CHAPTER XXI - ISAEOS.—WORKS

Summary

Sixty-four speeches bearing the name of Isaeos—of which, fifty were allowed as genuine—and an Art of Rhetoric, are mentioned by the writer of the Plutarchic Life. At least the accredited fifty appear to have been extant in the middle of the ninth century. Eleven, with large part of a twelfth, have come down to us; forty-two more—of which three were suspected by Harpokration—are known from their titles; and we have thus a record of fifty-four imputed, or fifty-one unquestioned, works.

Speeches of Isaeos wholly forensic and almost wholly Private

So far as can now be judged, the orations of Isaeos were exclusively forensic. It is a striking fact that only three of them appear to have dealt with Public Causes. All the rest were concerned with Private Causes. These may be classified as bearing on (1) cases of claim to an inheritance; (2) cases of claim to the hand of a heiress; (3) cases of claim to property; (4) cases of claim to the ownership of a slave; (5) an action brought against a surety whose principal had made default; (6) a special plea; (7) appeals from one jurisdiction to another.