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.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.