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Aris & Phillips Classical Texts
GREEK ORATORS III
Isocrates Panegyricus and To Nicocles
Edited with an introduction, translation and notes by
S. Usher
Aris & Phillips is an imprint of Oxbow Books First published in the United Kingdom in 1990. Reprinted 2015 by OXBOW BOOKS 10 Hythe Bridge Street, Oxford OX1 2EW and in the United States by OXBOW BOOKS 908 Darby Road, Havertown, PA 19083 © The author S. Usher Paperback Edition: ISBN 978-0-85668-414-2 A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher in writing. For a complete list of Aris & Phillips titles, please contact: UNITED KINGDOM UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Oxbow Books Oxbow Books Telephone (800) 791-9354 Telephone (01865) 241249 Fax (01865) 794449 Fax (610) 853-9146 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] www.oxbowbooks.com www.casemateacademic.com/oxbow Oxbow Books is part of the Casemate Group
CONTENTS PREFACE
iv
GENERAL INTRODUCflON Bibliography
15
Introduction to PANEGYRICUS PANEGYRICUS
19 23
1
Introduction to TO NICOCLES TONICOCLES
117 119
Apparatus Criticus
146
COMMENTARY Panegyricus To Nicocles
149 202
Index
217
PREFACE In this second volume of the series Greek Orators, Isocrates is represented by his finest discourse, the Panegyricus, and one of his most interesting shorter works, the Letter to Nicocles. The text is that of Benseler/Blass, and I thank the Teubner Verlag of Stuttgart for permission to reproduce it. Accuracy no less than elegance has been the aim in the translation, but where necessary for the sake of clarity some of the longer of Isocrates' periods have been broken up, though as much as possible of their characteristic complexity has been retained. It seems appropriate that an author whose individuality is so firmly centred on style and rhetoric, and whose influence on later prose, both Greek and Latin, was so great, should receive due attention in these aspects. Consequently both the Introduction and the Commentary deal with them in some detail, though the subject-matter of the two discourses calls for comment on a wide variety of other matters, and these have not been neglected. In particular, the historical context of the Panegyricus is important, and the portrayalof ideal kingship in the Letter to Nicocles (which Queen Elizabeth I translated under the tutorship of Roger Ascham) impinges upon philosophical and political matters. I am grateful to my collaborator in Volume I, Dr. Michael Edwards, for reading my typescript, correcting errors and suggesting a number of improvements. The blemishes and shortcomings that remain are mine alone. My thanks are also due to Adrian and Lucinda Philips and to Janet Davis for preparing the book for publication. December 1989
Stephen Usher
GENERAL INTRODUCTION POLITICAL AND CEREMONIAL ORATORY The Greeks began to study oratory systematically as an art in response to two events: the Persian Wars and the rise of democracy. The earliest ceremonial speeches were delivered over the men who fell in battle, either during or soon after the invasion of Xerxes 1 • The main themes of such speeches were praise of the fallen and blame of the enemy. They also contained a hortatory element: encouragement of the living was necessary, bearing in mind that, in due course, the grief of relatives must give way to a willingness to face further sacrifices and bereavements. A major characteristic of this kind of oratory was its elevated tone. This matched the solemnity of what was a religious occasion and gave to patriotic sentiments their due dignity and emphasis. It also had a literary purpose: the new genre was competing directly with the poets who wrote epitaphs, lyric poetry and even tragedy in which the deeds of the heroes of Marathon, Salamis and Plataea were celebrated. The Panhellenic congresses at Delphi and Olympia provided another setting for oratorical display, though when this assumed a form which could be compared with the extant festival speeches, of which the Panegyricus is the most famous, cannot be decided.2 Themes for such speeches were inherent in the gatherings themselves: the brotherhood of the assembled Greeks, the need to cease internecine strife, and their common hatred of the barbarians. Of greater importance from a purely historical standpoint was the emergence of political oratory in the revitalised democracy at Athens after the defeat of Persia. Early evidence is mainly anecdotal, but it seems clear that the leading Athenian politicians developed individual styles of public speaking, and their audiences came more and more to treat their appearances on the rostrum like theatrical performances. 3 From those early days to the time of Demosthenes the political orator's most important faculty was a combination of acting skills4 - his projection of his voice, command of intonation, use of gesture and general comportment on the stage. That the great orators of this age left no written speeches may be partly due to this emphasis on spontaneous performance, the effect of which might be spoilt by the subsequent publication of a text. Written oratory was associated with the requirements of ordinary citizens, reluctant speakers who were obliged to conduct their own defences in the law-courts, for which they employed professional speechwriters. But by the time Thucydides came to write the political speeches for his History near the end of the Fifth Century, the I Diod. Sic. I 1.33.,3; Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 5.17.2-4. See N. Loraux (1986) 28, 57-60. 2 Lysias 33 Olymp.1-2; lsoc.4 Paneg.45. See Kennedy 166-7. 3 Thuc.3.38,esp.3-4:the vinuosity of Pericles was especially noted, and satirised by the comic poets (Plut.Pericles 8, a chapter which also vividly portrays the anxiety of the exranpore speaker when it records that Pericles, on rising to speak, ut1ereda prayer that he would not utter a word that did not fit the matter in hand). H.Ll. Hudson-Williams,'Political Speechesat Athens',CQ I (1951) 68-73 gives the clearest evidenceagainst written political speeches in the 5th century. Toe earliest published deliberative speech may be Andocides 3 On the Peace (391(?) B.C.), but it is possible that speecheson internal politics were published for propaganda purposes around the time of the tyranny of the Thirty. See S.Usher,'Xenophon,Critias and Toeramenes'JHS 88 (1968) 128-135. 4 PhilodRhet. 4. 196 Sudh.; Cic.Brut.38.142, De Or.1.28.128, 3.56.213,Or.56; Quint.11.3.6; Plut.Demos.6-1, Cic.5; [PluL)VitXOr.845b.See Blass AB III i 20-25.
2 INTRODUCTION topics of deliberative oratory had become clearly defined both through usage and in theory. They were Justice (Honour), Expediency and Possibility. It was with permutations of these that all political questions could be argued, and they remained the chief themes of deliberative oratory in Greece and Rome. Both kinds of oratorys received attention from the Sophists, who both undertook to train their pupils in politics 6 and taught literary composition. The earliest sophist, Protagoras of Abdera, displays many of their common characteristics. He was a travelling professor who lectured to paying audiences on politics, literature and questions of morals and law, though perhaps the techniques of argument that he used were more important than the subjects on which he discoursed. These techniques aimed at presenting the same facts in different ways and drawing different, sometimes opposite conclusions, from them. This ambivalence earned the sophists a bad name (Aristot.Rhet. 2.24.11), but their influence on 5th Century literature was profound. They taught that facts could be manipulated through language and reason to prove whatever the speaker desired, provided that he was allowed to discourse at length. The extended discourse was both the sophist's medium of instruction and his tool of persuasion. The sophists demonstrated their virtuosity by speaking on the most unpromising subjects (Plato, Sympos.177b, Isoc.10 Helen 12).ln the generation following Protagoras, Prodicus of Ceos used the extended discourse, and seems to have had a stock of them available at different prices.7 Not enough is known about him to identify the features peculiar to his teaching, but he is said to have been interested in orthoepeia, the correct use of words. 8 Thrasymachus of Chalcedon, vividly characterised by Plato in the Republic, is associated with emotional appeal and the invention of prose rhythm (Plato, Phaedrus 267c; Cic.Or.52.175). Finally, Gorgias of Leontini devised a richly antithetical style, replete with verbal devices of assonance and clausal balance, which intoxicated Athenian audiences when he visited their city in 427 B.C. as an ambassador. He was said to have made his pupils learn model speeches by heart (Aristot.Soph.Elench. 34 183b 36), thereby making the written discourse his main teaching medium. The adopth1 of this method of teaching by lsocrates (Letter 6.8, 14 Ag.Soph. 16) establishes Gorgias as the most influential of his predecessors.
ISOCRATES : LIFE Isocrates himself provides the vital information. In Panathenaicus 17 he says that he was moved to begin composing that discourse "a short time before the Great Panathenaia". This festival was held every four years. He was occupied in the composition of the Philippus in the festival year 346 B.C.; and the Battle of Chaeronea was fought in 338 B.C. The festival year in question must therefore be 342 B.C. Earlier in the discourse (3), Isocrates has told us that he is in his 94th year, and towards the end of it (270) we learn that its composition was interrupted by illness, and that he completed it in his 98th year. This points to 436/435 B.C. as the year of his
S No distinction was drawn between the genres of oratory in the 5th Cenwry. The tripartitedivisioninto deliberative, epideictic(ceremonial)and forensicis foundfor the firsttime in AristotleRhetoric. 6 Plato,Protag.318e-319a. 7 Aristot.Rhet.3.14.9. 8 Plato,Euthyd.211e.See RadennacherAS 68-9.
INTRODUCTION 3 birth, a conclusion reached by his biographers, who probably arrived at it on the above evidence.9 · His parents were Theodorus and Heduto. 10 Theodorus owned a staff of slaves who made reed-pipes (auXoTiotot). This made him rich enough to pay for the training of a festival chorus on at least one occasion, and it was probably this public exposure of his wealth that made him the butt of the comic poets Strattis and Aristophanes. II Isocrates had three brothers, Telesippus, Diomnestus (or Theomnestus), and Theodorus; and one sister. He married late in life. His wife Plathane, who was daughter of the orator Hippias, had three sons, and Isocrates adopted one of these, Aphareus,I 2 as his heir on failing to sire issue of his own. Like other well-to-do middle-class Athenian parents, Theodorus saw that his son received a sound early education; and Isocrates claims that he was an outstanding pupil (Antidosis 161). Few hard facts can be gathered about his adolescent years. He does not seem to have seen active military service, in spite of showing early equestrian accomplishment, 13 and shunned the political limelight after realising that he lacked both the physical and temperamental requirements for success as a public orator (Panathenaicus 9-11; Philippus 81; Letters 1.9, 8.7). His decision is a good example of the practical application of the Delphic injunction "Know thyself', and perhaps it was an early sign of his philosophical tendencies. But it is clear that he was also ambitious, and not content to live out his life in obscurity. With this motivation and an overriding interest in philosophy, he was drawn to the lectures of contemporary sophists and political thinkers. The age was rich in both, and biographers have a penchant for name-dropping; but it is likely enough that Isocrates attended the lectures of Prodicus of Ceos. The Sicilian Teisias, mentioned by several sources, is probably to be ruled out on chronological grounds; but the tradition that he travelled to Thessaly to hear Gorgias, then an old man, must almost certainly be accepted.I 4 His relationship with Socr~tes and his circle is more problematical.IS In Phaedrus 278e-279b Plato makes Phaedrus describe Isocrates as Socrates' 'companion' (hatpov), and the great man prophesies a distinguished career for him in philosophy. There is a clear comparison with Lysias, unfavourable to the latter. Whether or not Plato is also suggesting ironically that this early promise had not been fulfilled, as has been thought,I 6 it establishes that Isocrates was at some time a member of the Socratic circle, and that Socrates, while realising that his more abstract speculations did not attract the young man greatly, thought that he might bring a genuinely philosophical understanding to his political studies. These studies were stimulated and sharpened by his association with Theramenes, though once again the precise nature of this is uncertain. Dionysius adds the words 'as some say' to his statement that he was Theramenes' pupil (aKouoTTJS' - which could mean merely a member of an audience listening to a 9 Dion. Ha!Jsoc.1; [Plut.]Vit.X.Or.836f; Diog.Laert.3.3; [Zosimus] Vitlsoc. init.. Blass AB II 9; J.G.Pfund (1833); K.MOnscherin Pauly RE 9.2150 ff. 10 [Zosimus] /oc. cit. 11 [Plut.] VitX.Or.836e; [Zos.]VitJsoc.p.103 15-20 Dind. 12 Dion.Ha!Jsoc.18;[Plut.]VitX.Or.838a-d. On Aphareus'wives and children,see C. Tuplin (1980). 13 id.839c. 14 Cic.Or. 176. Quintilian (3.1.13) describes Isoc. as 'the most famous of Gorgias' pupils' ("clarissimus Gorgiae auditorum•.) 15 See ScluOder,'Quaestiones IsocrateaeDuae',Traiectiad Rhenum1859 1-41;Pfund(5-7) thoughtIsoc. wasone of Socrates' most intimateassociates.See also BlassAB II 11; Kennedy(1963) 179-182. 16 By R.Aaceliere, REG 46 (1933) 224ff., but Wilamowitz,Platon 11122 sees no irony, and most other commentators agree with him. On the whole questionof the relationship,see H.Gomperz,'Isokratesund die Sokratik',Wien.Stud.21(1905) 163 and 28 (1906); Wilcox (1943);R.L. Howland,Thc Attaclcon Isocratesin the Phaedrus',CQ(1937) 151-159.
4 INTRODUCTION lecturer or orator). But there is a story 17 that Isocrates tried to intervene when Theramenes was being dragged away to face death. In order to witness this scene Isocrates would have had to be a member of the Council, 18 and appointment to that body during the reign of the Thirty would have required some sort of sponsorship on their part. Perhaps this was the connection between the two men: Isocrates was a political supporter of Theramenes. He may also have been an admirer of his performances on the rostrum, but evidence that Theramenes actually taught oratory to anyone or even that he published his speeches is slight.19 When did Isocrates begin writing discourses? In the above passage of the Phaedrus (279b),the dramatic date of which is around 410 B.C., Plato refers to Xo-yot in which Isocrates is engaged. It seems likely that he, like Plato, Aeschines the Socratic and his fellow-demesman Xenophon, turned to writing through the influence of Socratic teaching, both its substance and its methods, and it may have helped him avoid the ambiguous morality of the sophists and the amorality of the rhetoricians.20 Isocrates spent the whole of his long life, almost, it seems, to his last breath, writing and teaching. His last composition was a letter to Philip (Letter 3), which concludes with the statement that Philip's victory at Chaeronea has made possible the fulfilment of the plan of his youth, expounded in the Panegyricus, for the unification of Greece. This discredits the popular romantic story that he died because he could not endure the sight of Greece enslaved; 21 but the sources that add this piece of embroidery may be right about the manner of his death - voluntary starvation. At the age of 98 and in poor health (Letter 3.4), Isocrates had seen enough. In particular, he had witnessed the chauvinism of Greek, and especially Athenian politicians that had led to the destruction of their armies. The suggestion of Curtius, endorsed by Blass and Jebb, 22 that dismay at his fellow-citizens' resolve to continue resisting Philip was the cause of Isocrates' suicide, is well worthy of consideration.
CAREER TO 388 B.C. Barred from a career in public life because he lacked vocal powers and selfconfidence (see above), Isocrates determined to become famous through writing and teaching. But his plans were interrupted by the disastrous end of the Peloponnesian War and the political upheavals that followed it. He tells us that his father contributed freely to the expenses of the war, and that his estate was thereby diminished (Antidosis 161). He is silent here about the tyranny of the Thirty and the reprisals exacted by the restored democrats from their supporters; but if Isocrates had been a supporter of Theramenes, what remained of his family fortune could have fallen prey either to the extreme oligarchs under Critias or to the returning democrats, possibly contributed voluntarily to show loyalty to the new regime. 17 [Plut] Vil. X. Or. 836f-837a; [Zos.] Vit. lsoc.p.101-2 Dind.; Schol.AristophFrogs, 541; Pfund 8. Jn Diod.Sic.14.5.2 the would-be rescuers are Socrates and two of his friends. 18 See Rauchenstein 3-4. 19 In the story preserved by Zosimus (n.9 above), Theramenes pleads with Isoc. not to risk death, but to stay alive and propagate his teaching. This suggests that Theramenes' teaching had not been published in written fonn. For arguments against the publication of his speeches, see S.Usher,art.cit. n.3. 20 See Blass AB II 12. 21 Dion.Ha1Jsoc.l;[Plut.]Vit.X.Or.837e-f ("as some say '); [Zos.]Vit.lsoc.p.105 25-7 Dind.; Pausan.1.18.8; PhilostratVit.Soph.1.17.4; [Lucian] Longaevi23. · 22 E.Curtius,Gr.Gesch.JII6 715ff.; Jebb AO II 32; Blass AB II 98.
