Isaeus
2. A sophist and rhetorician, was a native of Assyria.
In his youth he gave himself up to sensual pleasures and debauchery; but after attaining the age of manhood, he changed his mode of life, and became a person of very respectable and sober habits.
He must have lived for some time at Rome in the life of Pliny the younger, who speaks of him (
Epist. 2.3; comp. Juvenal, 3.74, with the Scholiast) in terms of the highest praise.
He seems to have enjoyed a very great reputation as a declaimer, and to have been particularly strong in extempore speaking. None of his productions have come down to us. Philostratus (
Vit. Soph. 1.20) has dedicated a whole chapter to his biography, but relates only some anecdotes of him, and adds a few remarks on the character of his orations. (Comp. Anonym.
Ἰσαίου γένος, p. 261, in Westermann's
Vitarum Script. Graeci Minor.)
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L.S]
