1Great fame had gone before Isaeus, but he has been found greater still. 1His readiness, his abundance, his richness are supreme; 1he always speaks extempore, but as if he had long been writing. 1His language is Greek, or rather Attic; 1his introductions are polished, spare and charming, at times weighty and elevated. 2He asks for several themes for debate; 2he leaves the choice to his audience, often even the side to take; 2he rises, arranges his robe, begins; 2at once everything is at hand, and almost all together; recondite ideas present themselves, and words – but what words! 2– sought out and finely wrought. 2Wide reading and much writing shine out in his improvisations.
3He opens aptly, narrates clearly, argues keenly, sums up forcefully, embellishes loftily. 3In short, he instructs, delights, moves; 3which he does most, you might doubt. 3There are frequent enthymemes, frequent syllogisms, concise and complete, which is a great achievement even with the pen. 3His memory is incredible: he repeats from far back what he has said extempore, and does not slip by a single word. 4He has reached so great a facility through study and practice; 4for day and night he does nothing else, hears nothing else, talks of nothing else. 5He has passed his sixtieth year and is still only a man of the schools: and no class of men is more sincere, more simple or better.
5For we who are worn down in the forum and in real lawsuits learn a good deal of malice, however unwillingly: the school, the lecture hall and the fictitious case are a thing unarmed and harmless, and no less happy, especially for old men. 6For what in old age is happier than what is sweetest in youth? 7So I judge Isaeus not only most eloquent but also most fortunate. 7If you do not long to make his acquaintance, you are made of stone and iron. 8So, if not for other reasons and for my own sake, then certainly come in order to hear him. 8Have you never read that a certain man of Gades, stirred by the name and glory of Titus Livius, came from the farthest edge of the world to see him, and as soon as he had seen him went away?
8It is tasteless, unlettered, indolent and even almost shameful not to think it worth so much to know a man, when no knowledge is more delightful, none finer, none, in short, more humane. 9You will say: 'I have writers here to read who are no less eloquent.' 9Granted; 9but there is always an opportunity to read, not always to hear. 9Besides, as the common saying goes, the living voice moves us far more. 9For although what you read may be sharper, yet what the speaker's delivery, face, bearing and even gesture fix in the mind sits deeper there; 10unless indeed we think false that story of Aeschines, who, when he had read a speech of Demosthenes to the Rhodians and all admired it, is said to have added: 'And what if you had heard the beast himself?' And Aeschines, if we believe Demosthenes, had a most splendid voice.
10Yet he admitted that those same words had been delivered far better by the man himself who had given them birth. 11All this tends to one end, that you should hear Isaeus, even if only so that you may have heard him. 11Farewell.