Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Isabnormal Lines" to "Italic"
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Title: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Isabnormal Lines" to "Italic"
Author: Various
Release date: May 15, 2012 [eBook #39700]
Language: English
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Transcriber's notes:
(1) Numbers following letters (without space) like C2 were originally
printed in subscript. Letter subscripts are preceded by an
underscore, like C_n.
(2) Characters following a carat (^) were printed in superscript.
(3) Side-notes were relocated to function as titles of their respective
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ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA
A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE
AND GENERAL INFORMATION
ELEVENTH EDITION
VOLUME XIV, SLICE VIII
ISABNORMAL LINES to ITALIC
ARTICLES IN THIS SLICE:
ISABNORMAL LINES ISMAIL HADJI MAULVI-MOHAMMED
ISAEUS ISMAILIA
ISAIAH ISMAY, THOMAS HENRY
ISAIAH, ASCENSION OF ISMID, or ISNIKMID
ISANDHLWANA ISNARD, MAXIMIN
ISAR ISOBAR
ISATIN ISOCLINIC LINES
ISAURIA ISOCRATES
ISCHIA ISODYNAMIC LINES
ISCHL ISOGONIC LINES
ISEO, LAKE OF ISOLA DEL LIRI
ISERE (river in France) ISOMERISM
ISERE (department of France) ISOTHERM
ISERLOHN ISOXAZOLES
ISFAHAN ISRAEL
ISHIM ISRAELI, ISAAC BEN SOLOMON
ISHMAEL ISRAELS, JOSEF
ISHPEMING ISSACHAR
ISHTAR ISSEDONES
ISHTIB ISSERLEIN, ISRAEL
ISIDORE OF ALEXANDRIA ISSERLES, MOSES BEN ISRAEL
ISIDORE OF SEVILLE ISSOIRE
ISINGLASS ISSOUDUN
ISIS ISSYK-KUL
ISKELIB ISTAHBANAT
ISLA, JOSE FRANCISCO DE ISTHMUS
ISLAM ISTRIA
ISLAMABAD ISYLLUS
ISLAND ITACOLUMITE
ISLAY ITAGAKI, TAISUKE
ISLES OF THE BLEST ITALIAN LANGUAGE
ISLINGTON ITALIAN LITERATURE
ISLIP ITALIAN WARS
ISLY ITALIC
ISMAIL
ISABNORMAL (or ISANOMALOUS) LINES, in physical geography, lines upon a
map or chart connecting places having an abnormal temperature. Each
place has, theoretically, a proper temperature due to its latitude, and
modified by its configuration. Its mean temperature for a particular
period is decided by observation and called its normal temperature.
Isabnormal lines may be used to denote the variations due to warm winds
or currents, great altitudes or depressions, or great land masses as
compared with sea. Or they may be used to indicate the abnormal result
of weather observations made in an area such as the British Isles for a
particular period.
ISAEUS (c. 420 B.C.-c. 350 B.C.), Attic orator, the chronological limits
of whose extant work fall between the years 390 and 353 B.C., is
described in the Plutarchic life as a Chalcidian; by Suidas, whom
Dionysius follows, as an Athenian. The accounts have been reconciled by
supposing that his family sprang from the settlement ([Greek:
klerouchia]) of Athenian citizens among whom the lands of the Chalcidian
_hippobotae_ (knights) had been divided about 509 B.C. In 411 B.C.
Euboea (except Oreos) revolted from Athens; and it would not have been
strange if residents of Athenian origin had then migrated from the
hostile island to Attica. Such a connexion with Euboea would explain the
non-Athenian name Diagoras which is borne by the father of Isaeus, while
the latter is said to have been "an Athenian by descent" ([Greek:
Athenaios to genos]). So far as we know, Isaeus took no part in the
public affairs of Athens. "I cannot tell," says Dionysius, "what were
the politics of Isaeus--or whether he had any politics at all." Those
words strikingly attest the profound change which was passing over the
life of the Greek cities. It would have been scarcely possible, fifty
years earlier, that an eminent Athenian with the powers of Isaeus should
have failed to leave on record some proof of his interest in the
political concerns of Athens or of Greece. But now, with the decline of
personal devotion to the state, the life of an active citizen had ceased
to have any necessary contact with political affairs. Already we are at
the beginning of that transition which is to lead from the old life of
Hellenic citizenship to that Hellenism whose children are citizens of
the world.
Isaeus (who was born probably about 420 B.C.) is believed to have been
an early pupil of Isocrates, and he certainly was a student of Lysias. A
passage of Photius has been understood as meaning that personal
relations had existed between Isaeus and Plato, but this view appears
erroneous.[1] The profession of Isaeus was that of which Antiphon had
been the first representative at Athens--that of a [Greek: logographos],
who composed speeches which his clients were to deliver in the
law-courts. But, while Antiphon had written such speeches chiefly (as
Lysias frequently) for public causes, it was with private causes that
Isaeus was almost exclusively concerned. The fact marks the progressive
subdivision of labour in his calling, and the extent to which the
smaller interests of private life now absorbed the attention of the
citizen.
The most interesting recorded event in the career of Isaeus is one which
belongs to its middle period--his connexion with Demosthenes. Born in
384 B.C., Demosthenes attained his civic majority in 366. At this time
he had already resolved to prosecute the fraudulent guardians who had
stripped him of his patrimony. In prospect of such a legal contest, he
could have found no better ally than Isaeus. That the young Demosthenes
actually resorted to his aid is beyond reasonable doubt. But the
pseudo-Plutarch embellishes the story after his fashion. He says that
Demosthenes, on coming of age, took Isaeus into his house, and studied
with him for four years--paying him the sum of 10,000 drachmas (about
L400), on condition that Isaeus should withdraw from a school of
rhetoric which he had opened, and devote himself wholly to his new
pupil. The real Plutarch gives us a more sober and a more probable
version. He simply states that Demosthenes "employed Isaeus as his
master in rhetoric, though Isocrates was then teaching, either (as some
say) because he could not pay Isocrates the prescribed fee of ten minae,
or because he preferred the style of Isaeus for his purpose, as being
_vigorous and astute_" ([Greek: drasterion kai panourgon]). It may be
observed that, except by the pseudo-Plutarch, a school of Isaeus is not
mentioned,--for a notice in Plutarch need mean no more than that he had
written a textbook, or that his speeches were read in schools;[2] nor is
any other pupil named. As to Demosthenes, his own speeches against
Aphobus and Onetor (363-362 B.C.) afford the best possible gauge of the
sense and the measure in which he was the disciple of Isaeus; the
intercourse between them can scarcely have been either very close or
very long. The date at which Isaeus died can only be conjectured from
his work; it may be placed about 350 B.C.
Isaeus has a double claim on the student of Greek literature. He is
the first Greek writer who comes before us as a consummate master of
strict forensic controversy. He also holds a most important place in
the general development of practical oratory, and therefore in the
history of Attic prose. Antiphon marks the beginning of that
development, Demosthenes its consummation. Between them stand Lysias
and Isaeus. The open, even ostentatious, art of Antiphon had been
austere and rigid. The concealed art of Lysias had charmed and
persuaded by a versatile semblance of natural grace and simplicity.
Isaeus brings us to a final stage of transition, in which the gifts
distinctive of Lysias were to be fused into a perfect harmony with
that masterly art which receives its most powerful expression in
Demosthenes. Here, then, are the two cardinal points by which the
place of Isaeus must be determined. We must consider, first, his
relation to Lysias; secondly, his relation to Demosthenes.
A comparison of Isaeus and Lysias must set out from the distinction
between choice of words ([Greek: lexis]) and mode of putting words
together ([Greek: synthesis]). In choice of words, _diction_, Lysias
and Isaeus are closely alike. Both are clear, pure, simple, concise;
both have the stamp of persuasive plainness ([Greek: apheleia]), and
both combine it with graphic power ([Greek: enargeia]). In mode of
putting words together, _composition_, there is, however a striking
difference. Lysias threw off the stiff restraints of the earlier
periodic style, with its wooden monotony; he is too fond indeed of
antithesis always to avoid a rigid effect; but, on the whole, his
style is easy, flexible and various; above all, its subtle art usually
succeeds in appearing natural. Now this is just what the art of Isaeus
does not achieve. With less love of antithesis than Lysias, and with a
diction almost equally pure and plain, he yet habitually conveys the
impression of conscious and confident art. Hence he is least effective
in adapting his style to those characters in which Lysias peculiarly
excelled--the ingenuous youth, the homely and peace-loving citizen. On
the other hand, his more open and vigorous art does not interfere with
his moral persuasiveness where there is scope for reasoned
remonstrance, for keen argument or for powerful denunciation. Passing
from the formal to the real side of his work, from diction and
composition to the treatment of subject-matter, we find the divergence
wider still. Lysias usually adheres to a simple four-fold
division--proem, narrative, proof, epilogue. Isaeus frequently
interweaves the narrative with the proof.[3] He shows the most
dexterous ingenuity in adapting his manifold tactics to the case in
hand, and often "out-generals" ([Greek: katastrategei]) his adversary
by some novel and daring disposition of his forces. Lysias, again,
usually contents himself with a merely rhetorical or sketchy proof;
Isaeus aims at strict logical demonstration, worked out through all
its steps. As Sir William Jones well remarks, Isaeus lays close siege
to the understandings of the jury.[4]
Such is the general relation of Isaeus to Lysias. What, we must next
ask, is the relation of Isaeus to Demosthenes? The Greek critic who
had so carefully studied both authors states his own view in broad
terms when he declares that "the power of Demosthenes took its seeds
and its beginnings from Isaeus" (Dion. Halic. _Isaeus_, 20). A closer
examination will show that within certain limits the statement may be
allowed. Attic prose expression had been continuously developed as an
art; the true link between Isaeus and Demosthenes is technical,
depending on their continuity. Isaeus had made some original
contributions to the resources of the art; and Demosthenes had not
failed to profit by these. The _composition_ of Demosthenes resembles
that of Isaeus in blending terse and vigorous periods with passages of
more lax and fluent ease, as well as in that dramatic vivacity which
is given by rhetorical question and similar devices. In the versatile
disposition of subject-matter, the divisions of "narrative" and
"proof" being shifted and interwoven according to circumstances,
Demosthenes has clearly been instructed by the example of Isaeus.