INTRODUCTION 5 The need to earn a living led Isocrates to tum his literary talents to forensic speechwriting. Six of his speeches have survived, but both Isocrates and his adoptive son Aphareus did their best to disclaim them. In Antidosis 162 he turns immediately from his own early upbringing to his teaching career. But the existence of speeches by Isocrates for the Athenian courts was admitted by his pupil Cephisodorus,23 and the first of those which we have, Against Euthynus and Against Ca/limachus, belong to the years 403/2 B.C. In his discourses Isocrates writes disparagingly about forensic oratory, 24 so it is natural to suppose that the next decade was a frustrating time for him, especially since it was bad for one who professed to teach philosophy to be associated with writing speeches for the law-courts, where success depended upon neither truth nor justice (Against the Sophists 19,20). Again, a man who had turned to Gorgias for his literary inspiration found little opportunity to emulate his model in forensic oratory, where most success was thought to come to writers who, like Lysias, concealed their art25 • But financial necessity forced him to adapt to the genre. The extant speeches span a decade,26 but since they do not constitute ten year's work for an active speechwriter, it is likely that he wrote more, but probably not the 'bundles' said by Aristotle to be on sale in the bookstalls of his day. 27 This brings us down to 393/392 B.C., and that may be the time when he began his sojourn in Chios, where he established his first school of rhetoric.28 He may have stayed there until 388 B.C., in which case his last days there may have been spent in preparing his pamphlet Against The Sophists. In it he inveighed against the pretensions of other teachers and outlined a syllabus for his own school, which he established in the Lyceum on his return to Athens.29
TEACHER, PUPILS AND CRITICS The names of some of Isocrates' earliest pupils are recorded.3°He claims that all of these were subsequently rewarded for their public services with chaplets of gold.31 There will have been others who did not distinguish themselves,32 but he had one very famous early pupil, Timotheus. 33 The decision of his father, the famous general Conan, to send his son to lsocrates' school no doubt prompted other ambitious 23 Dion. HalJsoc.18. See Dover. Lysias and the CorpusLysiacum(Berkeley,1968) 25. 24 See PaMg.11 and note. 25.Dion.Ha!Lys.8 fin.
26 21 Against Euthynus, 18 Against Ca/limachus,20 Against Lochites (402-398 B.C.), 16 The Team of Horses (De Bigis) (397 B.C.(?), 19 AegiMticus (390 B.C.))> 27 6foµat, AristoLFrg.140. See Dover, op.cit. (n.23). 28 On Isoc.'s sojourn in Chios, see Usener, Rhein.Mus. 1880 145ff. Rauchenstein (p.4) and Blass (ABII 16-17) follow him in preferring this later date, and link bis stay with the arrival of-his friend Conon. Jebb (II 6) says little to substantiate his support for the years 404-403 B.C. Although this may have been the time of most political pressure to leave Athens (Kyprianos (1871) 22-23), Isoc. was back there in 402 B.C.(see n.18), leaving him too little time to found a school in Chios and become involved in the politics of the island ([Plut.]VitX.Or.837b). 29 [Zos.]Vitlsoc. p.104.21 Dind. 30 15 Antid.93 : Eunomus, Lysitheides, Callipus, followed by Onetor, Anticles, Philonides, Philomelus and Charmantides. See Sanneg (1867) 19-20; Blass ll, 17-19. 31 15 Antid.94. 32 l6u,has (15 Antid.30). 33 15 Antid.101. Blass (AB II 16,cf.52-55) suggests that Isoc.'s association with Timotheus might have begun as early as his father Conon's liberation of Chios from Sparta. Timotheus was appointed to his first important command in 378 B.C
6 INTRODUCTION Athenian parents to do the same. Another famous early pupil was Androtion the historian, who was active in politics as early as 385.34 At this stage all his pupils were Athenian, so it is a good point at which to discuss the question of fees. Isocrates claimed that he obtained all his wealth from abroad,35 and his biographers inflated this into a claim that he imposed no fees upon his Athenian pupils 36 • However, this conflicts with one item in their account which tells how he turned Demosthenes away from his school when he could not pay the full fee of 1000 drachmae.37 Isocrates himself appears to be referriRg to self-enrichment in this early period when he says, "When I began to engage pupils, I thought that, if I could acquire more means (n:>..Eiw KT1JEt,),:rjcpaa, f«(> 1/IEvJij ~&yov' la-r:w av1:'0LS ~yEi-8-EV O',co- b .., \ _, ' I 1 I J 1 ,/ 1tf1:ltE('f. tovtrov txp.cponprov, TOCJOVT.9) XA~OV a:ltOr.Evv,oµEv 'fOVS aµ,cpu1{J11tovvrag. (cY.)·oµ,oAoyEtra, µ!v ' ' :ltOAW ,, 11µ.rov ' - «()X«£Of ' , ,, f«() «T1JV elvat. ,ea,, p,Eyr,O''f1J11 ,cal 1t«()« ,riien xaA~s ·djs vno-8-{au.,s ov:t~S xat T«S 1f(JCltHS r«s rjjs ,r:oAEWSE(J>f~~s OLEA-
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PANEGYRICUS 33
one could point to another state that enjoys the superiority in land warfare that ours possesses in fighting sea-battles. [22] On the other hand, if anyone thinks that this is an unfair criterion, as fluctuations of fortune are frequent (power never remaining permanently with the same ruler), and they think that the leadership, like any other prize, should rest with the first to receive that honour or else with those who have conferred most benefits upon the Greeks, I consider those men also to favour us; [23] for the farther back one looks in considering both these criteria, the more we shall leave our opponents behind. For it is admitted that our city is the most ancient, the greatest and the most famous in the eyes of all men. Such is our fundamental claim. But through the following claims we deserve to be honoured even more: [24] for we dwell in this land not after expelling others nor finding it uninhabited, nor on gathering together here as a mixed band of many tribes, but so noble and true is our stock that we have remained in continuous possession of the land from which we sprang, being children of the land itself and able to call our city by the same names as those with which we address our closest kin. [25] We alone of the Greeks have the right to call our city at once nurse and fatherland and mother. And yet to have reasonable grounds for pride, to contest the leadership with just cause, making frequent reference to their ancestry, men should show the origin of their race to be of this quality. [26] This, then, is how great the bounties were that fortune bestowed upon us from the beginning. As to the benefits to others for which we have been responsible, we may best examine these if we recount the city's exploits in chronological order from the beginning;
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of land shortage, planning attacks among themselves and mounting expeditionsagainst one another; and perishing,some through lack of daily necessities, others through war. [35) She did not allow this state of things to continue,but sent out leadersto the states, who took in hand those most in need of livelihood, assumed command over them and overcamethe barbarians. They foundedmany cities on both continentsand settled colonieson all the islands,and saved both those who had followedthem and those who had stayed behind; [36) for to the latter they left their homelandin a viable state, while for the fonner they provided more than they had before, since they occupied all the territory which they hold today. Thus they greatly eased the way for those later wishing to send out colonists and imitate our city; for they did not have to undergo the dangers of acquiring land, but simply went to live in what was already marked out by us. [37) Now who can point to a leadershipmore ancestralthan one which existedbefore the majorityof Greek cities were founded,or more beneficialthan one which drove out the barbarians and led the Greeks forward to such prosperity? [38) And indeed our city, after this major contribution, did not neglect to follow it up, but made it only the beginningof her services to find for the needy that sustenancewhich men require if they are to manage the rest of their affairs effectively. But beyond this she consideredthat life under these conditionson their own was not worth living, and so took such care over their remainingneeds that, of the blessings availableto men and suppliedto one another by themselves
40 PANEGYRICUS
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who claim the leadership sending armies against the Greeks every day, after making an alliance with the barbarians for all time. [129] And let no one suppose that I am being disagreeable because I have referred to these facts in somewhat harsh terms after saying at the beginning that my discourse was about reconciliation. The remarlcs I have made about the Lacedaemonian state are not intended to defame her in the eyes of others, but to bring about a change of heart in the Lacedaemonians themselves as far as can be done by argument. [130] And it is not possible to tum men away from their error, or to persuade them to pursue different courses of action if one does not strongly condemn their present conduct; and if men speak in such terms when their purpose is to injure, their role should be seen as that of prosecutor, but if their criticism is intended to help , they should be regarded as advisers, since the same words should not be understood as having the same meaning unless they are spoken with the same intention. {131] For we have this further criticism to make against the Lacedaemonians, that for the benefit of their own city they force their neighbours to live as slaves, but make no such arrangement for the benefit of their allies, although they have the means to resolve their differences with us and make the barbarians subject-neighbours to the whole of Greece. [132] And yet it is the obligation of men who can boast about their natural gifts rather than merely their good fortune, to attempt such enterprises rather than exact tribute from the islanders, who ought rightly to receive pity, seeing them forced to cultivate their mountainous areas because of shortage of land, while the mainlanders let most of their land lie fallow because they have it in abundance, and acquire so much wealth from that which they harvest. [133] I believe that anyone coming from abroad and witnessing the present spectacle would pronounce both our sides guilty of utter insanity, as we risk so much over unimportant matters when we could
86 PANEGYRICUS ,m,iijOtV 135 av-rotvt:~SfEAAci6osO'Vt'Ot,V.oZ'iEfll() acpE06-r:ijs '1,0J()txS't(>UJxiUovr; 6'1,E£ µovov ,rs~:t'aO''C«S, aU.' oµmsov-rco-ca,tEt.- 70 .\' I ,-•.\'1 IQ. fJad.Xrov'f, e 35 1C()Otro1je1,w JiacpEV')'ElV. 0 'tl, CX,C(>t{Jroacn f3ovl1;-0-fis «Jv hde1r«e1,ftai1t()o«1~xEi1:ovs fJaaiUas, iµ,:n:.u(){1.Xoao♦(a, as the study of how to make the best of the circumstances in which one finds oneself, as the invalid in Lysias 24 professes to do (10). The successful student learns to bear necessary evils "philosophically'. 'AvayKTJ (Necessity) could be an expression of divine will (Eur.Phoen. 1000, 1763), but was also thought of as capable of transcending the power of the gods (Simonides 8.26; Philemon frag.31, where they are slaves of • AvayKTJ), or itself having divine status (Hdt.8.111.2). Hence its activities, and those of the associated forces Chance (Tux11) and Accident (l:uµ ♦ opd) were outside the scope of religion, and were the legitimate field of rational observation. On the endurance of misfortune, see Dover GPM 167-8. revealed philosophy: Jaeger ( m 79) notes that the verb Ka,-eBElee "is usually kept for the founder of a mystery cult". 48.lt was she too who honoured eloquence: Since oratory was the main instrument of his 4>1.Xoao♦fo, it is clear that his theme is still the same. The power and importance of speech dominates the rest of the period. As to Athenian claims, Uie canon of the Attic orators had already begun with Antiphon, Lysias and Andocides, and before them a tradition of political oratory which was not committed to writing was established, its most famous exponent being Pericles. all men desire and envy in its exponents: further suggests an exclusive group of initiates - his pupils and himself - (cf.9, 11). Isoc. made enemies among those who objected to his teachings (15 Antid. 4, 30, 175), those who tried in vain to imitate him (5.Phil.11) and those who envied the wealth he acquired from his high fees ([Plut.] VitX.Qr. 838b). the one natural quality that is ours alone of all living creatures: Cf. Eur.Supp. 201-207. beautiful and artistic oratory ... is the work of an intelligent mind: Isoc. sidesteps the moral problem raised by Plato in the Gorgias of the evil effects of eloquence when it is exploited by unscrupulous men. Later he tries to overcome the problem by arguing that the contemplation of noble subjects actually influences a man's actions, and, for all practical purposes, his character (15 Antid. 277). For the importance of this idea in Isocratean thought, see Eucken 23.
COMMENTARY 161 SO.her pupils have become the teachers of others: So also 15 Antid. 295-6: a more specific claim than that ascribed to Pericles (Thuc.2.41.1), that Athens is "the school of Greece" (TTat6euats- Tijs- 'EX>.a6os-).Perhaps Isoc. is thinking of himself, but may also have in mind other men who learned their oratory at Athens and taught the rest of Greece through their published speeches, without setting themselves up as teachers.
men are called 'Greeks' when they share our education rather than merely our common blood: Isoc. is narrowing the idea of 'Greekness' within the national boundaries, using the test of intellectual excellence, rather than extending it to include foreigners. He is saying that Athenian culture represents the highest form of Hellenism. Its unifying force can already be seen in operation when wise men gather in the city, 'the councii of wisdom' (Plato, Prot.331d). Greece's racial superiority over the barbarians is based upon the intellectual superiority of her wisest men, who draw their inspiration from Athens. This is Isoc.'s first justification of Athenian leadership. See Jaeger III, 79-80. For a slightly different view of this passage, see J.P. Raymond, Cahiers de Philosophie Ancienne 5 (1986) 153-163, who relates it to Isoc.'s desire for Hellenic concord and war against barbarism.
51 - 98: The Wars of Athens: Continuing the theme of justification, Isoc. emphasises Athens' part as defender of freedom: in Greece (51-65); against the barbarians in mythological times (66-70); and in the Persian Wars (71-98) (a frequent rhetorical theme - see Aristot.Rhet ..2.22.6). 52.the impartial defender of any of the Greeks suffering injustice: A role claimed by the Athenians from mythological times: the stories of Adrastus (Eur.Supp.116-7), Orestes and Medea illustrate it. It could be invoked by spokesmen of other Greek states when they sought help from Athens (e.g. Procles of Phlius in Xen.Hell.6.5.45); but it was mostly Athenians who used it to justify a past active foreign policy (Dem.18 De Corona 208), to promote or revive Athenian imperial ambitions (Isoc.8 On the Peace 138-40), or to bemoan her present state by comparing it with the past (LycurgLeocr. 42). 53.our policy of protecting weaker states: The First Delian League was formed (478 B.C.) after the Ionians had "called upon the Athenians and asked them to become their leaders because of their kinship, and not to allow Pausanias to use any violence against them" (Thuc.1.95.1). Isoc.'s contemporaries tended to criticise her past policy of cultivating weak allies (Andoc.3 On the Peace 28-29; Plato, Menex ..244e; Dem.20 Lept.3). against our own interest: Pursuit of expediency (To auµcj>epov) was the conventional aim of deliberative oratory (Aristot.Rhet.1.3.5, 1.6.1; Ad Herenn.3.2.2-3), but this view was attacked by Cicero (De Off.3.4. 19,D e Or.2.82.334) and Quintilian (3.7.28), who argued that honour (dignitas) should be its aim. By arguing, as did other Athenians (Andoc.3 On the Peace 28; Dern. 20 Lept.3; cf.[Lys.] 2 Epitaph.12) that Athens had always put justice before her own advantage, Isoc. is both reinforcing her moral claims to the leadership and implying that it would bring practical advantages to her allies, who would be assured that she would not pursue her own narrow interests at the expense of theirs.
