Isokrates less an orator than an artist in rhetorical prose

It has been seen that the end which Isokrates set before himself in all his work was practical, and practical in a high way. His teaching aimed at forming good citizens, not only of Athens, but of Greece. His writings aimed at showing how literary skill might be applied to the treatment of really political subjects. But, except during those few years of his earlier life in which he wrote for the law-courts, he had nothing to do with practical oratory. Want of nerve and of voice hindered him from coming forward in the ekklesia. With the exception of the six forensic speeches, all his extant compositions were meant to be read, not to be spoken. Considered in regard to subject-matter, he is a publicist. Considered in regard to form, he is a stylist. And his distinction as a stylist is this, that he was the first Greek who gave a really artistic finish to literary rhetorical prose.

Isokrates began the career of his choice—when the labours not of his choice were over—about 392 b.c. Rhetoric was then represented at Athens chiefly by two classes of men. First, there were the writers of speeches for the law-courts. Lysias, then at the height of his fame, was the most eminent of these, and had already set before his brethren a new standard of excellence; though it is not likely that, so early as 390 b.c., the ‘plain style’ had made much way.