Still more plainly and strikingly is this so in regard to the
elaboration of systematic, proof; here Demosthenes invites direct and
close comparison with Isaeus by his method of drawing out a chain of
arguments, or enforcing a proposition by strict legal argument. And,
more generally, Demosthenes is the pupil of Isaeus, though here the
pupil became even greater than the master, in that faculty of
grappling with an adversary's case point by point, in that aptitude
for close and strenuous conflict which is expressed by the words
[Greek: agon, enagonios].[5]
The pseudo-Plutarch, in his life of Isaeus, mentions an _Art of
Rhetoric_ and sixty-four speeches, of which fifty were accounted
genuine. From a passage of Photius it appears that at least[6] the
fifty speeches of recognized authenticity were extant as late as A.D.
850. Only eleven, with a large part of a twelfth, have come down to
us; but the titles of forty-two[7] others are known.[8]
The titles of the lost speeches confirm the statement of Dionysius
that the speeches of Isaeus were exclusively forensic; and only three
titles indicate speeches made in public causes. The remainder,
concerned with private causes, may be classed under six heads:--(1)
[Greek: klerikoi]--cases of claim to an inheritance; (2) [Greek:
epiklerikoi]--cases of claim to the hand of an heiress; (3) [Greek:
diadikasiai]--cases of claim of property; (4) [Greek:
apostasiou]--cases of claim to the ownership of a slave; (5) [Greek:
eggyes]--action brought against a surety whose principal had made
default; (6) [Greek: antomosia] (as = [Greek: paragraphe])--a special
plea; (7) [Greek: ephesis]--appeal from one jurisdiction to another.
Eleven of the twelve extant speeches belong to class (1), the [Greek:
klerikoi], or claims to an inheritance. This was probably the branch
of practice in which Isaeus had done his most important and most
characteristic work. And, according to the ancient custom, this class
of speeches would therefore stand first in the manuscript collections
of his writings. The case of Antiphon is parallel: his speeches in
cases of homicide ([Greek: phonikoi]) were those on which his
reputation mainly depended, and stood first in the manuscripts. Their
exclusive preservation, like that of the speeches made by Isaeus in
will-cases, is thus primarily an accident of manuscript tradition, but
partly also the result of the writer's special prestige.
Six of the twelve extant speeches are directly concerned with claims
to an estate; five others are connected with legal proceedings arising
out of such a claim. They may be classified thus (the name given in
each case being that of the person whose estate is in dispute):
I. _Trials of Claim to an Inheritance_ ([Greek: diadikasiai]).
1. Or. i., Cleonymus. Date between 360 and 353 B.C.
2. Or. iv., Nicostratus. Date uncertain.
3. Or. vii., Apollodorus. 353 B.C.
4. Or. viii., Ciron. 375 B.C.
5. Or. ix., Astyphilus. 369 B.C. (c. 390, Schomann).
6. Or. x., Aristarchus. 377-371 B.C. (386-384, Schomann).
II. _Actions for False Witness_ ([Greek: dikai pseudomartyrion]).
1. Or. ii., Menecles. 354 B.C.
2. Or. iii., Pyrrhus. Date uncertain, but comparatively late.
3. Or. vi., Philoctemon. 364-363 B.C.
III. _Action to Compel the Discharge of a Suretyship_ ([Greek: eggyes
dike]).
Or. v., Dicaeogenes. 390 B.C.
IV. _Indictment of a Guardian for Maltreatment of a Ward_ ([Greek:
eisaggelia kakoseos orphanou]).
Or. xi., Hagnias. 359 B.C.
V. _Appeal from Arbitration to a Dicastery_ ([Greek: ephesis]).
Or. xii., For Euphiletus. (Incomplete.) Date uncertain.
The speeches of Isaeus supply valuable illustrations to the early
history of testamentary law. They show us the faculty of adoption,
still, indeed, associated with the religious motive in which it
originated, as a mode of securing that the sacred rites of the family
shall continue to be discharged by one who can call himself the son of
the deceased. But practically the civil aspect of adoption is, for the
Athenian citizen, predominant over the religious; he adopts a son in
order to bestow property on a person to whom he wishes to bequeath it.
The Athenian system, as interpreted by Isaeus, is thus intermediate,
at least in spirit, between the purely religious standpoint of the
Hindu and the maturer form which Roman testamentary law had reached
before the time of Cicero.[9] As to the form of the speeches, it is
remarkable for its variety. There are three which, taken together, may
be considered as best representing the diversity and range of their
author's power. The fifth, with its simple but lively diction, its
graceful and persuasive narrative, recalls the qualities of Lysias.
The eleventh, with its sustained and impetuous power, has no slight
resemblance to the manner of Demosthenes. The eighth is, of all, the
most characteristic, alike in narrative and in argument. Isaeus is
here seen at his best. No reader who is interested in the social life
of ancient Greece need find Isaeus dull. If the glimpses of Greek
society which he gives us are seldom so gay and picturesque as those
which enliven the pages of Lysias, they are certainly not less
suggestive. Here, where the innermost relations and central interests
of the family are in question, we touch the springs of social life; we
are not merely presented with scenic details of dress and furniture,
but are enabled in no small degree to conceive the feelings of the
actors.
The best manuscript of Isaeus is in the British Museum,--Crippsianus A
(= Burneianus 95, 13th century), which contains also Antiphon,
Andocides, Lycurgus and Dinarchus. The next best is Bekker's
Laurentianus B (Florence), of the 15th century. Besides these, he used
Marcianus L (Venice), saec. 14, Vratislaviensis Z saec. 14[10] and two
very inferior MSS. Ambrosianus A. 99, P (which he dismissed after Or.
i.), and Ambrosianus D. 42, Q (which contains only Or. i., ii.).
Schomann, in his edition of 1831, generally followed Bekker's text; he
had no fresh apparatus beyond a collation of a Paris MS. R in part of
Or. i.; but he had sifted the Aldine more carefully. Baiter and Sauppe
(1850) had a new collation of A, and also used a collation of
Burneianus 96, M, given by Dobson in vol. iv. of his edition (1828).
C. Scheibe (Teubner, 1860) made it his especial aim to complete the
work of his predecessors by restoring the correct Attic forms of
words; thus (e.g.) he gives [Greek: eggya] for [Greek: enegya],
[Greek: dedimen] for [Greek: dediamen], and the like,--following the
consent of the MSS., however, in such forms as the accusative of
proper names in [Greek: -en] rather than [Greek: -e], or (e.g.) the
future [Greek: phanesomai] rather than [Greek: phanoumai], &c., and on
such doubtful points as [Greek: phrateres] instead of [Greek:
phratores], or [Greek: Eilethyias] instead of [Greek: Eileithyias].
EDITIONS.--_Editio princeps_ (Aldus, Venice, 1513); in _Oratores
Attici_, by I. Bekker (1823-1828); W. S. Dobson (1828); J. G. Baiter
and Hermann Sauppe (1850); separately, by G. F. Schomann, with
commentary (1831); C. Scheibe (1860) (Teubner series, new ed. by T.
Thalheim, 1903); H. Buermann (1883); W. Wyse (1904). English
translation by Sir William Jones, 1779.
On Isaeus generally see Wyse's edition; R. C. Jebb, _Attic Orators_;
F. Blass, _Die attische Beredsamkeit_ (2nd ed., 1887-1893); and L.
Moy, _Etude sur les plaidoyers d'Isee_ (1876). (R. C. J.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See further Jebb's _Attic Orators from Antiphon to Isaeus_, (ii.
264).
[2] Plut. _De glor. Athen._ p. 350 c, where he mentions [Greek: tous
Isokrateis kai Antiphontas kai Isaious] among [Greek: tous en tais
scholais ta meirakia prodidaskontas].
[3] Here he was probably influenced by the teaching of Isocrates. The
forensic speech of Isocrates known as the _Aegineticus_ (Or. xix.),
which belongs to the peculiar province of Isaeus, as dealing with a
claim to property ([Greek: epidikasia]), affords perhaps the earliest
example of narrative and proof thus interwoven. Earlier forensic
writers had kept the [Greek: diegesis] and [Greek: pisteis] distinct,
as Lysias does.
[4] This is what Dionysius means when he says (_Isaeus_, 61) that
Isaeus differs from Lysias--[Greek: to me kat' enthymema ti legein
alla kat' epicheirema]. Here the "enthymeme" means a rhetorical
syllogism with one premiss suppressed (_curtum_, Juv. vi. 449);
"epicheireme," such a syllogism stated in full. Cf. R. Volkmann,
_Rhetorik der Griechen und Romer_, 1872, pp. 153 f.