162 COMMENTARY 54 - 99. In these chapters lsoc. reviews events down to the end of the Persian Wars (479 B.C.). A chronological arrangement serves his artistic purpose well, as the sequence ends in a glorious climax. 54-58 correspond closely with [Lysias] 2 Epitaph. 11-16. See Buchner 69.The myths of Adrastus and the sons of Heracles illustrate not only the Athenians' treatment of suppliants but also their protection of ancient custom and ancestral law. He deals with the two myths syncritically, carrying the story of each to the same point - their appeal to Athens - before proceeding with the two parallel narratives. This technique was used extensively and elaborated by later biographers, notably Plutarch in his Lives of Agis, C/eomenes and the Gracchi. See also Aphthonius, Progymn.10 (Sp.1142-3 ); Theon, Progymn.4 (Sp.1/ 92). Isoc. uses it to draw the same conclusions from the two stories: that Athens both enjoyed the reputation as the most powerful potential ally, and her actions justified that reputation. He breaks up the stories (54-56, 58-60) in order to illustrate these two points separately, and thereby keeps his central argument in constant view. This serves his purposes better than simple narrative. The Heraclid myth is of the more interest because of its Peloponnesian milieu, which enables lsoc. to argue that Athenian generosity had been responsible for the beginnings of Spartan power (61). Both stories appear in other epideictic speeches: 6 Arch.42, 12 Panath.168-171; Plato, Menex . .239b; [Demos.] 60 Epitaph.8; and in Xen.Hell.6.46-47. lsoc. also uses the Argive story in 14 Plataicus. 53-54. 55.his men: The famous Seven Against Thebes: Polyneices, son of Oedipus and claimant to the throne of Thebes in accordance with an agreement with his brother Eteocles that they should rule in alternate years; Tydeus of Calydon, and five Argive heroes: Capaneus, Hippomedon, Parthenopaeus, Amphiaraus and Adrastus himself. the fate of all ...violating ancient custom and ancestral law: This issue was dramatised by Sophocles in the Antigone, in which Polyneices' sister defies King Creon's edict forbidding his burial, at the cost of her life. See also Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes; Euripides, Phoenissae. 56.they disregarded the other states: Here and elsewhere (6 Archid.17-18) Isoc. chooses to ignore the account in which the Heraclids visited most of the Greek cities as suppliants (Diod.Sic.4.57; Apollod.2.8.1, 3.7.1; Pausan.1.32.5). Here he is more concerned with' illustrating Athens' reputation absolutely than with comparing her behaviour to that of other states. 59.Eurystheus ... compelled to be a suppliant: Again Isoc. passes over a detail preserved elsewhere, to the effect that Eurystheus shed tears of gratitude to the Athenians for their intercession on his behalf, although it failed (Eur.Heraclid. 1026-1044). See Preller Myth. II l 78ff. 60.the victim: Adrastus. 61:the ancestors of the present kings at Lacedaemon: the two royal houses of Sparta claimed descent from Heracles (Hdt.7 .204, 8.131), whose great-great grandson Aristodemus had two sons, Eurysthenes and Procles. Agis, Eurysthenes' son, gave his name to one, and Euryphon, Procles' son gave his name to the other royal family. secured Argos: The Heraclid Tlepolemus (Diod.Sic.4.58; Apollod.Epit.3.13). 62.ought ...never invaded this land: The annual Spartan expeditions into Attica during the Peloponnesian War. were of recent memory. But the first historical Spartan invasion of Attica was that of King Cleomenes in 510 B.C. to expel the
COMMENTARY 163 tyrant Hippias; and he returned four years later. Subsequent invasions took place in the course of hostilities between 457 B.C. and the conclusion of the Thirty Years Peace (446 B.C.). 63.newcomers ... original inhabitants : The eventual occupation of the Peloponnese was carried out by the fourth generation of Heraclids (seen. on 61), whereas the Athenians claimed to be the original inhabitants of Attica (24-25). 64 - 65: Summary of Conclusions (dvaKE,aAa((J)uts-) ar:isingfrom the na"ative of the myths of Adrastus and the Heraclids; and a comparison with the present day. 64.The greatest ... Argos, Thebes and Lacedaemon ... remain so today: The inclusion of Argos may seem surprising, but her power was not to be measured by the degree of her prominence, as she tended towards isolationism. In the 8th. and 7th. Centuries she was certainly one of the most powerful states. In the 5th. Century she was suspected of Medism (friendship with Persia) and suffered some decline after defeats by Sparta in the battles of Tegea (495 B.C.) and Dipaea (466 B.C.). After the Archidamian War (431-421 B.C.) Argos emerged as the head of a league aligned with neither Sparta nor Athens, but the project came to nothing. She supplied the largest contingent of hoplites at the Battle of Nemea in 394 B.C. (7000: XenJ-lell.4.2.17). Between 392 and 389 B.C. Argos formed close links with Corinth which were intended to lead to union, but this was stopped by Sparta. Xenophon's account suggests that the Argives were the initiators of the union and the stronger party (4.4.4.ff., 4.8.15). Even after Agesilaus laid waste their territory (391 B.C.) and Agesipolis (the other Spartan king) had mounted a strong attack on them in 388 B.C., they were still in a bellicose frame of mind towards Sparta in 387 B.C. (5.1.29). But they gave up their plans of union with Corinth in the face of Agesilaus' threats after the King's Peace (386 B.C.). It seems likely that they were in decline when Isoc. completed the Panegyricus in 380 B.C. If this was so, he may have written 64 before the King's Peace, but decided that recognition of Argos's present decline was less important than maintaining the artistic integrity of this section of the discourse, which required that all past and present components should remain in place. On Argos, see R.A.Tomlinson, Argos and the Argolid (Oxford, 1972); T. Kelly, A History of Argos to 500 B.C., (Minneapolis, 1976). 67.the Scythians: By their own admission, the youngest of all nations (Hdt.4.5.1). This accords better with the Greek account of their origins that Hdt. gives (4.8), which makes Scythes, a son of Heracles, the founder of their royal house and hence contemporary with the Dorian Invasion (10th Century B.C.), than with the Scythians' own story that their first king Targitaus lived a thousand years before Darius invaded Scythia (i.e. around 1500 B.C.). The Scythians were nomadic, and advanced south-westwards on a broad front during the 7th Century B.C., invading Mesopotamia and Syria as well as N. Greece. See E.H. Minns, Scythians and Greeks (Cambridge, 1913). Thracians: They occupied a broad tract of N. Greece, extending to the Adriatic (Ionian) Sea, until they were driven eastwards, first by the Illyrians (c.1300 B.C.), then in historical times by the Macedonians. Their numerous tribes were unable to unite (Hdt.5.3-5). The coupling of Thracians and Scythians in the mythological tradition (cf.12 Panath.193, 6 Archid. 42, 7 Areop. 75; Plato, Menex ..239b) may date from c.450 B.C., when a powerful Thracian kingdom was created by Teres,
164 COMMENTARY who married his daughter to the Scythian king. See R.F. Hoddinott, The Thracians (London, 1981). our opponents: Presumably the Spartans and Spartan apologists, whose arguments for their supremacy were their Heraclid ancestry (6 Archid.8-25); their prowess at Thennopylae and Plataea, and their victories over Greek enemies (6 Archid. 99100). 68.Thracians ... Eumolpus son of Poseidon: The god disputed the possession of Athens with Athena, whose claim was accepted by Erechtheus, who ruled Athens (12 Panath. 193). Myths concerning Eumolpus (Thuc.2.15.1; Apollod.2.5.12; Hyginus Fab.46; Paus.1.38.3) serve to explain the supposed Thracian origins of the Eleusinian Mysteries, the Athenian conquest of,Eleusis and the cult of Poseidon at Athens. Relevant also is the fact that the mother of Eumolpus was Chione, daughter of Boreas, the North Wind god. His cult at Athens grew as her trade through the Hellespont to the Black Sea became more active in the Fifth Century (Hdt.7.189.1). But the connection between Athens and Poseidon through Eumolpus suggests a semi-pennanent state of unease over maritime links with trading posts through potentially hostile territory. the Scythians led by the Amazons: Two wild races of barbarians. Hdt. tells, in one of his most piquant stories, how a race called the Sauromatae arose from the union of Scythians and Amazons (4.110-117). The Amazons appear in many contexts, including the Trojan War (See Graves, Greek Myths II 313, and refs.p.318). Their invasion of Athens was a regular epideictic theme (Plato, Menex ..239b;[Demos.] 60 Epitaph.8; and esp.[Lysias] 2 Epitaph.4-6). It was finnly established in Athenian historical tradition by mid-5th Century, when Aeschylus described how the name Areopagus (Hill of Ares) was derived from the encampment of the Amazons, daughters of Ares, who sacrificed there to their father (Eumen.685-690). In 12 Panath.193 Isoc. says that the Amazons invaded Athens to recover their queen HippolytP., who had accompanied Theseus voluntarily from her homeland, being enamoured of him. This fits his general purpose of representing the enemies of Athens as the unjust parties better than the versions in which Theseus abducts the Amazon queen (Plut.Theseus 26; Paus.1.2.1). Athenian belief in the historicity of the Amazonian invasion is illustrated by the precise details of time and place given by the Atthidographer Cleidemus (Plut.Theseus 27). In the Anabasis, Xenophon writes of the Amazons and their weapons in the present tense (4.4.16). The Athenians' aid to the Heraclids, recovery of the bodies of the Seven before Thebes, and repulse of the Amazonian invasion were probably stock themes in their speeches as early as the Persian Wars (Hdt.9.27.4). made particular charges against us: The middle voice notlJcraµEVot suggests trumped-up or factitious complaints. war against only one city ... power over all: For a similar view of Xerxes' purpose, see Hdt.7.138.1; cf.7.54.2. 69.How great were the evils that befell them is clear, for accounts •••: Isoc. is naturally more interested in the question of literary survival than in the remains and monuments which the Amazons left in Athens (Paus.1.2.l; Plut.Theseus 27). His view that the survival of stories depended on the 'greatness' of the exploits they recount is curiously at variance with the idea he has expressed earlier (8) that the power of oratory enables it to invest small deeds with greatness. Other writers seem closer to the latter view when they identify the author's talent as the major
COMMENTARY 165 cause of heroes' posthumous fame (Thuc.2.41.4; Sallust, Cat.8.2-5). It was also clearly the view of Alexander the Great, who ensured that his entourage on his march into Asia contained historians to record his conquests (See P. Green, Alexander of Macedon (London, 1970) 161). 70.great cities have been established in the land between us: Including colonial foundations such as Potidaea, Scione, Acanthus, Aenus and comparatively recently Amphipolis (436 B.C.). For a full list, see Hammond 656. 71-85: The Expeditions of Darius (490 B.C.) and Xerxes (480-479 B.C.). 71.tbose competing for the leadership: Isoc. sees both the subject and his task of treating it as an aywv. See Eucken 130-1. On nplnov as a literary-philosophical concept, see Pohlenz (1933) (in Kleine Schriften (repr.1965)). The parts played by the two competitors in the greatest of all wars are the ultimate test of their claims to the leadership. Thus two contests were fought side by side: the one against the enemy, the other between the defenders of Greece for the first prize of valour. Prizes were actually awarded after Salamis, but first prize went to Aegina (Hdt.8.93, 122-123). Note Isoc.'s rhetorical technique of presenting the result of the battle in a summary farm favourable to Athens before giving a more detailed account. Lycurgus Leocr.10 and Aelius Aristides Panath. 217 imitate this zeugma. 72.assumed command of the sea, granted them by the other Greeks: This is in broad agreement with Thucydides (1.95.7-96.1), though it would have been more accurate to say that the command was conceded by default by the Spartans and assumed by Athens on the request of the Ionian Greeks, who sought protection from both renewed Persian attack and the depredations of the Spartan king Pausanias. 73.it is for this reason...even such worthy rivals: a fortiori argument. For praise of Athens as Isoc.'s main purpose in Paneg., see Seckpassim, esp.364. 74.subjects that were treated a long time ago •••at public funerals: the custom of delivering funeral orations (€m-r&q>tot) over those killed in battle, which was peculiarly Athenian (Dem.20 Lept.141), was firmly established before the Peloponnesian War (Thuc.2.35.1), but the date of the earliest €m-r&cj,tos-cannot be fixed. See Gen.Introd.1; Kennedy 154; and esp. N. Loraux (1986) 28-30, 57-60. Apart from fulfilling ceremonial and religious functions, the funeral speech served a hortatory purpose: it was intended to raise morale and to inspire the city's young men to face future battles with courage, in the knowledge of their predecessors' example and the praise they received from their grateful fellow-citizens. Hence the elevated tone of the oratory. Apart from Pericles' Funeral Speech in Thuc. (2.3546), two published €m-r&cj,totare known to antedate Paneg.: that of Gorgias (perh. c.425 B.C.) and that ascribed, probably wrongly, to Lysias (c.387 B.C.). greatest of those subjects...minor ones: The greatest subjects are the stock ones which were recited by Athenian declaimers - the rescue of Adrastus and the Heraclidae, Marathon (especially: see Aristoph.Knights 781-7C5), and Salamis. See Cope's note on AristotRhet ..2.22.6. 75.those who lived before that war: These are a 'minor subject' compared with the wars, both mythical and historical, and Isoc. invests them with a highly artificial style. See esp. 76-77 with its napfowots- (clauses of precisely equal length with corresponding elements), napoµo(wots- (rhyming of corresponding elements) and
166 COMMENTARY antithesis. The artificiality of this passage was criticised by Dion.Hal. (lsoc.14). It is perhaps best understood by reference to the subject, the structure of the speech and Isoc.'s perception of his personal status. He is idealising an earlier age of Athenian history, and for this a style remote from everyday usage is appropriate. By using such a style he is demonstrating his skills to potential pupils, while treating a subject which is central to his educational programme, the re-establishment of the traditional values of Athenian culture. He returns to this subject at greater length in the Areopagiticus. See Jaeger ill 106-131. trained the coming generation: The leaders themselves began the tradition, which Isoc. hopes to revive, by which the next generation of politicians learns from the good example of its predecessors. There were two main requirements for a leader: to lead a blameless and patriotic life, and to be able to persuade his fellowcitizens to do the same. Isoc. offered training in both. 76.resour-ce.s...personal property: The subject is public-spiritedness in financial matters. The key word is a.ne>..auov,always used of material enjoyment; and -rwv (trans.'public interest') could refer specifically to the treasury. Kotvwv Embezzlement was a common charge against Athenian politicians. See Lysias 27 Against Epicrates, and 28 Against Ergocles. cared for them: By contributing voluntarily .to the state treasury in times of need (elacj,op&). In 378 B.C. a census of property was held at Athens to assess the tax to be levied from each rich citizen (Polyb.2.62.7). The difference between the earlier period, when men were proud of their wealth because of the good it enabled them to do for the state, and the later period when men found it necessary to defend themselves against the charge of being rich, is described by Isoc. in 15 Antid. 159160; and in 8 On the Peace 128, written perhaps a year earlier (355 B.C.), he refers to the resentment felt by the wealthy at the occasional imposition of heavy tax burdens. See A.H.M. Jones,The Athenian Democracy and its Critics',Cambridge Historical Journal 9 (1953), repr. in Athenian Democracy (Oxford, 1957) 41-72; see esp.55-58. 77 .Neither did they vie with one another in rash deeds: 8paou',-11,-«s-: The plural of an abstract noun may be used to denote the concrete counterpart of the abstract idea, as in Latin (e.g.'ira'= 'anger', 'irae'= 'tantrums'). Cf. µe-rptO'TT\-r«S(11). In 8 On the Peace 15 he contrasts Cleophon and Hyperbolus and "present-day demagogues" with the august leaders of old: Aristides, Themistocles and Miltiades. [Aristot.] Ath.Pol. 28.1, following Thucydides, (2.65.10) thinks that the decline began after the death of Pericles (429 B.C.) and points to the rise of Cleon (28.3) and his style of oratory as its cause. But he says that the extremes of rashness and popular gratification (8pacruvecr8at Ka'\. xap{i;;ecr8at -rots- no>..Xots)were reached only by the successors of Cleophon, i.e. after the end of the Pel.War (28.4). Like Thucydides, Isoc. considered th&t the character of a state's leaders was more important for its prosperity than the nature of its constitution (12 Panath. 132-133). 78.they gave heed to the laws ... private contracts: This distinction reflects Isoc.'s own disdain for forensic speechwriting rather than any recognised distinction between laws coI).cemed with public morals and laws concerned with private disputes. not need many written laws... a few agreed principles: This idea is elaborated in 7 Areop. 39-41, and the principle from which it is inferred, that written laws are needed only in uncertain cases, is stated succinctly in Lysias 1
