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Isocrates was one of the greatest ancient Greek orators of classical antiquity, and the first to advocate for the unification of all Greek city-states under a single leadership.
His involvement in public life was indirect, as he aimed to shape the politics of ancient Athens through his speeches, in which he expressed panhellenic ideas. Twenty one of his speeches, nine letters, and several other fragments survive.
Isocrates was born in 436 BC in Athens. As the son of a wealthy family, he received the best possible education and studied under several Sophists, as well as Socrates. His father, Theodoros, was a shipyard owner but eventually faced financial ruin, which forced the young Isocrates to work as a lawyer and notary for the courts for about 10 years to support himself.
Some of the speeches he wrote during this period survive, although he later denied authorship of them. After the Peloponnesian War, he went to Thessaly, where he studied rhetoric under Gorgias. Although Isocrates aspired to become an orator, he lacked the strong voice and stage presence necessary for the craft. As a result, he decided to become a teacher of rhetoric, a career that brought him both fame and wealth.
In 400 BC, Isocrates returned to Athens and opened a school of rhetoric. The school’s reputation grew so significantly that it was referred to as the “university of Greece.” It attracted students from all corners of the Greek-speaking world, many of whom became prominent leaders of their time. Some of his students lived with him for years, and when the time came to leave, they reportedly wept at their parting.
At his school, Isocrates not only taught the art of eurythmy and the elaborate composition of speeches but also politics. His speeches have a lofty, majestic tone and they also bear panhellenic significance and interest.
In foreign policy, he advocated for the conquest of barbarian peoples, while in domestic policy, he favored democracy over oligarchy. He praised Pericles but also admired Solon. Cicero once remarked, “The house of Isocrates is for Greece a gymnasium and a laboratory of eloquence.”
Isocrates considered Athens to be a very ancient city, renowned and known to the ends of the world by all people. He declared:
“We dwell here, not because we chased others away to seize it, nor because we found it an empty city and decided to inhabit it, nor because we gathered from many nations to settle here. But, truly and rightly, we have been here from the beginning of time; we are aborigines.”
He also asserted that Athens was unique in its identity, saying:
“Only we Greeks have the right to call it both our mother and homeland.”
Isocrates sought to unite the Greeks under the leadership of Athens. At the time, however, Athenian hegemony was in decline, particularly after the Peace of Antalcidas. Faced with this reality, Isocrates shifted his focus to the realm of culture, where Athens still held primacy.
He argued that education itself was Athenian in origin (not Greek in general but specifically Athenian). He called on the Greeks to unite under what he described as their spiritual mother, Athens.
For the sake of unity and prosperity, Isocrates advised Philip of Macedon to assume the leadership of the Greeks, impose unity among them, and lead them in a campaign against Asia to conquer the barbarians and their wealth. Although Philip did not undertake this endeavor himself, his son Alexander the Great fulfilled Isocrates’ vision. Isocrates’ ideas accompanied Alexander even to India.
In his address to Philip, Isocrates wrote:
“In the future, I advise you to protect the unity of the Greeks and to lead an army against the barbarians. For it is in the Greeks’ interest to be persuaded, but it is necessary to hasten against the barbarians with force.” (Philip, 16 [16])
Isocrates believed that Greek lands had been overrun by foreigners, not because the barbarians had conquered them, but because the Greeks had abandoned their cities. He urged Philip to drive out all barbarians with great force and, in doing so, to restore prosperity to the Greeks.
For this reason, Isocrates is regarded as the spiritual father of the Greek nation. He was the first to articulate the need to preserve the nation and its cultural identity.
Isocrates considered Plato’s arguments about metaphysics, epistemology, and human nature to be tedious and abstract. He was a practical, down-to-earth individual, focused on solving immediate problems.
For Isocrates, reality is in direct human experience, and metaphysical considerations were a waste of time and energy. He believed knowledge was relative, asserting that certainty was unattainable and that all we could have were good opinions. According to him, a good point of view was one that helped interpret life in a way that enabled effective navigation through its challenges. Correlations with ultimate reality were, in his view, unimportant.
Isocrates saw values as relative, yet he aligned with Plato in promoting traditional Greek values. However, he did so for different reasons, viewing these values as useful rather than necessarily true.
He recognized that a relativistic value system lacked the psychological force needed to inspire unity and a sense of brotherhood. These in his view were essential to stabilizing the bonds of a fragmented society.
This realization led him to promote a political ideal that could unite the Greek world under a common cause, identifying Philip of Macedon as the right person to achieve this vision. At the same time, like many of his contemporaries, Isocrates viewed education as the savior of the Greek world.
Although he never directly participated in politics, Isocrates the orator was an objective observer and one of the first thinkers to conceive of a panhellenic idea. In his speeches, he typically avoided direct criticism. He opted instead to offer advice on unity and the unification of all Greeks to confront the barbarians.
When he realized that his calls for cooperation among Sparta, Athens, Thebes and Corinth against the Persians were thwarted by political discord, he turned to Philip of Macedon, whom he regarded as the only leader capable of leading such a struggle.
Isocrates the great orator died in 338 BC at the age of 98, shortly after the Battle of Chaeronea. He was buried with honors on a hill in Kynosarges, where his family tomb was located.
