caa a22 4500 388106670 CHVBK 20180307125340.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130e199911 xx s 000 0 eng 10.2307/632309 doi S0075426900018668 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.2307/632309 Dušanić Slobodan University of Belgrade Isocrates, the Chian intellectuals, and the political context of the Euthydemus [Elektronische Daten] [Slobodan Dušanić] In a brief digression near the end of the Euthydemus (305 b ff.), Socrates describes one of his anonymous critics, who rejects philosophy in general but imagines himself to be both an accomplished thinker and a successful politikos. Clearly, the portrait is that of Isocrates. The similarity between Isocrates' real character and Plato's stylization is so pronounced that we are tempted to describe 305 b ff. as one of Plato's intentional anachronisms (the dramatic date of the dialogue is earlier than the death of Alcibiades, 275 b). The portrait includes several noteworthy points. First, 305 b-c refers to Socrates' opponent as a writer of forensic speeches. To judge from the tone of the entire passage, which is not markedly hostile to the anonymous person (cf. 306 c 6 ff.), that would be an unfair description of Isocrates if written after the publication of the Panegyricus c. 380 BC. Second, Plato defines the unnamed person as both a speechwriter and a practical politician (306 b: ή πολιτικὴ πρᾶξις ‘the statesman's business'). The latter part of the definition does not square with Isocrates' career as schoolmaster and political adviser or, later on, as the author of political pamphlets. Unless it is assumed that 305 b ff. aims at Isocrates' dealing with Realpolitik, he would not have deserved Socrates' criticism that he ‘partakes' of two different things. In that case, the same reproof for being ‘the border-ground between philosopher and politician' might have been addressed to Plato himself as a dialectician and, concerning his other activities, as the head of the Academy and the author of such political dialogues as the Gorgias. Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1999 The Journal of Hellenic Studies Cambridge University Press 119(1999-11), 1-16 0075-4269 119<1 1999 119 JHS https://doi.org/10.2307/632309 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.2307/632309 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Dušanić Slobodan University of Belgrade NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- The Journal of Hellenic Studies Cambridge University Press 119(1999-11), 1-16 0075-4269 119<1 1999 119 JHS CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge