Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/638

Rh '24 ISAACUS. both to lielp the Bulgarians against the Greeks, and the Greeks against the Bulgarians. Isaac was so temfied by the emperor's march through his dominions, and the success of the other crusaders in Syria and Palestine, that he sent an ambassador to Saladin offering him his alliance against the Latins, which, however, Saladin de- clined, because Isaac demanded the restitution of the holy sepulchre. Besides Bulgaria, Isaac lost the island of Cyprus, where Alexis Comnenus had made himself independent, but was deprived of his conquest by Richard Coeur de Lion of England (U91), who in 1192 ceded it to king Guido of Jerusalem ; and Cyprus was never again united to the Byzantine empire. Isaac, continuing to make himself despised and hated by the Greeks, a rebellion broke out at Constantinople while he was hunting in the mountains of Thrace; and Alexis, the younger brother of Isaac, was raised to the throne. On this news, Isaac fled without daring to im- plore the assistance of any one. Arrived at Stagyra in Macedonia, he was arrested and brought before Alexis, who ordered his eyes to be put out, and confined him in a prison (1195). [Alexis III.] Alexis, the son of Isaac, fortunately escaped, fled to Ital}', and succeeded in rousing the Latin princes to a war against Alexis III., which resulted in the capture of Constantinople in 1203, and the restoration of the blind Isaac, who reigned, together with his son [AlexIvS IV], till the following year, 1204, when Alexis IV. was dethroned and killed by Alexis Ducas Murzuphlus [Alexis V.], who usurped the throne, and kept it during two months, when he, in his turn, was deposed by the Latins. Murzuphlus spared the life of Isaac, who, however, did not long survive the melancholy fate of his youthful and spirited son. (Nicetas, Isaacius An- (/elus ; Isaacius et Alexis filius ; the Latin authori- ties quoted under Alexis III., IV., V.] [W. P.] ISAACUS, literary. 1. Of Antioch. [See No. 5.] 2. Argyrus. [Argyrus.] 3. Of Armenia, catholicus or patriarch of Ar- menia Magna, lived in the middle of the twelfth century, and wrote Orationes /nveciivae II. adversus Armenos, published in Greek and Latin, and with notes in Combefisius, Atiduar. Nov. Bihl. vol, ii. p. 317, &c., and by Galland. BiU. Pair. vol. xiv. p. 411, &c. (Cave, Hist. Litt. vol. ii. p. 227 ; Fabric. Bihl. GraxiC. vol, xi. p. 123, &c.) 4. Of NiNiVEH. [See No. 6,] 5. Surnamed Syrus, because he was a native of Syria, was first monk and afterwards priest at Antioch, and died about A. d. 456. He wrote in Syriac, and perhaps also in Greek, different works and treatises on theological matters, several of them to oppose the writers of the Nestorians and Eutychians. His principal work '% De Contemtu Mundi, de Operatione Corporali et sui A bjeciione Liher, published in the second edition of the Or- tiiodojcographi, Basel, 1569 ; in the Bibl. Pair. Colon, vol. vi. ; in the B. P. Paris, vol. v. ; in the B. P. Novissima Lugdun. vol. xi. ; and in Gal- land. Bibl. Patr. vol. xii. In all these collections it is printed in Greek, with a Latin translation, but the Greek text also seems to be a translation from the Syriac. It is very doubtful whether this work was written by Isaac, the subject of this notice, or by another Isaac, the subject of the following article. Neither Trithemius nor Gennadius {De Script. Ecdes.) attribute the work to our Isaac. There is ISAEUS. more reason to believe that he wrote " De Cogita- tionibus," the Greek text of which, with a Latin translation, was published by Petrus Possinus, in his Ascetica. Several other productions of Isaac are extant in MS. in the library of the Vatican and in other libraries. (Cave, Hist. Lit. vol, i. p. 434 — 435 ; Fabric. BU)l. Graec. vol, xi, p. 214, &c.) 6. Surnamed Syrus, lived in the middle of the sixth century, and was bishop of Niniveh, but abdi- cated and retired to a convent, of which he was afterwards chosen abbot. After having lived several years in that convent he went to Italy and died near Spoleto, It is probable that he is the author of the work De Contemtu Mundi, which is mentioned in the preceding article. He also wrote 87 Ser- mones Ascetid, which some attribute to the preceding Isaac, and which are extant in MS. in Greek, in the imperial library at Vienna. Some Homilies of this Isaac are extant in MS. in the Bodleian and other libraries. It is probable that Isaac wrote originally in Syriac. (Cave, Hist. Litt. vol. i. p. 519—520 ; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. xi. p. 215, &c,) 7. TZETZES. [TZETZES.] [W. P.] ISAEUS ('Io-a?os). 1. One of the ten Attic orators, whose orations were contained in the Alex- andrian canon. The time of his birth and death is unknown, but all accounts agree in the statement that he flourished (iJKixaae) during the period be- tween the Peloponnesian war and the accession of Philip of Macedonia, so that he lived between B, c, 420 and 348. (Dionys. Isaeus, 1 ; Plut. Vit. X. Orat. p. 839; Anonym, ykvos 'Icraiov.) He was a son of Diagoras, and was born at Chalcis or, as some say, at Athens, probably only because he came to Athens at an early age, and spent the greater part of his life there. He was instructed in oratory by Lysias and Isocrates (Phot. Bibl. Cod. 263 ; Dionys. Plut. 11. cc.) 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. Suidas states that Tsaeus instructed him gratis, whereas Plutarch relates that he received 10,000 drachmas (comp. Plut. de Glor. Ath. p. 350, c, ; Phot. /. c); 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 Iso- crates, did not mention Isaeus at all. In antiquity there were sixty-four orations which bore the name of Isaeus, but fifty only were recog- nised as genuine by the ancient critics. (Plut. Vit. X. Orat. I. c.) Of these only eleven have come down to us ; but we possess fragments and the titles of 5Q speeches ascribed to him. Tlie 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. (Ilepi KKi^pov.) Ten of these orations had been known ever since the re- vival of letters, and were printed in the collections of Greek orators ; but the eleventh, riepl tov Me- veKovs KAifipov, was first published in 1785, from a Florentine MS., by Th. Thyrwitt, London, 1785, 8vo, ; and afterwards in the Gotting. Biblioth. fur alte Lit. und Kunst for 1788, part iii., and by J. C. Orelli, Ziirich, 1814, 8vo. In 1815 A. Mai discovered the gi-eater half of the oration of Isaeus, riepi Ttiu ViKifriviy.ov Kkripov^ which he published ai