[5] Cleon's speech in Thuc. iii. 37, 38, works out this image with
remarkable force; within a short space we have [Greek: xyneseos
agon--ton toionde agonon--agonistes--agonizesthai--antagonizesthai--
agonothetein]. See _Attic Orators_, vol. i. 39; ii. 304.
[6] For the words of Photius (cod. 263), [Greek: touton de oi to
gnesion martyrethentes n' kataleipontai monon], might be so rendered
as to imply that, besides these fifty, others also were extant. See
_Att. Orat._ ii. 311, note 2.
[7] Forty-four are given in Thalheim's ed.
[8] The second of our speeches (the Meneclean) was discovered in the
Laurentian Library in 1785, and was edited in that year by Tyrwhitt.
In editions previous to that date, Oration i. is made to conclude
with a few lines which really belong to the end of Orat. ii. (S 47,
[Greek: all' epeide to pragma ... psethisasthe]), and this
arrangement is followed in the translation of Isaeus by Sir William
Jones, to whom our second oration, was, of course, then (1779)
unknown. In Oration i. all that follows the words [Greek: me
poiesantes] in S 22 was first published in 1815 by Mai, from a MS. in
the Ambrosian Library at Milan.
[9] Cf. Maine's _Ancient Law_, ch. vi., and the _Tagore Law Lectures_
(1870) by Herbert Cowell, lect. ix., "On the Rite of Adoption," pp.
208 f.
[10] The date of L and Z is given as the end of the 15th century in
the introduction to Wyse's edition.
ISAIAH. I. _Life and Period._--Isaiah is the name of the greatest, and
both in life and in death the most influential of the Old Testament
prophets. We do not forget Jeremiah, but Jeremiah's literary and
religious influence is secondary compared with that of Isaiah.
Unfortunately we are reduced to inference and conjecture with regard
both to his life and to the extent of his literary activity. In the
heading (i. 1) of what we may call the occasional prophecies of Isaiah
(i.e. those which were called forth by passing events), the author is
called "the son of Amoz" and Rabbinical legend identifies this Amoz with
a brother of Amaziah, king of Judah; but this is evidently based on a
mere etymological fancy. We know from his works that (unlike Jeremiah)
he was married (viii. 3), and that he had at least two sons, whose
names he regarded as, together with his own, symbolic by divine
appointment of certain decisive events or religious truths--Isaiah
(Yesha'-yahu), meaning "Salvation--Yahweh"; Shear-Yashub, "a remnant
shall return"; and Maher-shalal-hash-baz, "swift (swiftly cometh) spoil,
speedy (speedily cometh) prey" (vii. 3, viii. 3, 4, 18). He lived at
Jerusalem, perhaps in the "middle" or "lower city" (2 Kings xx. 4),
exercised at one time great influence at court (chap. xxxvii.), and
could venture to address a king unbidden (vii. 4), and utter the most
unpleasant truths, unassailed, in the plainest fashion. Presumably
therefore his social rank was far above that of Amos and Micah;
certainly the high degree of rhetorical skill displayed in his
discourses implies a long course of literary discipline, not improbably
in the school of some older prophet (Amos vii. 14 suggests that
"schools" or companies "of the prophets" existed in the southern
kingdom). We know but little of Isaiah's predecessors and models in the
prophetic art (it were fanaticism to exclude the element of human
preparation); but certainly even the acknowledged prophecies of Isaiah
(and much more the disputed ones) could no more have come into existence
suddenly and without warning than the masterpieces of Shakespeare. In
the more recent commentaries (e.g. Cheyne's _Prophecies of Isaiah_, ii.
218) lists are generally given of the points of contact both in
phraseology and in ideas between Isaiah and the prophets nearly
contemporary with him. For Isaiah cannot be studied by himself.
The same heading already referred to gives us our only traditional
information as to the period during which Isaiah prophesied; it refers
to Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah as the contemporary kings. It is,
however, to say the least, doubtful whether any of the extant prophecies
are as early as the reign of Uzziah. Exegesis, the only safe basis of
criticism for the prophetic literature, is unfavourable to the view that
even chap. i. belongs to the reign of this king, and we must therefore
regard it as most probable that the heading in i. 1 is (like those of
the Psalms) the work of one or more of the Sopherim (or students and
editors of Scripture) in post-exilic times, apparently the same writer
(or company of writers) who prefixed the headings of Hosea and Micah,
and perhaps of some of the other books. Chronological study had already
begun in his time. But he would be a bold man who would profess to give
trustworthy dates either for the kings of Israel or for the prophetic
writers. (See BIBLE, _Old Testament_, Chronology; the article
"Chronology" in the _Encyclopaedia Biblica_; and cf. H. P. Smith, _Old
Testament History_, Edin., 1903, p. 202, note 2.)
II. _Chronological Arrangement, how far possible._--Let us now briefly
sketch the progress of Isaiah's prophesying on the basis of philological
exegesis, and a comparison of the sound results of the study of the
inscriptions. If our results are imperfect and liable to correction,
that is only to be expected in the present position of the historical
study of the Bible. Chap. vi., which describes a vision of Isaiah "in
the death-year of King Uzziah" (740 or 734 B.C.?) may possibly have
arisen out of notes put down in the reign of Jotham; but for several
reasons it is not an acceptable view that, in its present form, this
striking chapter is earlier than the reign of Ahaz. It seems, in short,
to have originally formed the preface to the small group of prophecies
which now follows it, viz. vii. i.-ix. 7. The portions which may
represent discourses of Jotham's reign are chap. ii. and chap. ix. 8-x.
4--stern denunciations which remind us somewhat of Amos. But the
allusions in the greater part of chaps. ii.-v. correspond to no period
so closely as the reign of Ahaz, and the same remark applies still more
self-evidently to vii. 1-ix. 7.[1] Chap. xvii. 1-11 ought undoubtedly to
be read in immediate connexion with chap. vii.; it presupposes the
alliance of Syria and northern Israel, whose destruction it predicts,
though opening a door of hope for a remnant of Israel. The fatal siege
of Samaria (724-722 B.C.) seems to have given occasion to chap. xxviii.;
but the following prophecies (chaps. xxix.-xxxiii.) point in the main
to Sennacherib's invasion, 701 B.C., which evidently stirred Isaiah's
deepest feelings and was the occasion of some of his greatest
prophecies. It is, however, the vengeance taken by Sargon upon Ashdod
(711) which seems to be preserved in chap. xx., and the striking little
prophecy in xxi. 1-10, sometimes referred of late to a supposed invasion
of Judah by Sargon, rather belongs to some one of the many prophetic
personages who wrote, but did not speak like the greater prophets,
during and after the Exile. It is also an opinion largely held that the
prophetic epilogue in xvi. 13, 14, was attached by Isaiah to an oracle
on archaic style by another prophet (Isaiah's hand has, however, been
traced by some in xvi. 4b, 5). In fact no progress can be expected in
the accurate study of the prophets until the editorial activity both of
the great prophets themselves and of their more reflective and studious
successors is fully recognized.
Thus there were two great political events (the Syro-Israelitish
invasion under Ahaz, and the great Assyrian invasion of Sennacherib)
which called forth the spiritual and oratorical faculties of our
prophet, and quickened his faculty of insight into the future. The
Sennacherib prophecies must be taken in connexion with the historical
appendix, chaps, xxxvi.-xxxix. The beauty and incisiveness of the poetic
prophecy in xxxvii. 21-32 have, by some critics, been regarded as
evidence for its authenticity. This, however, is, on critical grounds,
most questionable.
A special reference seems needed at this point to the oracle on Egypt,
chap. xix. The comparative feebleness of the style has led to the
conjecture that, even if the basis of the prophecy be Isaianic, yet in
its present form it must have undergone the manipulation of a scribe.
More probably, however, it belongs to the early Persian period. It
should be added that the Isaianic origin of the appendix in xix. 18-24
is, if possible, even more doubtful, because of the precise,
circumstantial details of the prophecy which are not like Isaiah's work.
It is plausible to regard v. 18 as a fictitious prophecy in the
interests of Onias, the founder of the rival Egyptian temple to Yahweh
at Leontopolis in the name of Heliopolis (Josephus, _Ant._ xii. 9, 7).
III. _Disintegration Theories._--We must now enter more fully into the
question whether the whole of the so-called Book of Isaiah was really
written by that prophet. The question relates, at any rate, to
xiii.-xiv. 23, xxi. 1-10, xxiv.-xxvii., xxxiv., xxxv. and xl.-lxvi. The
father of the controversy may be said to be the Jewish rabbi, Aben Ezra,
who died A.D. 1167. We need not, however, spend much time on the
well-worn but inconclusive arguments of the older critics. The existence
of a tradition in the last three centuries before Christ as to the
authorship of any book is (to those acquainted with the habits of
thought of that age) of but little critical moment; the _Sopherim_, i.e.
students of Scripture, in those times were simply anxious for the
authority of the Scriptures, not for the ascertainment of their precise
historical origin. It was of the utmost importance to declare that
(especially) Isaiah xl.-lxvi. was a prophetic work of the highest order;
this was reason sufficient (apart from any presumed phraseological
affinities in xl.-lxvi.) for ascribing them to the royal prophet Isaiah.