COMMENTARY 167
Caed.Erqt. 35. The most important aspects of human behaviour were thought to be governed by the "unwritten laws of heaven', and if man's ordinances conflicted with these they should be called into question. This is the central issue of the Antigone of Sophocles. Pericles also attached importance to unwritten laws ([Lysias] 6.Ag .Andoc. 10). In addition to this, there was a reluctance to make changes to those laws that were written down. (See To Nie. 17 note; Dem.24 Timoc.139;Bonner and Smith I 75). At Athens, when the task of overhauling them was undertaken in 410 B.C., the laws of Solon had been in place for nel,lfly two centuries. Finally, even laws which had been duly enacted could be overridden by the will of the people (Xen.Hel/.L7.12-16).See J. de Romilly, IA Loi dans la Pensee grecque a Aristote (1971); MacDowell, LCA 44ff; M. Ostwald, Nomos and the Beginnings of Athenian Democracy (1969); F.Quass, Nomos und Psephisma (1971); A.R.W. Harrison, 'Law-Making at Athens at the End of the Fifth Century B.C.', JHS 65 (1955) 26-35; M.H. Hansen, The Sovereignty of the People's Court in Athens (1974). The favourable generalisations about Athenian history and politics in 79-81 are made without close attention to chronology. They are intended to prepare for the major part played by the Athenians in repelling the barbarian, but references to actual Athenian leadership over 'the Greeks' belong properly to the period following the Persian invasions. 79.not to see which side could destroy the other, but which could be the first to do some good to the city: An idealised portrayal of Fifth-Century Athenian politics, true only in so far as all aspirants to power until the oligarchic revolution of 410 B.C. courted the demos by espousing popular policies like payment for jury service and building programmes. External danger was the only thing that could suspend political rivalry (Hdt.8.79). See Mikkola 228. political clubs: Groups of mainly upper-class citizens who met as drinkingcompanions (hatpot), and swore oaths of secrecy and mutual loyalty and support in pursuit of political ends, mostly oligarchic. See Thuc.8.54.4 and Andrewes-Dover 128-130; [Aristot.] Ath.Pol.34.3 and Rhodes 429; G.M.Calhoun, Athenian Clubs in Politics and Litigation (1913). Buchner (85) suggests that Isoc. is describing oligarchy of the kind advocated by Theramenes, whom later biographers named as his teacher. 80.the Greeks ... should lead them ... tyrants ... kindness •.. dominions: Isoc.'s language reflects the controversy surrounding the Athenians' treatment of their allies in the Delian League. His description fits the circumstances of its foundation and its early aims. The Athenians "accepted the leadership at the will of the allies" (Thuc.1.96.1) in response to their claims on the ground of kinship, resolving not to let Pausanias tyrannise them (Thuc.1.95.1-2). For his part, Isoc. was a lifelong opponent of power-politics as portrayed by Thuc. (1.75.4, 2.63.2), believing that good will was a more effective agency in inter-state relations. See Bringmann 35-36. Auµeoives- is a rare word. Of Isoc.'s language, Dion. Hal. (Isoc, 2) says that it is more figurative (TpomK11)than that of Lysias, but that otherwise it conforms closely to the most ordinary and familiar usage. 81.word ... oath: For Isoc.'s purpose it is more effective to make this distinction, which exemplifies a similar interest to that shown in the meanings of related words by certain sophists, notably Prodicus (Radermacher AS 68-69), than to make
168 COMMENTARY the historical point that the Delian League was in fact bound by an oath which was made symbolically permanent by the casting of iron ingots into the sea ([Aristot.]Ath.Po/.23.6; Plut.Aristid.25.1 (cf.Hdt.1.165.3; Horace Epod.16.17-26)). agreements ... necessity: The verbal distinctions continue and conclude climactically. Avay1.µl{aas-: [Lysias] says that he was aTTetpos- av6pwv ayaawv. But the reference to his leading the expedition himself, leaving his palace, may be intended as a contrast with his father Darius, who was feared and respected by the Greeks, and sent Oatis and Artaphemes to fight the Athenians and Eretrians.
89.monument to show superhuman power...the project all the world talks about: This must refer more especially to the bridges across the Hellespont. Like other streams, it was regarded by the Greeks as a god, and by whipping and chaining it (Hdt.7.33-36) Xerxes was claiming powers equal to those of a god and
170 COMMENTARY incurring divine jealousy (Hdt.8.109.3; Aeschyl.Persians 745-752). But the canal through the isthmus west of Mt. Athos (Hdt.7.22-24) was the more permanent monument (Thuc.4.109). The verbal conceits to which the two projects gave rise among later orators and rhetoricians, and which are brilliantly satirised by Lucian, Rhetorum Praeceptor 20, suggest some early literary or perhaps epigraphical 'monument', possibly the work of a poet of the generation of Simonides who commemorated the hybris of Xerxes while praising the heroes of Salamis. Note the chiastic arrangement of the four clauses which complete the section: the first (n>.EOcrat••.) corresponds with the last (..,6topueas), the second (nE/,;Eilcrat••.) with the third (...l,;Eueas-). By assigning the Hellespont bridges to the initial and final positions, Isoc. is giving them the greater emphasis. Cf. 54-56, a more elaborate arrangement in which the sons of Heracles are introduced before Adrastus, and picked up againafter his exploits have been briefly introduced. 90.divided the danger: Following his purpose of representing the war as a duel between Athens and Sparta for the honours of victory (85), Isoc. omits to say that the Spartans were in overall command. He shows pro-Athenian bias by saying that the Spartans were joined by a few of their allies, while suggesting, though not stating categorically, that the Athenians were the only Greeks to face the Persian fleet at Artemisium. Hdt.'s catalogue (8.1) gives a total of 271 ships, of which 127 were Athenian. In 8.14.1-2 he says that 53 Athenian ships arrived as reinforcements, and it is possible that he made the mistake of including these in his original total, so that only 74 ships were initially sent to face the Persians. That leaves a discrepancy in Athenian numbers which may be accounted for by a preference for round figures; but 144 allied ships have still been passed over in silence. 91.And they dared to do these things not so much from contempt for the enemy as from mutual rivalry: lsoc. is once more adapting the facts to his ayc:Jv-theme. He is right to discount contempt for the barbarians as a possible reason for the small numbers of Spartans and Athenians sent to meet them in the North: Hdt. several times mentions the fear with which their advance was contemplated by the various Greeks (7.138.2, 141.1, 173.4, 178.1, 183.1; 8.36.1, 56, 70.2). But strategic reasons rather than rivalry in valour lay behind the decision to send small forces to defend the northern approaches: the last line of defence was to be further south. See C.Hignett, Xerxes' Invasion of Greece (Oxford, 1963) 126. in sea-battles •••courage prevails over numbers: The last part of this statement is a commonplace (Plato, Menex ..240d;[Lysias] 2 Epitaph.23; Lycurg.Leocr.108), but Isoc. tellingly adds the point that in this vital stage of the war, the issue was decided at sea, where the Athenian fleet played the leading part. 92.they displayed equal courage: Isoc. goes out of his way to represent the two states as ideal partners in the war (Buchner 102; cf. Gillis (1971) 67, who suggests that he had deliberately offended Sparta in much of his presentation of evidence: but see n. on 86). The Spartan defeat at Thennopylae is commemorated in em -ra(jnos- language ([Lysias] 2 Epitaph.31; Hyperides 6.27; LycurgLeocr.48). Our fleet ... conquered: The naval engagements at Artemisium were closely fought (Hdt.8.16-18), but may fairly be seen as a moral victory for the Greeks, who were heavily outnumbered. when they heard that the enemy commanded the pass, they returned home: So Hdt.8.21. The fall of Thermopylae left central Greece helplessly open to
COMMENTARY 171 Xerxes' invasion. The next defensible position on land was the Isthmus of Corinth, and both sides knew that success depended on close co-operation between their land and sea forces. 93-94: Isoc. celebrates the Athenians' finest hour with one of his most skilfully constructed periods (down to ... CTurrvwµrw trtxov). For an analysis, see Gen. Introd.11-12. Here Isoc. has sacrificed historicity for stylistic unity: the possibility of collaboration with Persia did not arise until the departure of Xerxes, who made no overtures to the Athenians (Hdt.7.133). It was Mardonius who approached them with attractive proposals, and it was upon their rejection of these, made not long before the beginning of the Plataea campaign (spring 479 B.C.), that the Athenians prided themselves (Hdt.8.139-144). (Buchner 106 compares the present passage with [Lysias] 2 Epitaph.32-37). 9 5. showed indulgence to the others ... those who claimed precedence...Ieading states: The idea that Athens was a leader of Greece in all aspects of human endeavour was anachronistic for 479 B.C., appearing for the first time in literary form in Thucydides' Funeral Speech of Pericles (2.39-41) and attaining its apotheosis of emotional nostalgia in Demosthenes' speech On the Crown, 202ff.(330 B.C.). for men...for leading states: Isoc. elevates the commonplace sentiment that, on a personal level, glorious death is preferable to inglorious life, to the level of a national policy. Cf. 6 Archid. 89. For the rest of this central section (to 132) the Athenians occupy centre-stage, and their claims to the leadership, not arguments for joint leadership with Sparta, are the chief topic. See Seek 361.
96. when they found that they were unable to range themselves against both forces at once: Athens .was certainly in the front line after Thermopylae, but the prospect of her facing Xerxes on land was never considered, as the Athenians had already decided to commit the greater part of their money and manpower to their fleet, on the advice of Themistocles (Hdt.7.141-144;Thuc.1.14.3, 138.3; [Aristot.] Ath.Pol.22.1; Plut.Them.4.1-2). the neighbouring island: Salamis. They thus became anxious spectators of the battle ([Lysias] 2 Epitaph.35; cf. Thuc.7.71). in order to face each force in turn: The decision to meet Xerxes' navy first was forced upon the other Greek commanders by Themistocles (Hdt.8.61-62). The decisive battle on land was actually fought the following year at Plataea, but the Greeks did not expect one sea-battle to decide the war and were surprised when Xerxes withdrew after Salamis (Hdt.8.96.1). their city deserted ... their temples pillaged: Isoc. follows [Lysias] 2.Epitaph.31 in using the present participles nop9ouµEvlJV . . ouXwµeva . . iµmµnpaµlvous . . ytyvoµevov to describe actions from the witnesses' immediate viewpoint. 97.intending to fight it out alone: This was no doubt the tradition that prevailed, but Hdt. (8.62) mentions a plan to transplant the entire Athenian population to Sirls
172 COMMENTARY in S. Italy, which Themistocles used as a threat when his strategy of fighting at Salamis was opposed by the Corinthians. twelve hundred men-of-war: So Aeschyl.Persians 341 and Hdt. 7.89.1. Modem opinion tends to regard that number as too high (See Hignett, op.cit. n.on 91, 345-350); but Isoc.'s readers would probably have accepted it. if our forces were destroyed first they would not survive either: The Peloponnesians knew that they could not defend their land if the Persians retained command of the sea (Hdt.7.235; and esp.8.60-63). As to the noises...I do not propose to spend time describing these: But [Lysias] does in his Epitaphios (38), a passage which appears closely modelled on Thucydides' famous narrative of the battle in the Great Harbour of Syracuse (7.7071). 'These and perhaps other passages (e.g. Gotgias Frag.18 Sauppe (Radennacher AS p.59)), partly explain Isoc.'s abstention here and elsewhere (9 Euag.31): the genre had become hackneyed. But he probably had his own artistic and personal reasons as well. As he explains below (98), such a narrative would cause distraction from his central theme, which moreover requires rigorous argument rather than a graphic description of events. A general principle that narratives should be brief was ascribed to Isoc. and his school (Quint.4.2.31-32), and the further need for them to be disjointed in epideictic oratory was stressed by Aristotle (Rhet .. 3.16.1). An alleged fragment from Isoc.'s Handbook (TEXVTJ) (Syrianus Jn Hermog.Il, 65.3 Rabe) seems to confirm his agreement with this view, as it says that "a narrative should record the subject, its antecedents and its sequel, and the intentions (6tavofos) each of the contestants had in acting as he did". This means that each action should be analysed from every point of view before proceeding to the next. Aristotle says (Rhet ..3.16.2) that a number of conclusions may have to be drawn from each action, since an audience's memory may be unduly taxed if a rapid succession of actions is introduced and commented upon. Epideictic and deliberative speeches are more concerned with ideas, intentions and moral evaluations than with facts and their entertaining presentation. Isoc. had his own personal reasons for agreeing with Aristotle: his chosen periodic style, with its emphasis on architecture and measured progress, was ill-suited to the writing of graphic narrative ; and his own experience of life gave him little rapport with men facing the terrors of battle and the elation of victory. For another possible reason for the avoidance of detailed narrative, see Kyprianos (1871) 207-8, who suggests that Isoc.'s discourses are model speeches on which his pupils were expected to elaborate. 98.Our city was so preeminent when she stood unharmed, that even after she had been laid waste she contributed more triremes ... than all the others: This is a form of comparative argument (Aristot.Rhet .. 2.23.4-6; Quint.5.10.87-91); which compared the greater with the lesser, and drew probable conclusions in either direction .. It was much used in forensic oratory (e.g.Antiphon 5 Her.43; Lysias 1 Caed.Erat.31, 12 Ag.Erat.35), to reinforce unconvincing factual evidence. It depended to some extent on generalisation, and consequently could distort the facts, as here. Athenian 'preeminence' was in naval, not military forces; and although she supplied by far the largest contingent of ships at Salamis (180), it was slightly less than half the total (378, according to Hdt. (8.44-48)). But since a detachment of Corinthian ships was sent to engage Xerxes' fleet in the west channel, it is probably true that Athenians outnumbered all other Greeks in the actual battle.
COMMENTARY 173 Again, since the decision to abandon Athens was made in concert with detailed plans for manning the fleet, the strength of the navy was not affected by that decision; yet the comparison is effective because its general conclusion is sound, while rhetorically it rounds off the argument strongly and prepares for the avaKeaAaiwo-is or summary of arguments (see 99 below). credit for this: i.e. for the battle taking place in conditions favourable to the Greeks, and so leading to victory. lsoc. amplifies this point in 12 Panath.51, naming Themistocles as author of the strategy. Discussion of the Persian Wars ends with Salamis, which decided their outcome • according to lsoc. He passes over the campaigns of 479 B.C. because, although the Athenians fought bravely at Plataea and played a leading part at Cape Mycale, their exploits do not provide clear-cut examples of Athenian superiority over Sparta.
