ISAEUS was born in Chalcis. When he came to Athens, he read Lysias’s
works, whom he imitated so well, both in his style and in his skill in
managing causes, that he who was not very well acquainted with their
manner of writing could not tell which of the two was author of many
of their orations. He flourished after the Peloponnesian war, as we
may conjecture from his orations, and was in repute till the reign of
Philip. He taught Demosthenes—not at his school, but privately—who gave
him ten thousand drachms, by which business he became very famous. Some
say that he composed orations for Demosthenes, which he pronounced in
opposition to his guardians. He left behind him sixty-four orations,
of which fifty are his own; as likewise some peculiar institutions of
rhetoric. He was the first that used to speak or write figuratively,
and that addicted himself to civil matters; which Demosthenes chiefly
followed. Theopompus the comedian makes mention of him in his Theseus.