When the view had once obtained currency, it would naturally become a
tradition. The question of the Isaianic or non-Isaianic origin of the
disputed prophecies (especially xl.-lxvi.) must be decided on grounds of
exegesis alone. It matters little, therefore, when the older critics
appeal to Ezra i. 2 (interpreted by Josephus, _Ant._ xi. 1, 1-2), to the
Septuagint version of the book (produced between 260 and 130 B.C.), in
which the disputed prophecies are already found, and to the Greek
translation of the Wisdom of Jesus, the son of Sirach, which distinctly
refers to Isaiah as the comforter of those that mourned in Zion (Eccles.
xlviii. 24, 25).
The fault of the controversialists on both sides has been that each
party has only seen "one side of the shield." It will be admitted by
philological students that the exegetical data supplied by (at any rate)
Isa. xl.-lxvi. are conflicting, and therefore susceptible of no simple
solution. This remark applies, it is true, chiefly to the portion which
begins at lii. 13. The earlier part of Isa. xl.-lxvi. admits of a
perfectly consistent interpretation from first to last. There is
nothing in it to indicate that the author's standing-point is earlier
than the Babylonian captivity. His object is (as most scholars,
probably, believe) to warn, stimulate or console the captive Jews, some
full believers, some semi-believers, some unbelievers or idolaters. The
development of the prophet's message is full of contrasts and surprises:
the vanity of the idol-gods and the omnipotence of Israel's helper, the
sinfulness and infirmity of Israel and her high spiritual destiny, and
the selection (so offensive to patriotic Jews, xlv. 9, 10) of the
heathen Cyrus as the instrument of Yahweh's purposes, as in fact his
Messiah or Anointed One (xlv. 1), are brought successively before us.
Hence the semi-dramatic character of the style. Already in the opening
passage mysterious voices are heard crying, "Comfort ye, comfort ye my
people"; the plural indicates that there were other prophets among the
exiles besides the author of Isa. xl.-xlviii. Then the Jews and the
Asiatic nations in general are introduced trembling at the imminent
downfall of the Babylonian empire. The former are reasoned with and
exhorted to believe; the latter are contemptuously silenced by an
exhibition of the futility of their religion. Then another mysterious
form appears on the scene, bearing the honourable title of "Servant of
Yahweh," through whom God's gracious purposes for Israel and the world
are to be realized. The cycle of poetic passages on the character and
work of this "Servant," or commissioned agent of the Most High, may have
formed originally a separate collation which was somewhat later inserted
in the Prophecy of Restoration (i.e. chaps. xl.-xlviii., and its
appendix chaps. xlix.-lv.).
The new section which begins at chap. xlix. is written in much the same
delightfully flowing style. We are still among the exiles at the close
of the captivity, or, as others think, amidst a poor community in
Jerusalem, whose members have now been dispersed among the Gentiles. The
latter view is not so strange as it may at first appear, for the new
book has this peculiarity, that Babylon and Cyrus are not mentioned in
it at all. [True, there was not so much said about Babylon as we should
have expected even in the first book; the paucity of references to the
local characteristics of Babylonia is in fact one of the negative
arguments urged by older scholars in favour of the Isaianic origin of
the prophecy.] Israel himself, with all his inconsistent qualities,
becomes the absorbing subject of the prophet's meditations. The section
opens with a soliloquy of the "Servant of Yahweh," which leads on to a
glorious comforting discourse, "Can a woman forget her sucking child,"
&c. (xlix. 1, comp. li. 12, 13). Then his tone rises, Jerusalem can and
must be redeemed; he even seems to see the great divine act in process
of accomplishment. Is it possible, one cannot help asking, that the
abrupt description of the strange fortunes of the "Servant"--by this
time entirely personalized--was written to follow chap. lii. 1-12?
The whole difficulty seems to arise from the long prevalent assumption
that chaps. xl.-lxvi. form a whole in themselves. Natural as the feeling
against disintegration may be, the difficulties in the way of admitting
the unity of chaps. xl.-lxvi. are insurmountable. Even if, by a bold
assumption, we grant the unity of authorship, it is plain upon the face
of it that the chapters in question cannot have been composed at the
same time or under the same circumstances; literary and artistic unity
is wholly wanting. But once admit (as it is only reasonable to do) the
extension of Jewish editorial activity to the prophetic books and all
becomes clear. The record before us gives no information as to its
origin. It is without a heading, and by its abrupt transitions, and
honestly preserved variations of style, invites us to such a theory as
we are now indicating. It is only the inveterate habit of reading Isa.
xlix.-lxvi. as a part of a work relating to the close of the Exile that
prevents us from seeing how inconsistent are the tone and details with
this presupposition.
The present article in its original form introduced here a survey of
the portions of Isa. xl.-lxvi. which were plainly of Palestinian
origin. It is needless to reproduce this here, because the information
is now readily accessible elsewhere; in 1881 there was an originality
in this survey, which gave promise of a still more radical treatment
such as that of Bernhard Duhm, a fascinating commentary published in
1892. See also Cheyne, _Jewish Quarterly Review_, July and October
1891; _Introd. to Book of Isaiah_ (1895), which also point forward,
like Stade's _Geschichte_ in Germany, to a bolder criticism of Isaiah.
IV. _Non-Isaianic Elements in Chaps. i.-xxxix._--We have said nothing
hitherto, except by way of allusion, of the disputed prophecies
scattered up and down the first half of the book of Isaiah. There is
only one of these prophecies which may, with any degree of apparent
plausibility, be referred to the age of Isaiah, and that is chaps.
xxiv.-xxvii. The grounds are (1) that according to xxv. 6 the author
dwells on Mount Zion; (2) that Moab is referred to as an enemy (xxv.
10); and (3) that at the close of the prophecy, Assyria and Egypt are
apparently mentioned as the principal foes of Israel (xxvii. 12, 13). A
careful and thorough exegesis will show the hollowness of this
justification. The tone and spirit of the prophecy as a whole point to
the same late apocalyptic period to which chap. xxxiv. and the book of
Joel; and also the last chapter (especially) of the book of Zechariah,
may unhesitatingly be referred.
A word or two may perhaps be expected on Isa. xiii., xiv. and xxxiv.,
xxxv. These two oracles agree in the elaborateness of their description
of the fearful fate of the enemies of Yahweh (Babylon and Edom are
merely representatives of a class), and also in their view of the
deliverance and restoration of Israel as an epoch for the whole human
race. There is also an unrelieved sternness, which pains us by its
contrast with Isa. xl.-lxvi. (except those passages of this portion
which are probably not homogeneous with the bulk of the prophecy). They
have also affinities with Jer. l. li., a prophecy (as most now agree) of
post-exilic origin.
There is only one passage which seems in some degree to make up for the
aesthetic drawbacks of the greater part of these late compositions. It
is the ode on the fall of the king of Babylon in chap. xiv. 4-21, which
is as brilliant with the glow of lyric enthusiasm as the stern prophecy
which precedes it is, from the same point of view, dull and uninspiring.
It is in fact worthy to be put by the side of the finest passages of
chaps. xl.-lxvi.--of those passages which irresistibly rise in the
memory when we think of "Isaiah."
V. _Prophetic Contrasts in Isaiah._--From a religious point of view
there is a wide difference, not only between the acknowledged and the
disputed prophecies of the book of Isaiah, but also between those of the
latter which occur in chaps. i.-xxxix., on the one hand, and the greater
and more striking part of chaps. xl.-lxvi. on the other. We may say,
upon the whole, with Duhm, that Isaiah represents a synthesis of Amos
and Hosea, though not without important additions of his own. And if we
cannot without much hesitation admit that Isaiah was really the first
preacher of a personal Messiah whose record has come down to us, yet his
editors certainly had good reason for thinking him capable of such a
lofty height of prophecy. It is not because Isaiah could not have
conceived of a personal Messiah, but because the Messiah-passages are
not plainly Isaiah's either in style or in thought. If Isaiah had had
those bright visions, they would have affected him more.
Perhaps the most characteristic religious peculiarities of the various
disputed prophecies are--(1) the emphasis laid on the uniqueness,
eternity, creatorship and predictive power of Yahweh (xl. 18, 25, xli.
4, xliv. 6, xlviii. 12, xlv. 5, 6, 18, 22, xlvi. 9, xlii. 5, xlv. 18,
xli. 26, xliii. 9, xliv. 7, xlv. 21, xlviii. 14); (2) the conception of
the "Servant of Yahweh"; (3) the ironical descriptions of idolatry
(Isaiah in the acknowledged prophecies only refers incidentally to
idolatry) xl. 19, 20, xli. 7, xliv. 9-17, xlvi. 6; (4) the personality
of the Spirit of Yahweh (mentioned no less than seven times, see
especially xl. 3, xlviii. 16, lxiii. 10, 14); (5) the influence of the
angelic powers (xxiv. 21); (6) the resurrection of the body (xxvi. 19);
(7) the everlasting punishment of the wicked (lxvi. 24); (8) vicarious
atonement (chap. liii.).
We cannot here do more than chronicle the attempts of a Jewish scholar,
the late Dr Kohut, in the _Z.D.M.G._ for 1876 to prove a Zoroastrian
influence on chaps. xl.-lxvi. The idea is not in itself inadmissible,
at least for post-exilic portions, for Zoroastrian ideas were in the
intellectual atmosphere of Jewish writers in the Persian age.