99. The presentation of a summary of arguments or points arising from them in the form of rhetorical questions, coupled with the idea of indignation or outrage is a technique used in forensic oratory (e.g. 18 Against Callimachus 55-56; Lysias 12 Ag.Eratos.82-83; Lycurg.Leocr.143-144). Here the questions are in two contrasting Ti.wv (cf. Plato, Laws 734a). those suffering the punishment of exile: Imposed upon the leaders of a losing faction, here contrasted with ordinary citizens, who suffered through both changes of government and oppression by their rulers. " 117 .barbarians have been set up as despots: The Ionian cities, Cyprus and Clazomenae came under Persian control by the tenns of the King's Peace (Xen.Hell.5.1.31). 118.enduring the destruction of their own land: The reference is to the campaigns conducted by Cimon on the S.W. coast of Asia Minor in 467-6 B.C.,
180 COMMENTARY which culminated in a great battle on the Eurymedon river at Aspendos (near modem Antalya). Cimon destroyed about 200 Persian ships (Thuc. 1.100.1; Plut.Cimon 12-13). twelve hundred ships: See 93 and note. they launched no ship of war west of Phaselis: In compliance with the terms of an agreement between Athens and Persia (auv81)Kas-: Lycurg. Leocr.1) made soon after Cimon's victory. (So, most recently, E. Badian, 'The Peace of Callias', JHS 107 (1987) 1 - 39). Together with parallel restrictions of the King's movements on land, (7 Areop.80, 12 Panath.59), this item in a famous document (-r11v imo mxv-rwv 8puAouµEvriv Elp11v11v: Dern. 19 Leg. 273) provided the most potent antithetical argument for rhetoricians who opposed the King's Peace of 386 B.C. On this agreement, see 120. 119.loss of .the leadership led to the Greeks' ills: d:pxiis- . . d:px~: Isoc. describes the point of disastrous change in Greek fortunes with a memorably aphoristic homonymia, using the same word in two different senses. Aristot.Rhet .. 3.11.7 classifies this usage under 'witticisms' (o:aTti:aµo(), quoting Isoc. 5 Phil. 61. Cf.3Nic. 28, 8 Peace 101. On the historical period, see G.Cawkwell in Classical Quarterly 1976, 1981; R.Seager 1967, 1974; R.K. Sinclair, 'The King's Peace', Chiron 8 (1978);D.M. Lewis, Sparta and Persia (Berkeley, 1977); C. Hamilton, Sparta's Bitter Victories; E. David, Sparta between Empire and Revolution (Monographs in Classical Studies, 1981); B.S. Strauss, Athens after the Peloponnesian War 403-386 (London, 1987); Hornblower GW 153-209. defeat at the Hellespont: The Battle of Aegospotami (405 B.C.), which was followed by the surrender of Athens (404 B.C.). barbarians won a sea-battle: At Cnidus in 394 B.C. Isoc. follows [Lysias] 2.5859 in connecting the two events. In fact Greeks fought Greeks in this battle (Xen.Hell.2.3.10-12): the Spartans and their allies were defeated by a fleet under the overall command of the Persian satrap Phamabazus, but the Athenian Conon led a large contingent in the battle. See 121 n. took control of most of the islands...Cythera: Following the successes of this combined Graeco-Persian fleet. See Xen.Hell.4.8.1-15 (Cythera 7-8). Off the southern coast of Laconia, Cythera had long been recognised as strategically important in time of war (Hdt.7.235). 120.compare the texts of the treaties: 11apavayvo{11 means 'read side by side', indicating texts which were in clear public view, probably inscribed on stelae; though it would be surprising if, in view of their contrasting contents, the terms of the Peace of Callias and those of the King's Peace were actually placed slde by side. The version of the former seen by the historian Theopompus was written, according to him, not in the Attic script of the Fifth Century, but in the Ionic script of the Fourth, which caused him to doubt its authenticity (FGH 115 F 153, 154 and Thucydides' silence is a more serious Harpocration s.v. 'A-rnKots- ypdµµaat). obstacle to its acceptance than the doubts of the hostile Theopompus, but his account of the Pentekontaetia is very selective, concentrating on Athenian affairs and saying little about the Persians. Controversy over the Peace of Callias, which shows no sign of abating, has tended to centre on two dates, c. 465 B.C., immediately after the accession of Artaxerxes, and 449 B.C. It has been shown that the Athenian embassy led by Callias in Hdt. 7.151 should be assigned to the earlier date {Badian, art.cir. n. 118). Perhaps the uncertain chronology conceals the solution of the problem:
COMMENTARY 181 that no formal treaty was signed, since the King could never publicly accept limitations to his movements on land or sea. In those circumstances it would be understandable that the public inscription of the text of the agreements was delayed for some time, and that it should be a fusion, if not a confusion, of the two original treaties: and the longer the delay, the greater the likelihood that Ionic script should be used. The likelihood of this script's being used was, of course, greater still if the text was reinscribed (Badian 18-19) at an even later date, perhaps not long before Isoc. wrote the Panegyricus. On the whole question of the Peace of Callias, see Meiggs AE 129-151, 487-495. fixed the taxes to be levied on some of his subjects: These subjects· were Greek cities which remained under Persian control after the Peace of Callias. The King agreed not to change (i.e. raise) their taxes' (Meiggs 148), but to keep them at the levels assessed by Artaphernes after the Ionian revolt (Badian 33). Isoc.'s wording is intended to pass over as quickly as possible the awkward admission that certain Greek cities remained under Persian control after the Peace of Callias, just as they were now under the terms of the King's Peace. It was this that enabled Callias' political opponents to represent his mission to the King's court as a failure and to have him fined fifty talents (Dem.19 Leg.273). 121.settled the outcome of the war: The Corinthian War, begun in summer 394 B.C. (Xen.Hell.3.5.17), and concluded by the King's Peace (Xen.Hell.5.1.35). presided over the peace: King Artaxerxes met only the Spartan Antalcidas at his court (Diod.Sic. 14.110.2-3). He did not attend the meeting at which terms of settlement were presented to the other Greek leaders: he 'sent down'(Ka-ranEpov in his catalogue of the qualities necessary for men in public life (12 Panath.30: TTJV soeavEtllTUXlJ TWV Katpwv
COMMENTARY EXOVTas Kat
6uvaµEVTJV ws
ETTt TO TTOAUOToxaCEo9at
195
TOU cuµq>EpOVTOS
'having a judgement that identifies opportunities and is able, on most occasions, to hit upon the expedient course of action'). The present passage is Isoc.'s own claim to that statesmanlike quality. Demosthenes dilates on Katpos at even greater length and with characteristically more fervour: the whole of Olynthiac 1 is built around it, and his deliberative oratory contains many references to Katpo( missed and Katpo( still present. Katpos- was recognised as a deliberative topic by Aristotle (Rhet .. 1.9.38, (cf.1.7.32). See also 2 To Nie. 2n., 33n. 161.Have not Egypt and Cyprus rebelled •••: See 140-141 notes. They were in alliance against Persia. Phoenicia and Syria ... Tyre: All ravaged by Euagoras in his ten-year war against Persia (9 Euag.62; Diod.Sic.15.2). Cilicia ...Lycia: The whole of the southern coast of modern Turkey. This region had been destabilised first by the conquests of Euagoras, and subsequently (after 382 B.C.) by the renegade Persian admiral Glos, who commanded the sea in his own name for a short time before his assassination (Diod.Sic.15.9.3). Many of the men who served under him and his successor Tachos were Greek mercenaries from Ionia (hence described as our allies, who would be not difficult to acquire if the pay was right). 162. Hecatomnus the governor of Caria: A Carlan grandee, not a Persian like the satraps of neighbouring regions. His family may have owed its privileged position to his ancestor, Queen Artemisia of Halicarnassus, who served Xerxes well during his expedition against Greece. Hecatomnus played a double game: he obeyed the King's command to take a force to Cyprus (Diod.Sic. 4.98.4) but later supplied Euagoras with money to pay his mercenaries (Diod.Sic.15.2.3). From Cnidus to Sinope: Following the coastline westwards and northwards from Lycia, through the Hellespont into the Black Sea, and eastwards, where Sinope was roughly halfway along the north coast of modern Turkey. It was a catch-phrase of the time (cf. 5 Phil.120) denoting territorial inclusiveness, like our "from Land's End to John o' Groats". small groups •.• all of us: Comparative argument: see note on 163. if the barbarian strengthens his grip on the maritime cities ... seize them: mhas refers to the cities, not the islands. Being on the mainland, by the terms of the King's Peace they fell within his sphere of influence. Isoc. is thus proposing to break the terms of that peace, which the Spartans had sponsored. Yet it is clear that the operations he proposes could not have been carried out without Spartan forces, as Athenian resources, both military and naval, would have been inadequate. Rhodes, Samos and Chios: These islands were independent under the terms of the King's Peace, but the firm hold established by the Persian satraps on the adjacent mainland, some of which had previously belonged to these islands, made their position seem precarious. The Chians' feeling of insecurity caused theni to form an alliance with Athens in 384 B.C. (Tod 118); and the readiness with which the Rhodians joined the Second Athenian Confederacy in 377/6 B.C. (Diod.Sic.15.28.3) suggests a similar desire for protection. This part of lsoc.'s plan was thus proved sound by events. 164.lest we suffer the same fate as our forefathers: Viz. another Persian invasion like those of 490 and 480 B.C.
196 COMMENTARY took the field later than the barbarians: The Persians confronted the Greeks for the first time when Cyrus and his general Harpagus occupied the Ionian cities after overrunning Lydia. A Panhellenic army should have crossed to Asia around the time of Cyrus' capture of Sardis in 546 B.C. if his ambitions were to have been seriously challenged. But Isoc. is thinking of the Ionian Revolt of 500-494 B.C. abandoning some of their allies: Hdt. 5.103 says that the Athenians withdrew their support from the Ionian Revolt some time before it was finally suppressed. His account suggests that they were disappointed by poor Ionian strategy and leadership. Katpos- remains the underlying theme to 168 ... &1100vefuKEtv.It is treated from the uvµq,lpov standpoint to 166. Here the last sentence 110>.v. . &µtf>tu{311rEtv is a summarising link with 167-8, where the 6(Katov standpoint takes over.
165.it has been demonstrated ..•still scattered: For this idea of a pre-emptive attack on a dispersed and unprepared enemy, cf. Thuc.3.97.1; 20 Loch.13. Buchner (146) notes that in these chapters Isoc. is discussing land operations almost exclusively, confirming that he is thinking of an overall Athenian command, not (or no longer) a shared command, with Sparta leading the land operations and Athens in charge of the fleet. He has tried to emphasise naval operations in the expedition by focusing on the maritime cities (163), but a full-scale invasion would leave little work for a fleet to do; and recent successful land operations against the King had been led by Spartan generals. It is hence natural that Isoc., in some frustration, should propose to set aside discussion of the topic of the leadership (...quarrel with each other for the leadership(166)). 167.in the present generation: ~AlKta referred particularly to the age for military service, and this fits the context here. Some of the younger men who fought in the final stages of the Pel.War and the Corinthian War ("our misfortunes") would still be fit for military service in 380 B.C. past time has seen enough of these: The sentence lacks a subject (xpovos- ?) and a finite verb. This ellipsis gives it a dismissive tone. For a similar use of lKavos- (like English "Enough of all this...", etc.) cf. Lysias 25 Subv.Dem. 6; Thrasymachus Frag.( Diels-Kranz 85B 1). Deliberative oratory is about the future (Aristot.Rhet..1.2.4, 3.17.10), but the contents of these chapters fit the years immediately after the Pel.War, and describe conditions caused by it (Bui -ro11 m5>.Eµo11168).It refers to the same events as Lysias 33 Olymp.3-6, which was delivered in 388 B.C. But lsoc. wrote much the same in Ep.9.8-1O (c.356 B.C.), so the present passage is to be regarded as one of a type. The subject of the effects of war and revolution was of obvious interest to rhetoricians at this time. Cf Lysias 12 Ag. Eratos.96-97. Its treatment in the famous passage in Thucydides (3.82), with its characteristically psychological bias, was too individual to provide a model.
168.serve as mercenaries: By using the more complimentary word entKoupot ('auxiliaries') rather than µw8oopot ('hireling troops'), Isoc. shows more sympathy with these men than before (135, 146). On the dangers, both physical and
COMMENTARY 197 political, posed by the large number of wandering mercenaries, cf. 5 Phil.96, 120, 121; Ep.9.8-10; 8 Peace 24, 44. shed tears over the disasters contrived by the poets: A similar passage in [Andocides] Ag. Alcibiades (23) specifies tragic poets, and Isoc. is no doubt thinking primarily of these. Athenian politicians were acutely aware that the Assembly and the Theatre were both places of entertainment for many citizens, who were ready to award good performance with assent rather than coldly assess the merits of the policies proposed. See Thuc.3.38.3-7, esp.7, where Cleon compares their behaviour to that of an audience listening to a sophist, or professional lecturer. Thuc. may have been thinking of the recent (427 B.C.) Leontinian embassy headed by Gorgias, who captivated the Athenians with his novel style (Diod.Sic.12.53.2-5). Isoc. envied the popularity of other performers, while at the same same time claiming esoteric qualities for his own oratory (cf.11, 188). 169.Italy ... Sicily: The reference is to the operations of Dionysius I of Syracuse, who expanded into Italy (Diod.Sic.14.106ff.) and in Sicily conceded Acragas, Himera, Gela and Camarina to the Carthaginians (great cities betrayed to the barbarians).
170-189 : EPILOGOS 170-172.those who hold power in our states ... devote their energies to unimportant matters ••.those of us who stand aloof from public life ... petty-minded ... leaders: This scathing indictment of contemporary politicians is introduced by the familiar Bauµa.8et:v: One of the standard I shall try to describe ••.: tTEtpdooµat transitional formulae in forensic oratory, expressing a certain modesty as prooemium gives way to narrative (e.g.[Lysias] 7.Sac.O/.3; 12Ag.Erat.3). 7. it is difficult to tell at the beginning: Again (cf.4 Paneg.14,187) Isoc. pretends that he does not know how his address will be received, with the implied reason that its content is as yet undetermined. (Expectations were aroused at the beginning of the work's composition and maintained until it was completed - ano TTJS- apxfis- followed by lm n>.rn8Ev-ra). acquired a reputation far short of men's expectations: The difficulty of effective writing is one of Isoc.'s favourite topics (See 13 Ag.Soph. 14-17; 15 Antid .. 187-191), understandably so since he taught literary composition. 8. a neglected subject ...advice to kings: No comparable prose work antedates To Nicocles., and with good reason: all previous prose authors were Athenian or Ionian, and to these in general monarchy and tyranny were anathema. Most of the early advice offered to potentates came from deferential court poets like Pindar and Bacchylides (but see Anaxarchides, On Kingship (Diels II 240)). if he can turn those who rule over the masses towards virtue: Isoc. specialised in the training of leaders (cf. Cicero's comparison of his school with the Trojan horse, from ·which nothing emerged but princes (meri principes (De Orat.2.22.94)), who, if imbued with the right qualities, could pass them on to the masses (4 Paneg.15). This remark completes Isoc.'s justification of his undertaking (see synopsis of Prooemium (above)). more moderate government: This takes account of the popular view (encouraged by oligarchs), that monarchies tended to be cruel and oppressive. Jaeger (III 92, trans.Highet) says:""-the aim of Isocrates is ... to halt or hinder the
COMMENTARY
205
contemporary degeneration of the state from constitutional government to absolute monarchy, by binding the will of the ruler to higher moral standards". The problem of harshness or apparent harshness arises again in 23, cf.3 Nic.16-17,32,55. Though it is doubtful whether Nicocles or many other rulers heeded their philosophical advisers' calls for "milder government", perhaps some did. See Didymus, Comm.on Dern. Phil.5.52 (Diels-Schubart), who says that Hermias, tyrant of Atarneus moderated his regime under the influence of Plato's pupils Xenocrates, Coriscus, Erastus and Aristotle, who was also tutor to Alexander the Great.
