Isocrates summary

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Isocrates.

Isocrates , (born 436, Athens—died 338 bc, Athens), Athenian author, rhetorician, and teacher. His school, unlike Plato’s more philosophical Academy, provided an education for the practical needs of society; it was given over almost entirely to rhetoric. He promoted Greek political unity and cultural superiority based on monarchy and advocated a unified Greek attack on Persia under Philip II of Macedonia to secure unity and peace in Greece. When Greece lost its independence after the Battle of Chaeronea, Isocrates, in despair, starved himself to death.

Greece Summary

Greece, the southernmost of the countries of the Balkan Peninsula. Geography has greatly influenced the country’s development. Mountains historically restricted internal communications, but the sea opened up wider horizons. The total land area of Greece (one-fifth of which is made up of the Greek

Athens Summary

Athens, historic city and capital of Greece. Many of Classical civilization’s intellectual and artistic ideas originated there, and the city is generally considered to be the birthplace of Western civilization. Athens lies 5 miles (8 km) from the Bay of Phaleron, an inlet of the Aegean (Aigaíon)

rhetoric Summary

Rhetoric, the principles of training communicators—those seeking to persuade or inform. In the 20th century it underwent a shift of emphasis from the speaker or writer to the auditor or reader. This article deals with rhetoric in both its traditional and its modern forms. For information on