There is an equally striking difference among the disputed prophecies
themselves, and one of no small moment as a subsidiary indication of
their origin. We have already spoken of the difference of tone between
parts of the latter half of the book; and, when we compare the disputed
prophecies of the former half with the Prophecy of Israel's Restoration,
how inferior (with all reverence be it said) do they appear! Truly "in
many parts and many manners did God speak" in this composite book of
Isaiah! To the Prophecy of Restoration we may fitly apply the words, too
gracious and too subtly chosen to be translated, of Renan, "ce second
Isaie, dont l'ame lumineuse semble comme impregnee, six cent ans
d'avance, de toutes les rosees, de tous les parfums de l'avenir"
(_L'Antechrist_, p. 464); though, indeed, the common verdict of
sympathetic readers sums up the sentence in a single phrase--"the
Evangelical Prophet." The freedom and the inexhaustibleness of the
undeserved grace of God is a subject to which this gifted son constantly
returns with "a monotony which is never monotonous." The defect of the
disputed prophecies in the former part of the book (a defect, as long as
we regard them in isolation, and not as supplemented by those which come
after) is that they emphasize too much for the Christian sentiment the
stern, destructive side of the series of divine interpositions in the
latter days.
VI. _The Cyrus Inscriptions._--Perhaps one of the most important
contributions to the study of II. Isaiah has been the discovery of two
cuneiform texts relative to the fall of Babylon and the religious policy
of Cyrus. The results are not favourable to a mechanical view of
prophecy as involving absolute accuracy of statement. Cyrus appears in
the unassailably authentic cylinder inscription "as a complete religious
indifferentist, willing to go through any amount of ceremonies to soothe
the prejudices of a susceptible population." He preserves a strange and
significant silence with regard to Ahura-mazda, the supreme God of
Zoroastrianism, and in fact can hardly have been a Zoroastrian believer
at all. On the historical and religious bearings of these two
inscriptions the reader may be referred to the article "Cyrus" in the
_Encyclopaedia Biblica_ and the essay on "II. Isaiah and the
Inscriptions" in Cheyne's _Prophecies of Isaiah_, vol. ii. It may, with
all reverence, be added that our estimate of prophecy must be brought
into harmony with facts, not facts with our preconceived theory of
inspiration.
AUTHORITIES.--Lowth, _Isaiah: a new translation, with a preliminary
dissertation and notes_ (1778); Gesenius, _Der Proph. Jes._ (1821);
Hitzig, _Der Proph. Jes._ (1833); Delitzsch, _Der Pr. Jes._ (4th ed.,
1889); Dillmann-Kittel, _Isaiah_ (1898); Duhm (1892; 2nd ed., 1902);
Marti (1900); Cheyne, _The Prophecies of Isaiah_ (2 vols., 1880-1881);
_Introd. to Book of Isaiah_ (1898); "The Book of the Prophet Isaiah,"
in Paul Haupt's _Polychrome Bible_ (1898); S. R. Driver, _Isaiah, his
life and times_ (1888); J. Skinner, "The Book of Isaiah," in
_Cambridge Bible_ (2 vols., 1896, 1898); G. A. Smith, in _Expositor's
Bible_ (2 vols., 1888, 1890); Condamin (Rom. Cath.) (1905); G. H. Box
(1908); Article on Isaiah in _Ency. Bib._ by Cheyne; in Hastings'
_Dict. of the Bible_ by Prof. G. A. Smith. R. H. Kennett's Schweich
Lecture (1909), _The Composition of the Book of Isaiah in the Light of
Archaeology and History_, an interesting attempt at a synthesis of
results, is a brightly written but scholarly sketch of the growth of
the book of Isaiah, which went on till the great success of the Jews
under Judas Maccabaeus. The outbursts of triumph (e.g. Isa. ix. 2-7)
are assigned to this period. The most original statement is perhaps
the view that the words of Isaiah were preserved orally by his
disciples, and did not see the light (in a revised form) till a
considerable time after the crystallization of the reforms of Josiah
into laws. (T. K. C.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] On the question of the Isaianic origin of the prophecy, ix. 1-6,
and the companion passage, xi. 1-8, see Cheyne _Introd. to the Book
of Isaiah_, 1895, pp. 44, 45 and 62-66. Cf., however, J. Skinner
"Isaiah i.-xxxix." in _Cambridge Bible_.
ISAIAH, ASCENSION OF, an apocryphal book of the Old Testament. The
_Ascension of Isaiah_ is a composite work of very great interest. In its
present form it is probably not older than the latter half of the 2nd
century of our era. Its various constituents, however, and of these
there were three--the _Martyrdom of Isaiah_, the _Testament of Hezekiah_
and the _Vision of Isaiah_--circulated independently as early as the 1st
century. The first of these was of Jewish origin, and is of less
interest than the other two, which were the work of Christian writers.
The _Vision of Isaiah_ is important for the knowledge it affords us of
1st-century beliefs in certain circles as to the doctrines of the
Trinity, the Incarnation, the Resurrection, the Seven Heavens, &c. The
long lost _Testament of Hezekiah_, which is, in the opinion of R. H.
Charles, to be identified with iii. 13b-iv. 18, of our present work, is
unquestionably of great value owing to the insight it gives us into the
history of the Christian Church at the close of the 1st century. Its
descriptions of the worldliness and lawlessness which prevailed among
the elders and pastors, i.e. the bishops and priests, of the wide-spread
covetousness and vainglory as well as the growing heresies among
Christians generally, agree with similar accounts in 2 Peter, 2 Timothy
and Clement of Rome.
_Various Titles._--Origen in his commentary on Matt. xiii. 57
(Lommatzsch iii. 4, 9) calls it _Apocryph of Isaiah_--[Greek:
Apokryphon Hesaiou], Epiphanius (_Haer._ xl. 2) terms it the
_Ascension of Isaiah_--[Greek: to anabatikon Hesaiou], and similarly
Jerome--_Ascensio Isaiae_. It was also known as the _Vision of Isaiah_
and finally as the _Testament of Hezekiah_ (see Charles, _The
Ascension of Isaiah_, pp. xii.-xv.).
_The Greek Original and the Versions._--The book was written in Greek,
though not improbably the middle portion, the _Testament of Hezekiah_,
was originally composed in Semitic. The Greek in its original form,
which we may denote by G, is lost. It has, however, been in part
preserved to us in two of its recensions, G^1 and G^2. From G^1 the
Ethiopic Version and the first Latin Version (consisting of ii.
14-iii. 13, vii. 1-19) were translated, and of this recension the
actual Greek has survived in a multitude of phrases in the _Greek
Legend_. G^2 denotes the Greek text from which the Slavonic and the
second Latin Version (consisting of vi.-xi.) were translated. Of this
recension ii. 4-iv. 2 have been discovered by Grenfell and Hunt.[1]
For complete details see Charles, _op. cit._ pp. xviii.-xxxiii.; also
Flemming in Hennecke's _NTliche Apok_.
_Latin Version._--The first Latin Version (L^1) is fragmentary (=ii.
14-iii. 13, vii. 1-19). It was discovered and edited by Mai in 1828
(Script. _vet. nova collectio_ III. ii. 238), and reprinted by
Dillmann in his edition of 1877, and subsequently in a more correct
form by Charles in his edition of 1900. The second version (L^2), which
consists of vi.-xi., was first printed at Venice in 1522, by Gieseler
in 1832, Dillmann in 1877 and Charles in 1900.
_Ethiopic Version._--There are three MSS. This version is on the whole
a faithful reproduction of G^1. These were used by Dillmann and
subsequently by Charles in their editions.
_Different Elements in the Book._--The compositeness of this work is
universally recognized. Dillmann's analysis is as follows, (i.)
_Martyrdom of Isaiah_, of Jewish origin; ii. 1-iii. 12, v. 2-14. (ii.)
The _Vision of Isaiah_, of Christian origin, vi. 1-xi. 1, 23-40.
(iii.) The above two constituents were put together by a Christian
writer, who prefixed i. 1, 2, 4b-13 and appended xi. 42, 43. (iv.)
Finally a later Christian editor incorporated the two sections iii.
13-v. 1 and xi. 2-22, and added i. 3, 4a, v. 15, 16, xi. 41.
This analysis has on the whole been accepted by Harnack, Schurer,
Deane and Beer. These scholars have been influenced by Gebhardt's
statement that in the _Greek Legend_ there is not a trace of iii.
13-v. 1, xi. 2-22, and that accordingly these sections were absent
from the text when the _Greek Legend_ was composed. But this statement
is wrong, for at least five phrases or clauses in the _Greek Legend_
are derived from the sections in question. Hence R. H. Charles has
examined (_op. cit._ pp. xxxviii.-xlvii.) the problem _de novo_, and
arrived at the following conclusions. The book is highly composite,
and arbitrariness and disorder are found in every section. There are
three original documents at its base, (i.) The _Martyrdom of Isaiah_ =
i. 1, 2a, 6b-13a, ii. 1-8, 10-iii. 12, v. 1b-14. This is but an
imperfect survival of the original work. Part of the original work
omitted by the final editor of our book is preserved in the _Opus
imperfectum_, which goes back _not to our text, but to the original
Martyrdom_, (ii.) The _Testament of Hezekiah_ = iii. 13b-iv. 18. This
work is mutilated and without beginning or end. (iii.) The _Vision of
Isaiah_ = vi.-xi. 1-40. The archetype of this section existed
independently in Greek; for the second Latin and the Slavonic Versions
presuppose an independent circulation of their Greek archetype in
western and Slavonic countries. This archetype differs in many
respects from the form in which it was republished by the editor of
the entire work.