9 - 39·: THE DUTIES AND QUALITIES OF A KING:: lsoc. himself remarks on the disconnected arrangement of topics in this discourse (15 Antid. 68 ). After the initial general definition of the king's duty (9 ), topics are treated piecemeal under separately defined 'heads' or 'headings' (KEcpa).ata,loc.cit.). For this technique, see lntrod.l/7-118. 9. function of kings: For this meaning of Epyov see Plato, Gorg. 517c. under a general heading: This is characteristic of Isoc.'s method, cf.8 Peace 18; 15 Antid. 217; Ep.6.1-9. Both the sophists and the Socratics were interested in establishing definitions, both of words and of the scope of subjects under discussion. This is a different meaning of KEa).mafrom that in 15 Antid. 68 (see above). to relieve the state when it is in difficulty, to guard it when it is prosperous, and to raise it from insignificance to greatness: This popular view of the monarch's function was too narrowly materialistic to satisfy Plato, who thought that the monarch should undertake the moral improvement of his subjects (Rep.6 500d) (as should anyone, such as a politician (/>TJn,ip),who found himself in a position of power over the people (Gorg. 513e-514a,515b-c; Jaeger III 156; Kehl 113)). Nevertheless, even in his scheme of things material wellbeing had a place, albeit subordinate: happiness (Eu6mµov{a) is linked to the growth of the city (aueavoµEVT)S Tf\S TIOAEWS) in Rep. 4 421c. In the real world of the Athenian democracy the promotion of material prosperity was certainly a primary aim of politicians (e.g. Plut.Themistoc/es 2.3; Cimon 9.1), though the subject was debated from time to time (Plut.Peric/es 12). In Xen.Hiero 5.4, the tyrant says that his subjects are more submissive when poor, so that his interest lay in keeping them in that condition. 10.superior to all others in mental powers: To be coupled with surpass others in virtue (11), thus combining psychological with physical, and potential with actual superiority. apETTJ and even more its plural signify the active manifestation of good qualities. Isoc.'s ideal king follows the general Homeric model ("ever to be the best and superior to all others" (Iliad 6.208)), preserving its competitive element by his analogy (below) with the training of an athlete. But his insistence on the mental and moral dimension also aligns lsoc.'s model closely with that of Plato in the Republic, with certain historical leaders (Themistocles: Thuc.1.138.3; Pericles: Thuc.2.61.2,65.8; Jason of Pherae: Xen.He/1.6.1.15-16), and with the Athenian founder-hero Theseus as portrayed in his own Helen (31-37). it has been demonstrated: 6Ef6nKTat (perfect passive indicative, of a past action resulting in a present state), does not necessarily refer to a specific source or authority (cf. 4 Paneg.165), but here close verbal correspondence with 9 Euag.41
206 COMMENTARY suggests an interesting possibility: that although that discourse appeared after To Nicocles .. , Isoc. had already applied his thesis to its subject in an early draft. I I.no athlete ... : Cf. 5 Paneg.2; I Demon.12; 8.5. The ruler's struggle is the more demanding because it is unremitting; and the rewards are not selfish but altruistic the wellbeing of his subjects. R.Flaceliere,'L'eloge d'Isocrate a la fin du Phedre', Rev.Et.Gr. 46 (1933) 224ff. sees Socratic influence in chs. 11-12. surpass others in virtue: With two main aims: (1) to justify his pre-eminence, like a Homeric hero (seen. on 10 above); (2) to provide a model of apETT) for his subjects to imitate (XenAges.10.2; cf.1 Demon.21). 12.diligence ... help ourselves towards virtue: The question of whether virtue can be taught underlies this argument. lsoc. assumes that animals which are trained in accordance with the wisdom of their owners, who make them "more spirited, gentle or intelligent, as the case may be"(15 Antid. 211), become virtuous: therefore virtue can be taught. In Rep.6 493b-c Plato argues that 'taming' consists in finding what stimuli please or annoy the animal without considering whether its tastes were objectively 'good' or 'bad'. He examines the question of whether virtue can be taught in the Meno. Nothing in Xenophon's Socratic writings bears directly on this question (pace Norlin (1.47)). To Isoc., as a teacher, the question was of vital concern. Although he frequently criticises those who stray from practical matters into areas of abstraction, he strongly claimed that his own teaching instilled moral excellence. According to him (15 Antid. 276-277) the very acts of contemplating and appraising examples of virtue, and of writing discourses which are worthy of praise and honour, will lead a man to virtue. The argument is loose and fails to address fundamental questions, but relates clearly to the aims of the present discourse, and even more to the Euagoras, to Xenophon Agesilaus, and to the . general purpose of biograrhy as conceived by its eariest exponents. 13.wisest...send abroad: "Isocrates invites himself to Cyprus" (Jaeger III 96). His connection with the Cypriot royal family, which fostered cultural links with Athens (9. Euag.50), may have arisen through his pupil Timotheus, with whom he is said to have visited many cities ([Plut.] Vit. X Or.837c). It is not known whether Isoc. visited Cyprus. poets or sages: See 3n., 43 n., and Marrou 126. such training: this 'training of the soul' provides the king with the foundation for the second quality which Isoc. demands for kings, philanthropia for those loyal to him (15; see Kehl 113). 14. worse •.•rule the better: I.e. you must ensure that you are better than your subjects. The argument is amplified in 3 Nicocles 14-15, where Isoc. says that both oligarchy and democracy accord equality to all their rulers, be they the few or the whole of the male population; and that this benefits the 'bad' men. This is an extension of the objection made by oligarchs to democracy, ~.g. in [Xen.]Ath. Pol. 1.4-6, where the 'best' and the 'good' are a superior class with higher intelligence and sense of duty than the masses. But Isoc. would argue, or make Nicocles argue, that because they are a plurality, the chance that an oligarchy would contain some bad men is greater than the possibility of vice in a monarch, when he has been trained by lsocrates. Aristotle (Pol. 3.10-11) puts the case for democracy with two main arguments: (1) that, while individually not as good as the 'best' men, each ordinary citizen has some share of goodness and intelligence, and when these are brought together they become, as it were, one composite man with many pairs of
COMMENT ARY 207 feet and hands and many minds; (2) the larger the number of the disfranchised, the larger the hostile element and the consequent danger of unrest. Stability was achieved in the Athenian democracy, according to Isoc. (7 Areop.21), by the fact that it conferred executive powers upon the most capable men, but gave the people authority (Kuptov t1otouo11s)over them. 15.love his subjects and his country: Le.be concerned for the material prosperity of the citizens (see. 9 n.) and the maintenance of political stability. [Aristotle] Ath. Pol.16.2 uses qn).av8pwt1os to describe Pisistratus. See Rhodes ad loc. It is interesting that 4>tAav8pwt1fo later became an expected attribute of Hellenistic monarchs, some of whom used and paraded public largesse to strengthen their popularity, and encouraged the king-worship with which grateful subjects rewarded them, signalised by names like Saviour and Benefactor. See Tam & Griffiths, Hellenistic Civilisation (London, 1927) 53-54; S. Lorenz, De progressu notionis cfn)..av0pwrr(as-(Leipzig,1914); F.Taeger, Hermes 65 (1937) 355-360, and Charisma: Studien zur Geschichte des antiken Herrscherkultes (1958) 123; Tromp de Ruyter,"4>t:l.av8pwt1fo",Mnemosyne 59 (1937) 27lff. See also 4 Paneg.29, where the word is used in an international sense. Later Isoc. urges it upon Philip (5.114,116) and Timotheus (Letter 7.6).ln Xenophon Hiero, the tyrant's love of his country is selfishly motivated: his own survival depended on it (5.3). horses nor dogs nor men: The tone is decidedly paternalistic. cultivate the people: Like his father Euagoras, whom Isoc. describes as oT}µonKos (46). It was to this passage that he referred when answering charges of favouring monarchy over democracy (15 Antid. 10; [Zos.] Vit.lsoc.p.104. 23ff.). Aristotle noted that a tyrant's power often stemmed from popular support (Po/.5.10). He w~s contemporary with Isoc. and Nicocles, and may have been thinking particularly of contemporary tyrants. (So Andrewes, The Greek Tyrants, 18). 16.wise leader: The qualification 'wise' is needed, as the 011µ&-ywyoswas not usually a 'good' leader in Isoc. (so Kehl 17) (an exception being Helen 37)). the best shall have the honours: cf. 3 Nic.14, an idealised view compared with Xen.Hiero 5.1-2, where the tyrant complains that his retention of power depends upon the removal of all the best men. (Cf.Eur.lon 627-8). 17 .remove and replace them: It was very difficult to change the law in Greek states. In Locris only one law was changed in 200 years. This is very understandable, as the Locrians compelled a would-be legislator or reformer to argue his case with a rope around his neck, and failure to convince the assembled Council of 1000 resulted in his immediate strangulation (Dern. 24 Timocr.139-40; cf. Polyb.12.16; Diod. Sic.12.17). Reluctance to change laws may have been due to their supposed divine origin, and praise of ancient laws was a rhetorical commonplace (Antiph. 5 Her.14, 6 Chor.2; Aeschin. 3 Ag.Ctes.11). But tyrants, by virtue of their absolute power, could alter ancestral laws, a fact deplored by their opponents (Hdt.3.80). See Bonner & Smith I 75 and n. on Paneg.18. quickest possible reconciliations: Isoc. is perhaps thinking of the means of settlement available to Athenian litigants that fell short of a full trial, which they conventionally claimed to abhor (tAootKoswas an uncomplimentary epithet (Thuc.1.77.1)). These included out-of-court settlement and arbitration. See MacDowell LA 203-211.
208 COMMENTARY
18.lawsuits detrimental: lsoc. implies elsewhere (15 Antid. 40) that Nie. was personally active in the dispensation of justice (wo11Ep 6Eo116TTJSE6tKa(:EV). This completes the picture of a monarch who has a free hand in both the creation and the administration of the law. Isoc. sees this as an opportunity for Nie. lo avoid the worst features of the Athenian system, which was bedevilled by slanderers and informers, whose activities increased litigation, and whose victim, ironically, Isoc. himself was soon to become. See J.O. Lofberg, Sycophancy in Athens (Chicago, 1917). proper and expedient: For the interaction of the concepts of 11p{ 110v and ouµq,ipov in Isoc., see Wersdorfer 27-35. 19.administer the state in the same way as your family estate: Note the use of the verb olKetv, which gives a more 'domestic' sense than 6totKEiv, the normal verb to denote public administration. 11paets meant both the collection of taxes and the expenditure of money; and by o:Kptf3ws-Isoc. means the striking of an exact balance between the two, so that citizens were kept in contentment by not being overtaxed, while deriving enjoyment from public works and entertainments. Once again (see 15n.) lsoc.'s model kingship seems to foreshadow historical reality, as the principle that the king should administer his realm as if it were his own otKos- was realised in Ptolemaic Egypt, where a central domestic bureaucracy was established (F.W. Walbank,The Hellenistic World 107ff.; W.Tam & G.T.Griffith, Hellenistic Civilisation 187ff.). But the related, more repressive principle that the king owned everything and the people were his slaves is older, being the basis of Persian kingship; and the word olKos- could be used to refer to his whole empire (Thuc.1.137.4 ). Xenophon seems to look forward with Isoc. rather than back with Thuc. when he makes the poet Simonides advise Hiero thus: "Regard your country as your estate (olKov), your citizens as companions, your friends as your children, your children as your very life; and try to prevail upon (vtK8v) all these by benefaction" (Hiero 11.14). Make a display of magnificence .•. immediately disappear: In view of Isoc.'s known disparagement of athletic contests and shows (4 Paneg.1-2), it may be assumed that he is contrasting their ephemeral nature with the permanence of b?i}dings and statues. There may also be an echo of Thuc.1.22.4 (KTf\µa TE esatn ... ).
20.worship of the gods ... make yourself as good and just as possible: Cf. I Demon. 13, where proof of piety is similarly seen in good behaviour rather than religious observance. Honour with state office ... your closest relatives: Nepotism is no more than an extension of the hereditary principle, which Aristotle regarded as natural and unavoidable in spite of the unworthiness of some heirs (Pol. 3.15; 5.10 fin.). Isoc. here shows his awareness of the possibility that the king's relatives will not always be the best men to help him govern. 21.bodyguard ... friends: An armed entourage was characteristic of Greek tyrants (Hdt.1.64.1). The fact that it often consisted of foreign mercenaries was one reason for tyrants' unpopularity (Xen.Hiero 10.1; 10 Helen 37). For the sentiment cf. Sallust Jug.10.4: non exercitus neque thesauri praesidia regni sunt, verum amici; Cic.Pro Sulla 19.51: tectus praesidio firmo amicorum; Tacitus Hist.4.1: nullum maius boni instrumentum quarn bonos arnicos.
COMMENTARY 209 property •..your resources ... your wealth: This viewpoint arises naturally from 19 (the state as the king's oikos). Its placement here is an example of the loose structure of the discourse. 22.truth •.•mere words •.•oaths: Cf. 4 Paneg.81 and n. Render the city safe for all foreigners to visit: Isoc. is recommending the Athenian model to Nie. To the t>-oeEv(a of Periclean Athens (Thuc.2.39.1) is added reference to engagements (ouµj36Xata), which suggest primarily agreements concerning trade and commerce. Athens was one of Nicocles' chief tradingpartners. those who expect to receive gifts from you: By honouring such men Nie. would place them in his debt, both morally and materially. Cf. Thuc.2.40.4; Sall. Jug. 6.5. 23.Relieve your citizens of most of their fears: Rather than ' ...their many fears' (Norlin): since it is desirable that wrongdoers should fear punishment (Xen.Hiero 8.9), that class of citizens should have some fears. Do nothing in anger: The conventional view (Xen. Hell.5.3.1, Hippike 6.13): anger has unpredictable consequences, and may lead to regret (AristophAch.630,632; Thuc.3.42.1; Antiph. 5 Her.71-72 and Edwards n. (p.110); Cic.De Off. 1.38). appear to others to be doing so: Isoc.'s original contribution to the received wisdom reflects his rhetorical training. He is alluding to the orator's most potent weapon, according to the two greatest ancient orators, Demosthenes and Cicero his delivery or performance on stage (un6Kptots-, Lat.actio) (Cic. De Orat.3.56.213; [Plut.] Vit.X Or. 845b; Plut.Demos.8; Quint.11.3.6). On the value of simulating anger: Cic.Tusc.Disp.4.55: Oratorem vero irasci minime decet, simulare non dedecet; Seneca, De Ira 2.14: nunquam itaque iracundia admittenda est, aliquando simulanda, si segnes audientium animi concitandi sunt. kindness: The idea of the benevolent monarch coexisted in 5th Century literature with the more popular one of the cruel tyrant (AeschylAg.151; Pindar Pyth.1.9496). Here the quasi-forensic context of 'offences' and 'punishments' could point to oratorical usage, and specifically to the invocation of fellow-feeling (ouyyvwµ11), a frequent device in Attic speeches. Thus lsoc. may again be drawing on his rhetorical training. 24.inducing ... to submit to your judgement: The ability to elicit willing obedience (nH0apxfo) was one of the most desirable qualities in a leader, according to Xenophon, who shared Isoc.'s interest in the subject of leadership, having had practical experience of it (Hell.5.1.4, Anab.1.9 ,Hipparch. l.4,1 ,24, M em.3.3.9, etc.). Be a man of war ...a man of peace: The logical reaction to the knowledge that it is human nature to seize what is not defended (Thuc.1.69.1, 76.2; 4.61.5; J.de Romilly, Thucydides and Athenian Imperialism (trans.Thody)(Oxford,1963) 98104). Later variations on the same idea include:"In pace ut sapiens aptarit idonea bello"(Horace Satires 2.2.111; "Qui desiderat pacem praeparet bellum" (Vegetius 3 Prol.); "To be prepared for war is the best way of preserving peace" (George Washington (1790)); and (variously quoted) "The condition upon which god hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance" (J.P. Curran (1790)). foet is the present imperative 1st Person singular of dvat, "to be".
