said to have begun with [[logographer (legal)|logography]]: he was a hired courtroom [[speechwriter]]. Athenian citizens did not hire lawyers; legal procedure required self-representation. Instead, they would hire people like Isocrates to write speeches for them. Isocrates had a great talent for this and he amassed a considerable fortune. According to [[Pliny the Elder]] (''NH'' VII.30) he could sell a single oration for twenty [[Attic talent|talents]]. However, his weak voice meant that he was not himself a good public speaker. He played no direct part in state affairs, but he published many pamphlets which influenced the public and provide significant insight into major political issues of the day.<ref name="yorku1998">{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Cawkwell |first=George Law |year=1998 |entry=Isocrates |entry-url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780198601654.001.0001/acref-9780198601654-e-343?rskey=P6cKCB&result=343 |access-date=18 October 2011 |encyclopedia=The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization |editor=Simon Hornblower |editor2=Antony Spawforth |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-860165-4 }}</ref>

===Pedagogy===
Around 392 BC Isocrates set up his own school of rhetoric at the [[Lyceum]]. Prior to Isocrates, teaching consisted of first-generation Sophists, such as Gorgias and [[Protagoras]], walking from town to town as itinerants, who taught any individuals interested in political occupations how to be effective in public speaking.<ref name="Mitchell">{{Cite web |last=Mitchell |first=Gordon |title=Isocrates |url=https://www.coursesites.com/webapps/Bb-sites-course-creation-BBLEARN/courseHomepage.htmlx?course_id=_278442_1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140918063412/https://www.coursesites.com/webapps/Bb-sites-course-creation-BBLEARN/courseHomepage.htmlx?course_id=_278442_1 |archive-date=18 September 2014 |access-date=1 October 2013}}</ref> Isocrates encouraged his students to wander and observe public behavior in the city (Athens) to learn through imitation. His students aimed to learn how to serve the city.<ref name="Mitchell" /> "At the core of his teaching was an [[Aristocracy|aristocratic]] notion of [[arete]] ("virtue, excellence"), which could be attained by pursuing [[Philosophy|philosophia]] – not so much the dialectical study of abstract subjects like [[epistemology]] and [[metaphysics]] that Plato marked as "philosophy" as the study and practical application of ethics, politics and [[public speaking]]".<ref name= Papillon2004 /> The philosopher [[Plato]] (a rival of Isocrates) founded his own academy in response to Isocrates' foundation.<ref name="Mitchell" />

Isocrates accepted no more than nine pupils at a time. Many of them went on to be prominent philosophers, legislators, historians, orators, writers, and military and political leaders.<ref name= Papillon2004 /><ref name="autogenerated1990">Matsen, Patricia, Philip Rollinson, and Marion Sousa. ''Readings from Classical Rhetoric''. Southern Illinois: 1990.</ref> The first students in Isocrates' school were Athenians. However, after he published the ''Panegyricus'' in 380 BC, his reputation spread to many other parts of [[Greece]].<ref name="Norlin 1928 ix-xlvii" />  Some of his students included [[Isaeus]], [[Lycurgus of Athens|Lycurgus]], [[Hypereides]], [[Ephorus]], [[Theopompus]], [[Speusippus]], and [[Timotheus (general)|Timotheus]]. Many of these students remained under the instruction of Isocrates for three to four years. Timotheus had such a great appreciation for Isocrates that he erected a statue at [[Eleusis]] and dedicated it to him.<ref name="Norlin 1928 ix-xlvii" />