Isaeus - Works

Works

In antiquity there were 64 orations which bore the name of Isaeus, but only fifty were recognised as genuine by the ancient critics. Of these, only eleven have come down to us; but we possess fragments and the titles of 56 speeches ascribed to him. The eleven extant are all on subjects connected with disputed inheritances; and Isaeus appears to have been particularly well acquainted with the laws relating to inheritance.

Ten of these orations had been known ever since the revival of letters in the Renaissance, and were printed in the collections of Greek orators; but the eleventh, On Menecles' legacy (περὶ τοῦ Μενεκλέους κλήρου), was first published in 1785 from a Florentine manuscript by Tyrwhitt, and later by Orelli in 1814. Also, in 1815 Mai discovered and published the greater half of Isaeus' oration On Cleonymus' legacy (περὶ τοῦ Κλεωνύμου κλήρου).

Isaeus is also known to have written a manual on speechwriting entitled the Technē or Idiai technai (ἰδίαι τέχναι, "Personal skills"), which, however, is lost.

List of extant speeches (available at the Perseus Digital Library)

  1. On The Estate of Cleonymus
  2. On the Estate of Menecles
  3. On The Estate Of Pyrrhus
  4. On the Estate of Nicostratus
  5. On the Estate of Dicaeogenes
  6. On the Estate of Philoctemon
  7. On The Estate of Apollodorus
  8. On The Estate of Ciron
  9. On the Estate of Astyphilus
  10. On The Estate Of Aristarchus
  11. On the Estate of Hagnias
  12. On Behalf of Euphiletus

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