210 COMMENTARY unjust aggression: n>.EoVEKHtv means "to gain a larger share". Crossing one's borders into another's territory could be justified only in self-defence or the defence of an ally (Hdt.3.21.2,4.119.2-4,5.49.2,8.22.1). Conduct your relations with weaker states ..stronger states .. you: Cf.8 0 n the Peace 136.This may be a political adaptation of an earlier, more general "do as you would be done by" aphorism. Cf. 1 Demon. 14 (children-parents). But it directly contradicts the current sophistic idea that "justice is the will of the stronger" (4 Paneg.81 n.). 25.noble-hearted: µ.Eya>.olj, poauv11 (Cf. 9 Euag.21) always contains the idea of self-esteem. lsoc. seems to think that a king should be more cautious in both word and deed (cf. 33 n.) than a man of letters like himself, who, in the Panegyricus, undertook a subject which, on his own admission, defeated him in the end (187). The theme of this and the next chapter is moderation. Up to this point the subject-matter has been strictly political (so Blass ll 273). lsoc. now turns to the king's private conduct (27-32). The loose structure of the discourse becomes clear as earlier material is added to (see 27).
27 .friendship ... worthy of you: I.e. cultivate those who match your qualities. Cf.Eur.Hipp. 614: "No dishonest man is a friend of mine"; Cic.De Amie. 9.26 argues that true friendship arises between men of similar nature and character, when each perceives his own virtues in the other. o l3ou;>..oµEvos- 'all and sundry', Lat. quivis. examinations: 6oKtµaa{ as-: The word for the scrutinies which Athenian candidates for state office underwent, and therefore appropriately applied to men who were to assume state office under the monarch. As before, Isoc. is urging the Athenian model upon Nicocles. like your companions: This assumption ("birds of a feather ... ") was used against defendants in lawsuits to blacken their characters (Lysias 24 lnv.19-20). The problem faced. by a monarch in his choice of friends is well presented by Xenophon in the Hiero (3), where he makes the tyrant complain that, whereas ordinary people enjoy friendships in their family life, the tyrant's worst enemies are often jealous members of his family (3.7-8); while he is deprived of the friends who are best able to advise him by the necessity to eliminate the ablest citizens, who pose the greatest threat to his position (5.1-2). Isoc. seems to be following the conventional view of friendship as self-interested rather than· altruistic. Even in Thuc.2.40.4, where Pericles is arguing that the Athenian view of it is more enlightened than that of other Greeks, the purpose of friendship is still to place others under an obligation to help you in time of need. This is what friends are for (Eur.Or. 665-666; Menander Dysc.114). 28.criticise your mistakes: See 3n.; and Dover,GPM 304-305. Even Xerxes, whose advisers feared his anger if they dissented, valued the frank advice of Artemisia not to fight at Salamis (Hdt.8.69.2). Cic.De Amie. 13.44 says that a friend should give advice and warning freely, and expect it to be acted upon. free expression: napp11afo had both a public sense, meaning "freedom to air one's opinion", and a personal sense,"frankness" with one's friends and intimates. Historically, tyrants tended to suppress the former (Aristot. Pol.5.11), Pisistratus at Athens being an exception ([Aristot.] Ath.Pol.16.6). Regarding the latter, Aristotle
COMMENTARY 211 (loc.cit.) describes how tyrants created an atmosphere of suspicion in their courts which was not conducive to frankness on the part of their intimates. But Aristotle is describing the evils of tyranny, whereas Isoc. is portraying ideal monarchy. flatter: A king was surrounded by flatterers: the conventional tyrant was thought to prefer them (Aristot.loc.cit.). craftily: Wersdorfer (108) notes that TEXVlJ is closely associated in Isoc. with KoµtjJos ('polished') and notK(1.os ('varied'), particularly in the context of style. Hence the reference may be to their form of address. 29.false accusers: lsoc. opposes the traditional methods of tyrants, who encouraged slander in order to set citizens against one another and so divide the opposition to himself (Aristot.loc.cit.). He is also probably thinking of the damage done in Athens by slandermongers. Govern yourself ••.slave to no pleasures: The Socratic model of self-control (eyKpaTna) (Xen.Mem.1.2; Plato, Phaedrus 256b). As a quality desirable in leaders: Xen. Hell.6.1.16; Ages.5; Seneca 113: imperare sibi maximum imperium est. Jaeger, Paideia II 53. your desires: These are specified as sexual ("...for women and boys") in 3 Nic.39. 31.aw, poauvtJ had a more general meaning than eyKpaTna, including both it and integrity, honesty and wisdom. See Dover GPM 65-69. example ..•rnodelled on that of its rulers: Whereas Plato seeks an absolute of, or rather for, the ideal ruler, Isoc. thinks that model or example (napd6nyµa) the model should be a person, who becomes both his people's educator and the embodiment of their culture. 32.good narne ... great wealth: Cf. 3 Nie.SO. The superiority of 66~a over material things was a commonplace of epideictic oratory, especially funeral speeches, where, as here, its immortality is stressed ([Lysias] 2 Epitaph. 24,33; 4 Paneg.91,186). It also found expression in political oratory, especially that of Demosthenes, who frequently said that Athens cared, or should care, more for her good name and the honour it brought than for wealth (1 Olynth.111; 6 Phil.II 8; 18 Cor.63-7,80,89,97-101.199-205.207,322, 19 Leg.83, 20 Lept.10). 33.choose your words ...with care: Isoc.'s own teaching of the prince would have dealt with this subject in detail. With his future career in view, he probably received special tuition. Precise moment of opportunity: Katpos. For the importance of this concept in lsocratean thought, see Paneg. notes on 9 and 160, and Gen. Introd.n.36. For its importance as a rhetorical concept (the right moment in a speech, the right measure of emphasis and coverage given to a topic), see Paneg.5 n. It is likely that Isoc. is talking about oratorical style, or at least including it by implication. choose· to fall short rather than to overstep them: For a similar counsel of caution, cf.25 n. and 26. Once again Nic.'s style of speech and subject-matter may be in the forefront of Isoc.'s mind.Cicero makes a similar recommendation regarding style in Orator 22.73. Men in political life were personally aware of the dangers of oratorical excesses. Critics, on the other hand, delighted in the flights of genius which overstepped the boundaries of convention but enriched literature ([Longinus] On the Sublime 33-36; Plato, Rep.6 497d; Dion.Hal.Ep. ad Gn.Pomp.2 sub.fin.). 34.polite: aoTEtos ranges in meaning between 'polite' through 'urbane' to 'witty'.(The word's application to style in the latter sense (Aristot.Rhet.3.10) does not fit the present context.) Isoc.'s ideal prince is on easy speaking terms with his
212 COMMENTARY subjects, like the tyrant Pisistratus,who conversed with ordinary farmers ([Aristot.]Ath.Pol.16.6. Further on acrTEtos- see Dover GPM 13. 35.experience ...theoretical study: In accordance with the regimen laid own for all his pupils by Isoc. (13 Ag. Soph. 14, 15 Antid. 191). Observe the experiences and misfortunes ... : Isoc. probably means both those which Nie. sees or hears about in his own day-to-day life, and those which he reads about, especially perhaps in the writings of historians. See next note. past events ... the future: This certainly recalls Thucydides, who says that past events may provide a guide to the future KaTa TO av8pwmvov (1.22.4). Cf. 6 Archid.59. Reference to misfortunes suggests the more popular type of history written by Herodotus. Marrou 126 thinks Isoc. is alluding to both. See also Jaeger III 101 and Hudson-Williams (1948) 81. 36.die nobly rather than live in ignominy: The eternal heroic choice begins with Achilles (Horner Iliad 9.410-416): the nobler option was commended to patriotic citizens from the Persian Wars onward (Hdt.8.83; Aeschyl. Frag.395; [Lysias] 2 Epitaph.19; Plato Menex.246d; Xen.Lac.Pol.9.1, Apol.9, Anab.2.2.3, Hell.4.4.6; Isoc.6 Archid.8; Lycurg.Leocr.86; Dern. 18 De Cor.205). 37 .mortal body .. .immortal memorial of your spirit: An epideictic commonplace (Gorgias Epitaph.; 5.Phi/.134;[Lysias] 2 Epitaph.; .. 24;Hyperid. 6 Epitaph.; ..24; [Dern.)60 Epitaph.;.24). It does not necessarily imply that the ljluxiiis immortal, but that the body can be worn out or overcome (see 4 Paneg.4) whereas the spirit of brave men is perceived to be unconquerable when they die fighting, and so deserves a worthy memorial.
38.When you practise speaking, choose noble subjects, so that you may form the habit of thinking thoughts which match your words: Isoc. amplifies this idea in 15 Antid .. 277. Its importance is hard to overstress, as it embodies the main defence of his paideia. It is his answer both to Plato, who claimed that rhetoric without 11moral basis is dangerous, destructive and tyrannical, and to the Sophists, whom both Isoc. and Plato accused of using rhetoric for base or trivial purposes. S.ee next note, and Introd.
39.Regard as wise not those who argue pedantically about small matters: Isoc. accuses both Plato and the Sophists of this (10 Helen 1-5). His attitude is similar to that given by Plato in Gorgias 484c - 485e to Callicles, who argues, like Isoc.(15 Antid. 266-268, 12 Panath.21), that exercises in dialectic are useful, or at worst harmless in the education of the young; but that prolongation of this training is ruinous, since it keeps them away from serious subjects. These passages particularise the rivalry between Isoc.'s school and the Academy (Jaeger III 55). The present passage shows that this rivalry was still alive, at least on Isoc.'s side, some fifteen years after the two schools were founded (c.390-375 B.C.). are conversant with both affairs and men: 6 µt}..E'i.v here suggests diplomatic skills. In his brief obituary note on Philip II of Macedon, Diodorus (16.95.2) remarks that he was said to have been prouder of his diplomatic successes and his strategic abilities than of his valour in battle. See Kehl 111,156. not perturbed by life's changes of fortune ... : Cf. 12 Panath.30-31, where such equanimity is attributed to 'being educated' (n rn at6 Eu µ E'vot ). Also 1 Demon.42.
COMMENTARY 213 This central section (9-39) ends in a longer sentence than average for discourse, as do the opening chapters and the sub-section ending in 26.
this
40 - 53 : THE KING AND LITERARY COUNSEL : As an author and teacher himself, lsoc. turns frequently to discussions of the literary problems relating to the work he has in hand (e.g. 9 Euag.8-11; 4 Paneg.7-14,187; 12 Panath.200.ff.). In the present section he affirms the value of serious literature as a source of advice for rulers, and warns Nicocles against wasting time on literature which merely pleases and entertains.
41.But in discourses such as this one should not seek novelties •..form: The fact that his subject-matter has been treated befoi:e (40) might tempt an author with Isoc.'s talents to try to revitalise it by presenting it in a novel style (4 Paneg.8-9). This temptation should be resisted in a protreptic discourse like To Nicocles, in which the writer's aim should not be to entertain his audience with extravagant stylistic effects ( •..say anything paradoxical or incredible), but to convey the distilled wisdom of his most able predecessors clearly and elegantly. The subjectmatter should rule the form. See Wersdorfer 37. Further on Katvov in lsoc., see Introd. and Wersdorfer 38-43, who establishes that its main stylistic use is in epideictic oratory. 42.No;they feel the same as they do towards people who admonish them: See 3n.,28n. Isoc. writes both as a teacher and as an author who feels that his work in both fields ts not properly appreciated. See lntrod. 43.Hesiod and Theognis and Phocylides •.. best counsellors for human conduct: The study of the poets was an important part of Greek education, and is treated in all the books on the subject. See F.A.G. Beck,Greek Education 450-350 B.C (London,1964). Pupils memorised long passages of Homer and Hesiod (Aeschin. 3 Ag. Ctes. 135). See also Baynes (1955) 149; Kehl 113. men choose to spend their time studying one another's follies .•. : The discussion is still about literature, and the relative popularity of different forms. Human folly is of course pre-eminently the subject of comedy, and this is soon named (44). But tragic drama is also concerned with it in varying degrees. Tragedy and comedy, spectacularly performed at festivals, were certainly more popular than epic and didactic poetry, with their schoolroom associations. Another form of literature fits the above description: forensic oratory, which is undoubtedly concerned with human folly almost as often as with human wickedness. Isoc. was deeply unhappy that it was read for pleasure in preference to what he considered worthier literature (4 Paneg.11). 44.the most worthless comedy: In 8 On the Peace 14, Isoc. complains of the licence enjoyed by comic poets. Both he and his father suffered at their hands ([Plut.] Vit.X. Or.836e; [Zos.] Vit.Isoc. p.102.19-20 Dind.; Philostr. Vit. Soph. 214 Kayser).He was fortunate to have escaped the most wounding barbs of Aristophanes in his prime, but his style, both personal and literary, invited caricature. 45.human nature: Isoc.'s pessimism resembles that of the gnomic poets (e.g. Theogn. 39-52 (on the greed and selfishness of those in power)). For the idea that men choose the easier course of pleasure rather than the harder one of duty, see Hesiod, Works and Days 287-292; Dern. 8 Chers.72. For lsoc.'s development of this idea, see next note.
214 COMMENTARY most healthy •.•noblest •••best ..• most beneficial: Expedient (a) and just or honourable (b).qualities presented chiastically (a - b:b - a). Isoc.'s treatment of the imaginary dilemma facing men and heroes differs from Prodicus' Choice of Heracles (Xen.Mem.2.l.21ff.) in the emphasis he places on the self-interest of the person making the choice (contrary to their best interests). This is in tune with the general pessimism of the passage. Men are not only indifferent· to honour and justice, but also foolish from their own selfish point of view. He is talking primarily about men in public life, whose pursuit of what is superficially pleasurable to them can be ruinous to the state. 46. Four of the character-types of bad citizen described by Thucydides and the Attic Orators may be recognised in this chapter: the anti-intellectual type, which includes those who resent men of wisdom, would have' followed the reasoning of Cleon rather than that of Diodotus (Thuc.3.37-48) if they equated wisdom with cleverness; the gullible type, who regards as sincere men who lack sense, and is consequently an easy dupe of shallow but plausible demagogues (like Cleon (Thuc.4.21.3)), whose blandishments he prefers to the realities of life; the busybody (problems ... of other people)), a type which has various facets, mostly bad (Lysias 1 Caed. Erat.16; 24 Inv. 24) including litigiousness and general quarrelsomeness (see 47); and finally the voluptuary, who prefers suffering discomfort as a consequence of his excesses (assuming that -r~ ow µan KaKona811oat (46) refers to Ta!>" ,i6ovas (45)), to self-discipline and performing his duties as a citizen. (Cf. Xen.Oec.1.20, who says that pleasures lead to pain and prevent the sufferer from performing useful duties). · 47.In company: To complete his portrayal of the worst characteristics of citizens in a democracy, Isoc. turns to their corporate behaviour. Athenian Assemblies could be noisy and disorderly (e.g.Xen.He/l.1.7.12-15; Lys.12 Ag.Eratos.13-14). ouvoucr(at could of course mean gatherings for purely social purposes, but the context suggests political meetings.