We may, in short, put this complex matter as follows: The conditions
of the problem are sufficiently satisfied by supposing a single
editor, who had three works at his disposal, the _Martyrdom of
Isaiah_, of Jewish origin, and the _Testament of Hezekiah_ and the
_Vision of Isaiah_, of Christian origin. These he reduced or enlarged
as it suited his purpose, and put them together as they stand in our
text. Some of the editorial additions are obvious, as i. 2b-6a, 13a,
ii. 9, iii. 13a, iv. 1a, 19-v. 1a, 15, 16, xi. 41-43.
_Dates of the Various Constituents of the Ascension._--(a) The
_Martyrdom_ is quoted by the _Opus Imperfectum_, Ambrose, Jerome,
Origen, Tertullian and by Justin Martyr. It was probably known to the
writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Thus we are brought back to the
1st century A.D. if the last reference is trustworthy. And this is no
doubt the right date, for works written by Jews in the 2nd century
would not be likely to become current in the Christian Church. (b) The
_Testament of Hezekiah_ was written between A.D. 88-100. The grounds
for this date will be found in Charles, _op. cit._ pp. lxxi.-lxxii.
and 30-31. (c) The _Vision of Isaiah_. The later recension of this
Vision was used by Jerome, and a more primitive form of the text by
the Archontici according to Epiphanius. It is still earlier attested
by the _Actus Petri Vercellenses_. Since the Protevangel of James was
apparently acquainted with it, and likewise Ignatius (_ad. Ephes._
xix.), the composition of the primitive form of the Vision goes back
to the close of the 1st century.
The work of combining and editing these three independent writings may
go back to early in the 3rd or even to the 2nd century.
LITERATURE.--_Editions of the Ethiopic Text_: Laurence, _Ascensio
Isaiae vatis_ (1819); Dillmann, _Ascensio Isaiae Aethiopice et Latine,
cum prolegomenis, adnotationibus criticis et exegeticis, additis
versionum Latinarum reliquiis edita_ (1877); Charles, _Ascension of
Isaiah, translated from the Ethiopic Version, which, together with the
new Greek Fragment, the Latin Versions and the Latin translation of
the Slavonic, is here published in full, edited with Introduction,
Notes and Indices_ (1900); Flemming, in Hennecke's _NTliche Apok._
292-305; _NTliche Apok.-Handbuch_, 323-331. This translation is made
from Charles's text, and his analysis of the text is in the main
accepted by this scholar. _Translations_: In addition to the
translations given in the preceding editions, Basset, _Les Apocryphes
ethiopiens_, iii. "L'Ascension d'Isaie" (1894); Beer, _Apok. und
Pseud._ (1900) ii. 124-127. The latter is a German rendering of
ii.-iii. 1-12, v. 2-14, of Dillmann's text. _Critical Inquiries_:
Stokes, art. "Isaiah, Ascension of," in Smith's _Dict. of Christian
Biography_ (1882), iii. 298-301; Robinson, "The Ascension of Isaiah"
in Hastings' _Bible Dict._ ii. 499-501. For complete bibliography see
Schurer,[3] _Gesch. des jud. Volks_, iii. 280-285; Charles, _op. cit._
(R. H. C.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] Published by them in the _Amherst Papyri_, an account of the
Greek papyri in the collection of Lord Amherst (1900), and by Charles
in his edition.
ISANDHLWANA, an isolated hill in Zululand, 8 m. S.E. of Rorke's Drift
across the Tugela river, and 105 m. N. by W. of Durban. On the 22nd of
January 1879 a British force encamped at the foot of the hill was
attacked by about 10,000 Zulus, the flower of Cetewayo's army, and
destroyed. Of eight hundred Europeans engaged about forty escaped (see
ZULULAND: _History_).
ISAR (identical with _Isere_, in Celtic "the rapid"), a river of
Bavaria. It rises in the Tirolese Alps N.E. from Innsbruck, at an
altitude of 5840 ft. It first winds in deep, narrow glens and gorges
through the Alps, and at Tolz (2100 ft.), due north from its source,
enters the Bavarian plain, which it traverses in a generally north and
north-east direction, and pours its waters into the Danube immediately
below Deggendorf after a course of 219 m. The area of its drainage basin
is 38,200 sq. m. Below Munich the stream is 140 to 350 yards wide, and
is studded with islands. It is not navigable, except for rafts. The
total fall of the river is 4816 ft. The Isar is essentially the national
stream of the Bavarians. It has belonged from the earliest times to the
Bavarian people and traverses the finest corn land in the kingdom. On
its banks lie the cities of Munich and Landshut, and the venerable
episcopal see of Freising, and the inhabitants of the district it waters
are reckoned the core of the Bavarian race.
See C. Gruber, _Die Isar nach ihrer Entwickelung und ihren
hydrologischen Verhaltnissen_ (Munich, 1889); and _Die Bedeutung der
Isar als Verkehrsstrasse_ (Munich, 1890).
ISATIN, C8H5NO2, in chemistry, a derivative of indol, interesting on
account of its relation to indigo; it may be regarded as the anhydride
of ortho-aminobenzoylformic or isatinic acid. It crystallizes in orange
red prisms which melt at 200-201 deg. C. It may be prepared by oxidizing
indigo with nitric or chromic acid (O. L. Erdmann, _Jour. prak. Chem._,
1841, 24, p. 11); by boiling ortho-nitrophenylpropiolic acid with
alkalis (A. Baeyer, _Ber._, 1880, 13, p. 2259), or by oxidizing
carbostyril with alkaline potassium permanganate (P. Friedlander and H.
Ostermaier, _Ber._, 1881, 14, p. 1921). P. J. Meyer (German Patent 26736
(1883)) obtains substituted isatins by condensing para-toluidine with
dichloracetic acid, oxidizing the product with air and then hydrolysing
the oxidized product with hydrochloric acid. T. Sandmeyer (German
Patents 113981 and 119831 (1899)) obtained isatin-[alpha]-anilide by
condensing aniline with chloral hydrate and hydroxylamine, an
intermediate product isonitrosodiphenylacetamidine being obtained, which
is converted into isatin-[alpha]-anilide by sulphuric acid. This can be
converted into indigo by reduction with ammonium sulphide. Isatin
dissolved in concentrated sulphuric acid gives a blue coloration with
thiophene, due to the formation of indophenin (see _Abst. J.C.S._,
1907). Concentrated nitric acid oxidizes it to oxalic acid, and alkali
fusion yields aniline. It dissolves in soda forming a violet solution,
which soon becomes yellow, a change due to the transformation of sodium
N-isatin into sodium isatate, the _aci_-isatin salt being probably
formed intermediately (Heller, _Abst. J.C.S._, 1907, i. p. 442). Most
metallic salts are N-derivatives yielding N-methyl ethers; the silver
salt is, however, an O-derivative, yielding an O-methyl ether (A. v.
Baeyer, 1883; W. Peters, _Abst. J.C.S._, 1907, i. p. 239).
/\ /CO /\ /CO /\ /CO /\ /CO
/ \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \
| | \CO | | \CO | | \ | | \
| | / | | / | | //C(OH) | | //COAg.
\ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ // \ / \ //
\/ \NH \/ \N(Na) \/ \N \/ \N
Isatin([psi]) Sodium salt Isatin Silver salt
ISAURIA, in ancient geography, a district in the interior of Asia Minor,
of very different extent at different periods. The permanent nucleus of
it was that section of the Taurus which lies directly to south of
Iconium and Lystra. Lycaonia had all the Iconian plain; but Isauria
began as soon as the foothills were reached. Its two original towns,
Isaura Nea and Isaura Palaea, lay, one among these foothills (_Dorla_)
and the other on the watershed (Zengibar Kale). When the Romans first
encountered the Isaurians (early in the 1st century B.C.), they regarded
Cilicia Trachea as part of Isauria, which thus extended to the sea; and
this extension of the name continued to be in common use for two
centuries. The whole basin of the Calycadnus was reckoned Isaurian, and
the cities in the valley of its southern branch formed what was known as
the Isaurian Decapolis. Towards the end of the 3rd century A.D.,
however, all Cilicia was detached for administrative purposes from the
northern slope of Taurus, and we find a province called at first
Isauria-Lycaonia, and later Isauria alone, extending up to the limits of
Galatia, but not passing Taurus on the south. Pisidia, part of which had
hitherto been included in one province with Isauria, was also detached,
and made to include Iconium. In compensation Isauria received the
eastern part of Pamphylia. Restricted again in the 4th century, Isauria
ended as it began by being just the wild district about Isaura Palaea
and the heads of the Calycadnus. Isaura Palaea was besieged by
Perdiccas, the Macedonian regent after Alexander's death; and to avoid
capture its citizens set the place alight and perished in the flames.
During the war of the Cilician and other pirates against Rome, the
Isaurians took so active a part that the proconsul P. Servilius deemed
it necessary to follow them into their fastnesses, and compel the whole
people to submission, an exploit for which he received the title of
Isauricus (75 B.C.). The Isaurians were afterwards placed for a time
under the rule of Amyntas, king of Galatia; but it is evident that they
continued to retain their predatory habits and virtual independence. In
the 3rd century they sheltered the rebel emperor, Trebellianus. In the
4th century they are still described by Ammianus Marcellinus as the
scourge of the neighbouring provinces of Asia Minor; but they are said
to have been effectually subdued in the reign of Justinian. In common
with all the eastern Taurus, Isauria passed into the hands of Turcomans
and Yuruks with the Seljuk conquest. Many of these have now coalesced
with the aboriginal population and form a settled element: but the
district is still lawless.
