ABSTRACT
We have seen Philostratus’ performance in the technical description of Isaeus’ style. But there is room in his notice for two of this sophist’s less formal remarks:
When his pupil Dionysius of Miletus delivered his declamation-exercises in a singing tone, Isaeus took him to task: ‘Listen’, he said, ‘young fellow from Ionia, I wasn’t your singing-teacher!’ And when a young Ionian was admiring the bombastic line of Nicetes in his Xerxes, ‘Let us fasten Aegina to the King’s ship’, Isaeus gave a loud guffaw. ‘You fool!’, he said, ‘And how are you to put to sea?’ (Lives of the Sophists 513)