48.poetry or prose ... please the masses ... romantic ... fictions ... games and contests: The terms of this conflict between popular taste and the task of the writer who deals in facts and ideas are clearly stated by Thucydides. In 1.21.1, after stressing the difficulty of discovering the truth even about recent events, he contrasts his attempts to find it with the purpose of certain unnamed poets and prose-writers merely to tell an attractive story. In 1.22.4 he says that his history will disappoint aTEpnfo-repov readers who want only an agreeable tale (-ro µ~ µu8w6ES au-rwv (j>avehat). Thucydides' attitude to Homer is not that of a rival for public attention, but of a different kind of writer with different aims and methods. Being a poet, Homer naturally exaggerates (l.10.3), and consequently is liable to distort the truth (2.41.4). Isocrates' position is related to that of Thucydides, in that both wish to tell the truth and give useful instruction, and both are aware that popular audiences like to be entertained rather than educated. Thucydides' attitude to what he sees as a human weakness is uncompromising: he is critical of audiences who treat debates like verbal gladiatorial contests (3.38.3-4,40.3), and claims to make no concessions to popular taste. But Isocrates expresses admiration for Homer and the earliest tragedians for their ingenuity, while also envying the literary licence which they enjoyed (9 Euag.9-11). 49.audience...spectators: Music and choral dancing were major features of drama, especially the earliest tragic plays; and opsis ('spectacle') is one of the six elements
COMMENTARY
215
of drama in Aristotle Poetics. Epic and lyric poetry were also recited by professional rhapsodes with especial attention to visual effects, which could be overwhelming on both performers and audience (Plato Ion 535b-e; See R.M. Harriott, Poetry and Criticism before Plato (London,1969) 121-129). models...those who wish to attract audiences: Since a model· invites imitation, Isoc. seems to be expressing a more accommodating attitude to popular taste than Thucydides, and this is confirmed elsewhere. See esp. 4 Paneg.8-9, where his statement that rhetoric can breath new life into old subject-matter suggests a greater He also thought that embellishment of the interest in form than in content. written word is an aid to learning, and even a source of moral edification (15 Antid. 215-277). Finally, his use of the verb ljiuxaywyEtv recalls Plato, who used it to describe the seductive effect of rhetoric (Phaedrus, 271c-d, Menex.234c-235a (See Wersdorfer 112)). 50.you .••king •.•should not share the mentality of other men: Earlier in the discourse Isoc. has reminded Nicocles of his unique position: his isolation (4), the demanding nature of his office (6), his need to be superior in intelligence (10) and virtue (11) to his subjects. Now he is saying that this unique position demands a discourse in a style which answers the need for advice given in a concentrated form (cf.41). >.6yot or ept6Es were contrived 51.wiser through disputation: iptonKol arguments presenting a case from different points of view. After he had established his school, Isoc. conceded that they were useful as a means of training the young (15 Antid. 261,12 Panath.26), but only as a preparation for the more serious 'philosophy' which he offered (15 Antid. 265ff.) Earlier (13 Ag.Soph.) he attacked the 'eristics' vigorously (2-6) for claiming to teach ethics, and even political science (10 Helen 9). Disputation was a component of sophistic teaching from its inception, and Protagoras was said to have taught it (Seneca Ep.88.43; Diog.Laert.9.51; Stephanus s.v:' Aj36ripa). political discourse: This is what Isoc. taught his pupils. The main subject on which they discoursed was both practical and important: the Greek world (15 Antid. 46). He also taught them to write in a style that matched the nobility of the subject (12 Panath.2; Dion. Hal.Isoc.passim) and satisfied the same aesthetic demands in his audience as the finest poetry (15 Antid. 47). give reasoned counsel: Isoc.'s pupils included many future politicians and generals. See Steidle (1952) 261. 52.agreed principles ..particular occasions: lsoc. is reminding Nicocles of the methods of deliberation that he has taught him. On Katpos see 33 and refs. 53.good adviser ... understanding: Returning to one of the topics with which he began (2). See Eucken 216.
54 : EPILOGOS 54.recall what I said at the beginning ... presents ••.gifts: This final chapter balances the first paragraph (...6totKo{ris)(2) (Blass AB II 194-195, who notes other correspondences in the discourse: 2-6 with 42-53; 6-8 with 40-41). But there is no real summary (avaK1=4>«>.a{wots),as the handbooks recommend for epilogues (Anaximenes Rhet. ·ad Alex.20 1433b; Ad Herenn.2.30.47; Cic. Part.Or.I? .59;
216 COMMENTARY Quint.6.1.2.). Elsewhere Isoc. uses true a:vaKE(j>a>..a{watshere he maintains novelty of form to the end.
(e.g. 5 Phil.154), but
INDEX 217
INDEX abundance 200 Acanthus 184 Achaea 190 Achilles 212 Acropolis (Athens) 193 Adrastus 20, 162 Aegina l~· Aegospotami. Battle of 154, 180 Aeolis 189 Aeschines the Socratic 4 AeschylusPersiaM 194 Agesilaus 19, 189, 191 Alcibiades 149, 174, 181; the Younger 159 Alexander the Great 165, 20S Amuons 20, 164 Amyntas 184 analcepluilaiosis: See Summary of Argumenu Androtion 6 anticipation (procatalepsis) 197 Antiphon 9, 12 Antisthenes 7, 201 Aphareus 3, 6 Apollonia 184 Arcadia 190 Archilochus 203 archon basileus 204 Areopagus 157, 164 Arginusae, Battle of 154 Argos, Argives 162, 163, 183, 189, 194 aristeia 159 Aristophanes 3 Aristotle RMtoric 3, 12, 149, 153, 172, 185, 186, 195, 200; Po/ilia 206, 208; Poetics 215 Anabanus 191 Artaxerxes II 153, 181, 188, 189, 192 Arternisia 191, 195, 210 Artemisium, Battle of 170 Asia 198, 199, 204 asywkton 118 Atameus 189 Athenian Empire: See Fint Delian League Athens 19, 158, 161, 167; 169-171; Festivals of 2, 20, 159, 194 Athos, Mount 170 Attic Oraton 160 autochthonia 19, 155 barbarians 191, 193, 194, 197, 199 Calliss 193; Peace of 180, 181 Callixenus 175 Carthage 184, 199 Chaeronea, Battle of 2, 4
Chios 5, 188, 195 Cicero 187, 204 Cilicia 195 Cimon 180 Cluomenae 198 Cleisthenes,tyrant of Sicyon 194 Cleon 166, 197 Cleophon 166, 175 clerw:lu, denu:ltiu 176 Cnidus 195; Battle of 19, 153, 154, 180, 181, 186-188 comedy 213 comparative argument 172, 187 Conon 5, 6, 19, 117, 180-182, 186, 189, 192, 199 Corcyra 176,178 Corinth, Corinthians 188, 189; Corinthian War 181, 196 Coronea, Bau.leof 189 Critiu 4 Cunaxa, Battle of 189, 190 Cyclades 185, 187 Cynics 202 Cynossema, Battleof 188 Cyprus 117, 182, 186, 191, 192, 195, 198, 206 CyNs the Great 196 Cyrus, son of Darius II 181, 189 Cythera 180 DariusI 182 Darius II 189 decarchies 1TI uUUMis 184 Delian League, First 158, 161, 168, 173-176, 179; Second, 173, 176, 179, 195, 198 deliberative oratory 2, 196 delivery 1 Delphi 199 Demeter 155, 156 DemetriusOn Style 168 Demosthenes 1, 6, 188, 200, 211; On tM Crown 171, 173 Dercyllidas 189 dilemmaton 182 Dionysius I. tyrant of Syracuse 184, 197 Dionysius of Halicamassus 11 Dorians 155; Dorian Invasion 157 9, 194, 211 Dracm of Athens 157 Dracon of Atameus 189 education,Greek 194 Egypt 188, 195, 198, 199
"°'"'
218 INDEX Eion 176 ellipsis 196 Ephesus 183 Ephorus 6 Euagoras 6, 117, 160, 186, 188, 192, 195, 204 Euboea 176, 177 Eumolpus 164; Eumolpidae 193,204 Europe 198,199 Eurystheus 162 examples (paracuigmata), historical 190 2, 20, 21, 161, 174, expediency (sympheron) 185, 196, 197, 200 figures of speech: antithesis 10, 11, 118, 174; etymological figure 10; homoeoteleuton _11, 180; hypostasis 11; 118; homonymia parechesis 10; parison (parisosis, isocolon) 10, 11, 159, 165; paromoion (paromoeosis) 10, 165; paronomasilJ 10, 159, 200 funeral speeches (epitaphio1) 1, 165 Gorgias 2, 3, 5, 9, 150, 197; Epitaphios 194; Olympic Oration 19, 149, 154 Gorgianic figures 10, 11 Gyges 203 Harpagus 196 heads, headings (lcephalaia) 118, 205 Hecatomnus 195 Hellanicus 9 Helots 178, 185 Heraclidae 20, 162-164 Hermias of Atameus 205 Herodotus 169-171, 194, 203, 204, 212 Hesiod 203, 213 hiatus 10, 11 Hippias, Athenian tyrant 193 Horner 168, 169, 194, 202, 203, 205, 206, 214 homonoilJ 150, 175 Hyperides 6 Iamidae 204 Imbros 187 lonians 182, 193; Ionian Migration 19, 156, 157; Ionian Revoh 196 Isaeus 6 Isocrates 2-10, 197; his school 5-10, 160, 200, 215; style 10-12, 118, 151, 157, 167, 187, 197, 211, 215; Panegyricus 6, 19-21, 154, 201; To Demonicus 13, 14; Against the Sophists 5, 1, 12; Helen 9, 12, 13; Busiris 12, 117; forensic speeches 5; Euagoras 13, 206; To 117-118; Nicocles 13, 206; Nicocles Archidamus 13; P/ataicus 13, 182; On the Peace 13, 14, 166; Areopagiticus 13, 14, 149, 207; Antidosis 14, 15; Philippus 14, 117; Panathenaicus12, 13; Letters 14 Italy 197 Jason of Pherae 204, 205
justice (dilcaion) as a deliberative theme 2, 20, 21, 154, 161, 174, 186, 192, 196, 197, 200 lcairos 8, 151, 194-196, 211, 215 Kerukes 193, 204 King's Peace 19-21, 150, 153, 154, 169, 177, 179, 180-183, 186, 198 knowledge (episteme) 9 Lacedaemonians: See Spartans law (r.omos) 167,203,207; laws, unwritten 167 Lemnos 187 Leontiades 183 Libya 198 Longinus On the Sublime 168 Lycia 195 Lycurgus of Sparta 158 Lycurgus of Athens 6, 168 Lydia 191, 196 Lysander 177, 178 Lysias 3, 9, 149, 201; Killing of Eratosthenes 153, 166, 167; Funeral Oration 19, 172, 200; Against Eratosthenes 149, 153; 0 lympic Oration 19, 149, 184, 196 Machiavelli 202 Mantinea 177, 183, 184 Marathon, Battle of 1, 20, 165, 169 Mardonius 171 Media 191 medism 193 Megacleides 6 Melos, Melians 173, 174, 178 mercenaries 179, 196 Messene 177, 185 metics (resident aliens) 175 Mysteries 155, 156, 164 Mytilene 176 narrative 172, 204 nature (physis) 115 Naxos 175, 176; Battle of 187 Nicocles 6, 117, 118, 202-215 novelty (kainon) 8, 213 Odysseus 202 Olympia, Olympic Games 1, 159, 199 Olynthus, Olynthians 184 Orontes 191, 192 orthoepeu, 2, 185 paideia (in lsocrates) 160 parrhesia 210 Peloponnesian War 181, 182, 196 Pericles 1, 158, 168; Funeral Speech in Thucydides 158, 159, 165, 167, 171, 205 period 10-12, 150, 159, 171, 172, 177 perioeci 185 Persians 19, 191, 193, 200 Persian Wars 1, 191, 195, 199 Phamabazus 180, 181, 191, 192 philanthropia 117, 207
INDEX 219 Philip II of Macedon 4 Pbiliscus 6 philosophia (in Isocrates) 7-9, 118, 1S1, 1S9, 160 Phlius, Phliasians 184, 198 Phocylides 213 Phoebidas 183 Phoenicia 19S Piraeus 1S8 Plataea, Plataeans 177; Battle of 1, 20, 193 Plathane, wife of Isocrates 3 Plato .4, 9, 212, 21S; Gorgias 8, 160, 212; Phaednu 3, 4; Republic 2, 20S, 206 Polycrates 7, 201 possibility (dynaton) 2, 20, 21, 18S-187, 192, 197, 200 . Poti.daea 11S probability (ei/cos)argmnent 1S6 Prodicus 2, 3, 149, 1S2, 18S, 214 prooemimn 149,202,204 propriety (prepon) 1 prosopopoeia 186 Protagoras 2, 8,149, 18S,21S Quintilian 187 rhapsodes 194 Rhodes 188, 19S Salamis (Cyprus) 188, 192 Salamis, Battle of 1, 20, 171-173, 192, 210 Samos 175, 195 Sarois 196 satraps 191 Scione 173-174, 177 Scythians 20, 163, 164 Second Athenian League: See Second Delian
League self-control (en/crateia) 211 Sicilian Expedition 17S Sicily 197 Sinope 19S Socrates 3, 202, 211 Solon 167 sophists 2, 202, 215 sophrosyne 211 Sparta 19, 162, 164, 177, 179, 196, 198; Kings of 162 Spartans 182-186 speechwriten, forensic 1, 201 Speusippus 6
stasis 114 Strattis 3 Summary of Argmnents (ana/cephalaiosis) 113, 197, 215, 216 sylcophantia 208, 211
Syria 19S Teisias 3, 150 Teleutias 179
Thebes 153, 163, 179, 184; Seven against 162; Cadmea 19,183,198 Themistocles 171-173, 192, 20S Theodectes 6 Theodonis and Heduto, parentsof Isocrates 3 Theognis 213 Theopompus 6 Theramenes 3, 4 Thermopylae, Battle of 20, 170
thetu 116 Thibron 189 Thirty tyrants 1, 4, 178 Thracians 163, 164 Thrasybulus 188 Thrasymachus 2 Thucydides 1, 9, 166, 168, 172, 173, 178, 197, 210, 212, 214, 21S Timotheus S, 111, !92, 206 Tiribazus 191, 192 Tissaphemes 189, 190 Tithraustes 191 Trojan War 157, 164, 168, 193, 194, 199 tyrants 183, 204, 211
Tyre 19S Xenophon 4, 209; Anabasis 164, 179, 189, 190; Hellenica 119, 181, 183, 191, 198; Memorabilia of Socrates 149,214; Hiero 203, 20S, 207, 208, 210; Agesilaus 206 Xerxes 1, 20, 169, 182, 193, 203, 210