This comparatively obscure people had the honour of producing two
Byzantine emperors, Zeno, whose native name was Traskalisseus
Rousoumbladeotes, and Leo III., who ascended the throne of
Constantinople in 718, reigned till 741, and became the founder of a
dynasty of three generations. The ruins of Isaura Palaea are mainly
remarkable for their fine situation and their fortifications and tombs.
Those of Isaura Nea have disappeared, but numerous inscriptions and many
sculptured _stelae_, built into the houses of _Dorla_, prove the site.
It was the latter, and not the former town, that Servilius reduced by
cutting off the water supply. The site was identified by W. M. Ramsay
in 1901. The only modern exploration of highland Isauria was that made
by J. S. Sterrett in 1885; but it was not exhaustive.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--W. M. Ramsay, _Historical Geography of Asia Minor_
(1890), and article "Nova Isaura" in _Journ. Hell. Studies_ (1905); A.
M. Ramsay, ibid. (1904); J. R. S. Sterrett, "Wolfe Expedition to Asia
Minor," _Papers Amer. Inst. of Arch._ iii. (1888); C. Ritter,
_Erdkunde_, xix. (1859); E. J. Davis, _Life in As. Turkey_ (1879).
(D. G. H.)
ISCHIA (Gr. [Greek: Pithekousa], Lat. _Aenaria_, in poetry _Inarime_),
an island off the coast of Campania, Italy, 16 m. S.W. of Naples, to the
province of which it belongs, and 7 m. S.W. of the Capo Miseno, the
nearest point of the mainland. Pop. about 20,000. It is situated at the
W. extremity of the Gulf of Naples, and is the largest island near
Naples, measuring about 19 m. in circumference and 26 sq. m. in area. It
belongs to the same volcanic system as the mainland near it, and the
Monte Epomeo (anc. [Greek: Epopeus], viewpoint), the highest point of
the island (2588 ft.), lies on the N. edge of the principal crater,
which is surrounded by twelve smaller cones. The island was perhaps
occupied by Greek settlers even before Cumae; its Eretrian and
Chalcidian inhabitants abandoned it about 500 B.C. owing to an eruption,
and it is said to have been deserted almost at once by the greater part
of the garrison which Hiero I. of Syracuse had placed there about 470
B.C., owing to the same cause. Later on it came into the possession of
Naples, but passed into Roman hands in 326, when Naples herself lost her
independence. The ancient town, traces of the fortifications of which
still exist, was situated near Lacco, at the N.W. corner of the island.
Augustus gave it back to Naples in exchange for Capri. After the fall of
Rome it suffered attacks and devastations from the successive masters of
Italy, until it was finally taken by the Neapolitans in 1299.
Several eruptions are recorded in Roman times. The last of which we have
any knowledge occurred in 1301, but the island was visited by
earthquakes in 1881 and 1883, 1700 lives being lost in the latter year,
when the town of Casamicciola on the north side of the island was almost
entirely destroyed. The hot springs here, which still survive from the
period of volcanic activity, rise at a temperature of 147 deg. Fahr. and
are alkaline and saline; they are much visited by bathers, especially in
summer. They were known in Roman times, and many votive altars dedicated
to Apollo and the nymphs have been found. The whole island is
mountainous, and is remarkable for its beautiful scenery and its
fertility. Wine, corn, oil and fruit are produced, especially the
former, while the mountain slopes are clothed with woods. Tiles and
pottery are made in the island. Straw-plaiting is a considerable
industry at Lacco; and a certain amount of fishing is also done. The
potter's clay of Ischia served for the potteries of Cumae and Puteoli in
ancient times, and was indeed in considerable demand until the
catastrophe at Casamicciola in 1883.
The chief towns are Ischia on the E. coast, the capital and the seat of
a bishop (pop. in 1901, town, 2756; commune, 7012), with a 15th-century
castle, to which Vittoria Colonna retired after the death of her husband
in 1525; Casamicciola (pop. in 1901, town, 1085; commune, 3731) on the
north, and Forio on the west coast (pop. in 1901, town, 3640; commune,
7197). There is regular communication with Naples, both by steamer
direct, and also by steamer to Torregaveta, 2 m. W.S.W. of Baiae and
12(1/2) m. W.S.W. of Naples, and thence by rail.
See J. Beloch, _Campanien_ (Breslau, 1890), 202 sqq. (T. As.)
ISCHL, a market-town and watering-place of Austria, in Upper Austria, 55
m. S.S.W. of Linz by rail. Pop. (1900) 9646. It is beautifully situated
on the peninsula formed by the junction of the rivers Ischl and Traun
and is surrounded by high mountains, presenting scenery of the finest
description. To the S. is the Siriuskogl or Hundskogl (1960 ft.), and to
the W. the Schafberg (5837 ft.), which is ascended from St Wolfgang by a
rack-and-pinion railway, built in 1893. It possesses a fine parish
church, built by Maria Theresa and renovated in 1877-1880, and the
Imperial Villa is surrounded by a magnificent park. Ischl is one of the
most fashionable spas of Europe, being the favourite summer residence
of the Austrian Imperial family and of the Austrian nobility since 1822.
It has saline and sulphureous drinking springs and numerous brine and
brine-vapour baths. The brine used at Ischl contains about 25% of salt
and there are also mud, sulphur and pine-cone baths. Ischl is situated
at an altitude of 1533 ft. above sea-level and has a very mild climate.
Its mean annual temperature is 49.4 deg. F. and its mean summer
temperature is 63.5 deg. F. Ischl is an important centre of the salt
industry and 4 m. to its W. is a celebrated salt mine, which has been
worked as early as the 12th century.
ISEO, LAKE OF (the _Lacus Sebinus_ of the Romans), a lake in Lombardy,
N. Italy, situated at the southern foot of the Alps, and between the
provinces of Bergamo and Brescia. It is formed by the Oglio river, which
enters the northern extremity of the lake of Lovere, and issues from the
southern end at Sarnico, on its way to join the Po. The area of the lake
is about 24 sq. m., it is 17(1/2) m. in length, and 3 m. wide in the
broadest portion, while the greatest depth is said to be about 984 ft.
and the height of its surface above sea-level 607 ft. It contains one
large island, that of Siviano, which culminates in the Monte Isola (1965
ft.) that is crowned by a chapel, while to the south is the islet of San
Paolo, occupied by the buildings of a small Franciscan convent now
abandoned, and to the north the equally tiny island of Loreto, with a
ruined chapel containing frescoes. At the southern end of the lake are
the small towns of Iseo (15 m. by rail N.W. of Brescia) and of Sarnico.
From Paratico, opposite Sarnico, on the other or left bank of the Oglio,
a railway runs in 6(1/4) m. to Palazzolo, on the main Brescia-Bergamo
line. Towards the head of the lake, the deep wide valley of the Oglio is
seen, dominated by the glittering snows of the Adamello (11,661 ft.), a
glorious prospect. Along the east shore (the west shore is far more
rugged) a fine carriage road rims from Iseo to the considerable town of
Pisogne (13(1/2) m.), situated at the northern end of the lake, and
nearly opposite that of Lovere, on the right bank of the Oglio. The
portion of this road some way S. of Pisogne is cleverly engineered, and
is carried through several tunnels. The lake's charms were celebrated by
Lady Mary Wortley-Montagu, who spent ten summers (1747-1757) in a villa
at Lovere, then much frequented by reason of an iron spring. The lake
has several sardine and eel fisheries. (W. A. B. C.)
ISERE [anc. _Isara_], one of the chief rivers in France as well as of
those flowing down on the French side of the Alpine chain. Its total
length from its source to its junction with the Rhone is about 180 m.,
during which it descends a height of about 7550 ft. Its drainage area is
about 4725 sq. m. It flows through the departments of Savoie, Isere and
Drome. This river rises in the Galise glaciers in the French Graian Alps
and flows, as a mountain torrent, through a narrow valley past Tignes in
a north-westerly direction to Bourg St Maurice, at the western foot of
the Little St Bernard Pass. It now bends S.W., as far as Moutiers, the
chief town of the Tarentaise, as the upper course of the Isere is named.
Here it again turns N.W. as far as Albertville, where after receiving
the Arly (right) it once more takes a south-westerly direction, and near
St Pierre d'Albigny receives its first important tributary, the Arc
(left), a wild mountain stream flowing through the Maurienne and past
the foot of the Mont Cenis Pass. A little way below, at Montmelian, it
becomes officially navigable (for about half of its course), though it
is but little used for that purpose owing to the irregular depth of its
bed and the rapidity of its current. Very probably, in ancient days, it
flowed from Montmelian N.W. and, after passing through or forming the
Lac du Bourget, joined the Rhone. But at present it continues from
Montmelian in a south-westerly direction, flowing through the broad and
fertile valley of the Graisivaudan, though receiving but a single
affluent of any importance, the Breda (left). At Grenoble, the most
important town on its banks, it bends for a short distance again N.W.
