Editing Isocrates (section)

==Publications==
[[File:Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 1183 - Princeton University Library, AM 4097 - Isocrates, Trapeziticus 44–48.jpg|thumb|right|[[Oxyrhynchus Papyri|P. Oxy.]] 1183, late-1st-century-AD papyrus containing Isocrates's ''Trapeziticus'' 44–48.]]
[[File:Isokratous Apanta.tif|thumb|''Isokratous Apanta'' (1570)]]
Of the 60 orations in his name available in Roman times, 21 remained in transmission by the end of the medieval period. The earliest manuscripts dated from the ninth or tenth century, until fourth century copies of Isocrates' first three orations were found in a single [[codex]] during a 1990's excavation at [[Kellis]], a site in the [[Dakhla Oasis]] of [[Egypt]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2 October 1998 |title=Ancient Kellis |url=http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/exhibitions/egypt/xegy.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120420055545/http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/exhibitions/egypt/xegy.html |archive-date=20 April 2012 |access-date=9 July 2012 |publisher=Lib.monash.edu.au}}</ref><ref>Mirhady, David C. and Yun Lee Too, ''Isocrates I'', University of Texas, 2000</ref> We have nine letters in his name, but the authenticity of four of those has been questioned.{{By whom|date=June 2024}} He is said to have compiled a treatise, the ''Art of Rhetoric,'' but there is no known copy. Other surviving works include his autobiographical ''[[Antidosis]]'', and educational texts such as ''Against the Sophists''.

Isocrates wrote a collection of ten known orations, three of which were directed to the rulers of Salamis on Cyprus. In ''To Nicocles'', Isocrates suggests first how the new king might rule best.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Avgousti |first=Andreas |date=2023 |title=The household in Isocrates' political thought |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14748851211073728 |journal=European Journal of Political Theory |language=en |volume=22 |issue=4 |pages=523–541 |doi=10.1177/14748851211073728 |s2cid=246303666 |issn=1474-8851}}</ref> For the extent of the rest of the oration, Isocrates advises Nicocles of ways to improve his nature, such as the use of education and studying the best poets and sages. Isocrates concludes with the notion that, in finding the happy mean, it is better to fall short than to go to excess. His second oration concerning Nicocles was related to the rulers of Salamis on Cyprus; this was written for the king and his subjects. Isocrates again stresses that the surest sign of good understanding is education and the ability to speak well. The king uses this speech to communicate to the people what exactly he expects of them. Isocrates makes a point in stating that courage and cleverness are not always good, but moderation and justice are. The third oration about Cyprus is an encomium to Euagoras who is the father of Nicocles. Isocrates uncritically applauds Euagoras for forcibly taking the throne of Salamis and continuing rule until his assassination in 374 BC.<ref name="Greece & Rome to 30 BC">{{Cite book |last=Beck |first=Sanderson |title=Greece & Rome to 30 BC |publisher=Ethics of Civilization |volume =4}}</ref>

Two years after his completion of the three orations, Isocrates wrote an oration for Archidamus, the prince of Sparta. Isocrates considered the settling of the Thebans colonists in Messene a violation of the Peace of Antalcidas. He was bothered most by the fact that this ordeal would not restore the true Messenians but rather the Helots, in turn making these slaves masters. Isocrates believed justice was most important, which secured the Spartan laws but he did not seem to recognize the rights of the Helots. Ten years later Isocrates wrote a letter to Archidamus, now the king of Sparta, urging him to reconcile the Greeks, stopping their wars with each other so that they could end the insolence of the Persians.<ref name="Greece & Rome to 30 BC" />

At the end of the [[Social War (357–355 BC)|Social War]] in 355 BC, 80-year-old Isocrates wrote an oration addressed to the Athenian assembly entitled ''On the Peace;'' Aristotle called it ''On the Confederacy''. Isocrates wrote this speech for the reading public, asking that both sides be given an unbiased hearing. Those in favour of peace have never caused misfortune, while those embracing war lurched into many disasters. Isocrates criticized the flatterers who had brought ruin to their public affairs.<ref name="Greece & Rome to 30 BC" />

===Antidosis===
{{Main|Antidosis (treatise)}}

===Panathenaicus===
In ''Panathenaicus,'' Isocrates argues with a student about the literacy of the [[Sparta]]ns. In section 250, the student claims that the most intelligent of the Spartans admired and owned copies of some of Isocrates' speeches. The implication is that some Spartans had books, were able to read them, and were eager to do so. The Spartans, however, needed an interpreter to clear up any misunderstandings of double meanings which might lie concealed beneath the surface of complicated words. This text indicates that some Spartans were not illiterate. This text is important to scholars' understanding of literacy in Sparta because it indicates that Spartans were able to read and that they often put written documents to use in their public affairs.

===Major orations===
* ''Ad Demonicum''
* ''Ad Nicoclem''
* ''Archidamus''
* ''Busiris''
* ''De Pace''
* ''Evagoras''
* ''Helena''
* ''Nicocles''
* ''Panegyricus''
* ''Philippus''