Support of Athenian intellectuals for Philip: a study of Isocrates' Philippus and Speusippus' Letter to Philip

Abstract

In the year 346 Isocrates wrote his discourse the Philippus (v) which he sent to Philip II of Macedon urging him to lead the Hellenic cities in an invasion of Persia. This ninety-year-old teacher of rhetoric did not invent the so-called Panhellenic idea; it was first proposed by Gorgias in 392 and again celebrated by Lysias in 384. When Isocrates took up the notion in his Panegyricus (iv) of 380 and urged Athens and Sparta to assume joint leadership in a war against Persia, he repeatedly defends himself for speaking on a well-worn theme by the claim that he will do so in a superior fashion (iv 3–4, 7–10, 15). Ignored by the Athenians and Spartans, Isocrates seems to have felt that his proposal would find better reception among strong individual leaders, and he appealed probably to Jason of Pherae in the late 370s (see v 119; cf. Xen. Hell. vi 1.12; Isocr. Ep. vi 1), to Dionysius I of Syracuse in about 368 (Ep. i, esp, 7–8), and certainly to Archidamus of Sparta in about 356 (Ep. ix, esp. 17–9). The discourse to Philip, however, was surely of much greater political importance than Isocrates' previous appeals because it was addressed to an individual who was actually acquiring the strength to wage war against Persia. The Athenian rhetorician, inspired by the Peace of Philocrates, claims that he hopes to persuade both his fellow citizens and Philip that reconciliation of the Hellenic cities and an expedition against the Persians under the leadership of the Macedonian king would be to their mutual advantage (v 7–9). In this article, I shall argue, first, that certain opinions, proposals, and arguments contained in the Philippus show that the author was prevented by the requirements of good propaganda from making a fully candid and practical plan of action, but, instead, advocated a programme that would please the greatest possible number of Greeks.