Life
The time of his birth and death is unknown, but all accounts agree in the statement that he flourished (ἤκμασε) during the period between the Peloponnesian War and the accession of Philip II of Macedon, so that he lived between 420 and 348 BCE. He was a son of Diagoras, and was born at Chalcis in Euboea; some sources say he was born in Athens, probably only because he came there at an early age and spent the greater part of his life there.
He was instructed in oratory by Lysias and Isocrates. He was afterwards engaged in writing judicial orations for others, and established a rhetorical school at Athens, in which Demosthenes is said to have been his pupil. The Suda states that Isaeus instructed him free of charge, whereas Plutarch relates that he received 10,000 drachmas; and it is further said that Isaeus composed for Demosthenes the speeches against his guardians, or at least assisted him in the composition. All particulars about his life are unknown, and were so even in the time of Dionysius, since Hermippus, who had written an account of the disciples of Isocrates, did not mention Isaeus at all.
Read more about this topic: Isaeus
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“Not lived; for life doth her great actions spell,
By what was done and wrought
In season, and so brought
To light: her measures are, how well
Each syllab’e answered, and was formed how fair;
These make the lines of life, and that’s her air.”
—Ben Jonson (1572–1637)
“From age eleven to age sixteen I lived a spartan life without the usual adolescent uncertainty. I wanted to be the best swimmer in the world, and there was nothing else.”
—Diana Nyad (b. 1949)
“Oh sure, everyone goes back to the earth at some point, but life itself is a thread that is never broken, never lost. Do you know why? Because each man makes a knot in the thread during his lifetime: it is the work he has done and that’s what gives life to life in the long stretch of time: the usefulness of man on this earth.”
—Jacques Roumain (1907–1945)