Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/646

Rh ^32 ISOCRATES. 2. A daughter of Oedipus by Jocaste, or, ac- cording to others, by Eurygeneia. (Apollod. iii. 5. § 8 ; Paus. ix. 5. § 5 ; Soph. Antig. 1, &c., Oed. Col. 321 ; Eurip. Phoen. 6Q.) [L. S.] ISME'NIAS ('IfT/uei/ias), a Theban, of the party adverse to Rome and friendly to Macedonia. When he was chosen Boeotarch, a considerable number of the opposite faction were driven into exile, and condemned to death by him in their absence. These men met, at Larissa in Thessaly, the Roman commissioners, who were sent into Greece in B. c. 171, preparatory to the war with Perseus ; and on being upbraided with the alliance which Boeotia had made with the Macedonians, they threw the whole blame on Ismenias. Shortly after they ap- peared before the commissioners *at Chalcispand here Ismenias also presented himself, and proposed that the Boeotian nation should collectively submit to Rome. This proposal, however, did not at all suit Q. Marcius and his colleagues, whose object Avas to divide the Boeotian towns, and dissolve their confederacy. They therefore treated Ismenias with great contumely ; and his enemies being thereby emboldened to attack him, he narrowly escaped death by taking refuge at the Roman tribunal. Meanwhile, the Roman party entirely prevailed at Thebes, and sent an embassy to the Romans at Chalcis, to surrender their city, and to recal the exiles. Ismenias was thrown into prison, and, after some time, was put to death, or (as we may perhaps understand the words of Polybius) com- mitted suicide. (Liv. xlii. 38, 43, 44 ; Polyb. xxvii. 1, 2.) [E. E.] ISME'NIAS ('lo-jUTji/fas), a painter of Chalcis, who painted the pedigree of the Athenian orator Lycurgus on a tablet, which was deposited in the Erechtheium. (Pseud. Plut. VU. X. Oral. p. 843, e.) [P. S.] ISME'NIUS i^laix-hvios). 1. A son of Apollo and Melia, who is said to have given his name to the Boeotian river which was before called Ladon or Cadmus. (Hesych. s. v. ; Paus. ix. 10. § 5.) 2. A surname of Apollo at Thebes, who had a temple on the river Ismenus. (Paus. ii. 10. § 4, iv. 27. § 4, ix. 1 0. §§ 2, 5.) The sanctuary of the god, at which the Daphnephoria was celebrated, bore the name of Ismenium, and was situated out- side the city. [L. S.] ISME'NUS {'lafJLifivos), a son of Asopus and Metope, from whom the Boeotian river Ladon was believed to have derived its name of Ismenus. (Apollod. iii. 12. § 6.) The little brooks Dirce and Strophie, in the neighbourhood of Thebes, are therefore called daughters of Ismenus. (Callim. Hymn, in Del. 77 ; comp. Eurip. BaccU. 519; Diod. iv. 72.) According to other traditions, Ismenus was a son of Amphion and Niobe, who when struck by the arrow of Apollo leaped into a river near Thebes, which was called Ismenus, after him. (Apollod. iii. b.%^ Plut. de Fliiv. 2.) [L. S.] ISO'CRATES (*I<To/cpc{T7js). 1. A celebrated Attic orator and rhetorician, was the son of Theo- dorus, and born at Athens in B. c. 436. Theodorus was a man of considerable wealth, and had a manu- facture of flutes or musical instruments, for which the son was often ridiculed by the comic poets of the time; but the father made good use of his property, in procuring for the young Isocrates the best educa- tion that could be obtained ; the most celebrated sophists are mentioned among his teachers, such as Tisias, Gorgias, Prodicus, and also Socrates and ISOCRATES. Theramenes. (Dionys. Isocrut. 1 ; Plut. Vit. X. Oral. p. 8o6" ; Suidas, s. v. 'laoKpdrijs ; Anonym. fiios 'laoKpaT.., in Westermann's Pioypd<pot, p. 253 ; Phot. BiU. Cud. 260.) Isocrates v/as na- turally timid, and of a weakly constitution, for which reasons he abstained from taking an^^ direct part in the political affairs of his country, and resolved to contribute towards the development of eloquence by teaching and writing, and thus to guide others in the path for which his own constitution unfitted him. According to some accounts, he devoted himself to the teaching of rhetoric for the purpose of ameliorating his circumstances, since he had lost his paternal inheritance in the war against the Lacedaemonians. (Plut. I.e. p. 837; Vhot. BiU. Cod. I.e. 176; Isocrat de Permut. § 172.) He first established a school of rhetoric in the island of Chios, but his success does not appear to have been very great, for he is said to have had only nine pupils there. He is stated, however, to have exerted himself in another direction, and to have regulated the political constitution of Chios, after the model of that of Athens; After this he returned to Atheiis, and there opened a school of rhetoric. He met with the greatest applause, and the number of his pupils soon increased to 100, every one of whom paid him 1000 drachmae. In addition to this, he made a large income by writing orations ; thus Plutarch (/. c. p. 838) relates that Nicocles, king of Cyprus, gave Isocrates twenty talents for the oration irphs f^iKOKKca. In this manner he gradually acquired a considerable property, and he was several times called upon to undertake the ex- pensive trierarchy ; this happened first in b. c. 355, but being ill, he excused himself through his son Aphareus. In 352 he Avas called upon again, and in order to silence the calumnies of his enemies, he performed it in the most splendid manner. The oration irepl dvTidoa-^ws irpds Avcri^iaxov refers to that event, though it was written after it. In his earlier years Isocrates lived in the company of Athenian hetaerae (Plut. I.e. p. 839 ; Athen. xiii. p. 592), but at a later period he married Plathane, the widow of the sophist Hippias, whose youngest son, Aphareus, he adopted. Isocrates has the great merit of being the first who clearly saw the great value and objects of oratory, in its practical application to public life and the affairs of the state. At the same time, he endeavoured to base public oratory upon sound moral principles, and thus to rescue it from the influence of the sophists, who used and abused it for any and every purpose; for Isocrates, although educated by the most emi- nent sophists, was the avowed enemy of all so- phistry. He was, however, not altogether free from their influence ; and what is most conspicuous in his political discourses is the absence of all prac- tical knowledge of real political life, so that his fine j theories, though they were unquestionably well meant, bear a strong resemblance to the visions of an enthusiast. The influence which he exercised on his country by his oratory must have been limited, since his exertions were confined to his school, but through his school he had the great- est possible influence upon the development of public oratory ; for the most eminent statesmen, philosophers, orators, and historians of the time, were trained in it, and afterwards developed each in i his particular way the principles they had imbibed I in his school. No ancient rhetorician had so many i disciples that afterwards shed lustre on thek