But just below that town it receives by far its most important affluent
(left) the Drac, which itself drains the entire S. slope of the lofty
snow-clad Dauphine Alps, and which, 11 m. above Grenoble, had received
the Romanche (right), a mountain stream which drains the entire central
and N. portion of the same Alps. Hence the Drac is, at its junction
with the Isere, a stream of nearly the same volume, while these two
rivers, with the Durance, drain practically the entire French slope of
the Alpine chain, the basins of the Arve and of the Var forming the sole
exceptions. A short distance below Moirans the Isere changes its
direction for the last time and now flows S.W. past Romans before
joining the Rhone on the left, as its principal affluent after the Saone
and the Durance, between Tournon and Valence. The Isere is remarkable
for the way in which it changes its direction, forming three great loops
of which the apex is respectively at Bourg St Maurice, Albertville and
Moirans. For some way after its junction with the Rhone the grey
troubled current of the Isere can be distinguished in the broad and
peaceful stream of the Rhone. (W. A. B. C )
ISERE, a department of S.E. France, formed in 1790 out of the northern
part of the old province of Dauphine. Pop. (1906) 562,315. It is bounded
N. by the department of the Ain, E. by that of Savoie, S. by those of
the Hautes Alpes and the Drome and W. by those of the Loire and the
Rhone. Its area is 3179 sq. m. (surpassed only by 7 other departments),
while its greatest length is 93 m. and its greatest breadth 53 m. The
river Isere runs for nearly half its course through this department, to
which it gives its name. The southern portion of the department is very
mountainous, the loftiest summit being the Pic Lory (13,396 ft.) in the
extensive snow-clad Oisans group (drained by the Drac and Romanche, two
mighty mountain torrents), while minor groups are those of Belledonne,
of Allevard, of the Grandes Rousses, of the Devoluy, of the Trieves, of
the Royannais, of the Vercors and, slightly to the north of the rest,
that of the Grande Chartreuse. The northern portion of the department is
composed of plateaux, low hills and plains, while on every side but the
south it is bounded by the course of the Rhone. It forms the bishopric
of Grenoble (dating from the 4th century), till 1790 in the
ecclesiastical province of Vienne, and now in that of Lyons. The
department is divided into four arrondissements (Grenoble, St Marcellin,
La Tour du Pin and Vienne), 45 cantons and 563 communes. Its capital is
Grenoble, while other important towns in it are the towns of Vienne, St
Marcellin and La Tour du Pin. It is well supplied with railways (total
length 342 m.), which give access to Gap, to Chambery, to Lyons, to St
Rambert and to Valence, while it also possesses many tramways (total
length over 200 m.). It contains silver, lead, coal and iron mines, as
well as extensive slate, stone and marble quarries, besides several
mineral springs (Allevard, Uriage and La Motte). The forests cover much
ground, while among the most flourishing industries are those of glove
making, cement, silk weaving and paper making. The area devoted to
agriculture (largely in the fertile valley of the Graisivaudan, or
Isere, N.E. of Grenoble) is about 1211 sq. m. (W. A. B. C.)
ISERLOHN, a town in the Prussian province of Westphalia, on the Baar, in
a bleak and hilly region, 17 m. W. of Arnsberg, and 30 m. E.N.E. from
Barmen by rail. Pop. (1900) 27,265. Iserlohn is one of the most
important manufacturing towns in Westphalia. Both in the town and
neighbourhood there are numerous foundries and works for iron, brass,
steel and bronze goods, while other manufactures include wire, needles
and pins, fish-hooks, machinery, umbrella-frames, thimbles, bits,
furniture, chemicals, coffee-mills, and pinchbeck and britannia-metal
goods. Iserlohn is a very old town, its gild of armourers being referred
to as "ancient" in 1443.
ISFAHAN (older form _Ispahan_), the name of a Persian province and town.
The province is situated in the centre of the country, and bounded S. by
Fars, E. by Yezd, N. by Kashan, Natanz and Irak, and W. by the Bakhtiari
district and Arabistan. It pays a yearly revenue of about L100,000, and
its population exceeds 500,000. It is divided into twenty-five
districts, its capital, the town of Isfahan, forming one of them. These
twenty-five districts, some very small and consisting of only a little
township and a few hamlets, are Isfahan, Jai, Barkhar, Kahab, Kararaj,
Baraan, Rudasht, Marbin, Lenjan, Kerven, Rar, Kiar, Mizdej, Ganduman,
Somairam, Jarkuyeh, Ardistan, Kuhpayeh, Najafabad, Komisheh, Chadugan,
Varzek, Tokhmaklu, Gurji, Chinarud. Most of these districts are very
fertile, and produce great quantities of wheat, barley, rice, cotton,
tobacco and opium. Lenjan, west of the city of Isfahan, is the greatest
rice-producing district; the finest cotton comes from Jarkuyeh; the best
opium and tobacco from the villages in the vicinity of the city.
The town of Isfahan or Ispahan, formerly the capital of Persia, now the
capital of the province, is situated on the Zayendeh river in 32 deg.
39' N. and 51 deg. 40' E.[1] at an elevation of 5370 ft. Its population,
excluding that of the Armenian colony of Julfa on the right or south
bank of the river (about 4000), is estimated at 100,000 (73,654,
including 5883 Jews, in 1882). The town is divided into thirty-seven
_mahallehs_ (parishes) and has 210 mosques and colleges (many half
ruined), 84 caravanserais, 150 public baths and 68 flour mills. The
water supply is principally from open canals led off from the river and
from several streams and canals which come down from the hills in the
north-west. The name of the Isfahan river was originally Zendeh (Pahlavi
_zendek_) rud, "the great river"; it was then modernized into
Zindeh-rud, "the living river," and is now called Zayendeh rud, "the
life-giving river." Its principal source is the Jananeh rud which rises
on the eastern slope of the Zardeh Kuh about 90 to 100 m. W. of Isfahan.
After receiving the Khursang river from Feridan on the north and the
Zarin rud from Chaharmahal on the south it is called Zendeh rud. It then
waters the Lenjan and Marbin districts, passes Isfahan as Zayendeh-rud
and 70 m. farther E. ends in the Gavkhani depression. From its entrance
into Lenjan to its end 105 canals are led off from it for purposes of
irrigation and 14 bridges cross it (5 at Isfahan). Its volume of water
at Isfahan during the spring season has been estimated at 60,000 cub.
ft. per second; in autumn the quantity is reduced to one-third, but
nearly all of it being then used for feeding the irrigation canals very
little is left for the river bed. The town covers about 20 sq. m., but
many parts of it are in ruins. The old city walls--a ruined mud
curtain--are about 5 m. in circumference.
Of the many fine public buildings constructed by the Sefavis and during
the reign of the present dynasty very little remains. There are still
standing in fairly good repair the two palaces named respectively Chehel
Situn, "the forty pillars," and Hasht Behesht, "the eight paradises,"
the former constructed by Shah Abbas I. (1587-1629), the latter by Shah
Soliman in 1670, and restored and renovated by Fath Ali Shah
(1797-1834). They are ornamented with gilding and mirrors in every
possible variety of Arabesque decoration, and large and brilliant
pictures, representing scenes of Persian history, cover the walls of
their principal apartments and have been ascribed in many instances to
Italian and Dutch artists who are known to have been in the service of
the Sefavis. Attached to these palaces were many other buildings such as
the Imaretino built by Amin ed-Dowleh (or Addaula) for Fath Ali Shah,
the Imaret i Ashref built by Ashref Khan, the Afghan usurper, the Talar
Tavileh, Guldasteh, Sarpushideh, &c., erected in the early part of the
19th century by wealthy courtiers for the convenience of the sovereign
and often occupied as residences of European ministers travelling
between Bushire and Teheran and by other distinguished travellers.
Perhaps the most agreeable residence of all was the Haft Dast, "the
seven courts," in the beautiful garden of Saadetabad on the southern
bank of the river, and 2 or 3 m. from the centre of the city. This
palace was built by Shah Abbas II. (1642-1667), and Fath Ali Shad Kajar
died there in 1834. Close to it was the Aineh Khaneh, "hall of mirrors"
and other elegant buildings in the Hazar jerib (1000 acre) garden. All
these palaces and buildings on both sides of the river were surrounded
by extensive gardens, traversed by avenues of tall trees, principally
planes, and intersected by paved canals of running water with tanks and
fountains. Since Fath Ali Shah's death, palaces and gardens have been
neglected. In 1902 an official was sent from Teheran to inspect the
crown buildings, to report on their condition, and repair and renovate
some, &c. The result was that all the above-mentioned buildings,
excepting the Chehel Situn and Hasht Behesht, were demolished and their
timber, bricks, stone, &c., sold to local builders. The gardens are
wildernesses. The garden of the Chehel Situn palace opens out through
the Ala Kapu ("highest gate, sublime porte") to the Maidan-i-Shah, which
is one of the most imposing piazzas in the world, a parallelogram of 560
yds. (N.-S.) by 174 yds. (E.-W.) surrounded by brick buildings divided
into two storeys of recessed arches, or arcades, one above the other. In
front of these arcades grow a few stunted planes and poplars. On the
south side of the maidan is the famous Masjed i Shah (the shah's mosque)
erected by Shah Abbas I. in 1612-1613. It is covered with glazed tiles
of great brilliancy and richly decorated with gold and silver ornaments
and cost over L175,000. It is in good repair, and plans of it were
published by C. Texier (_L'Armenie, la Perse_, &c., vol. i. pls. 70-72)
and P. Coste (_Monuments de la Perse_). On the eastern side of the
maidan stands the Masjed i Lutf Ullah with beautiful enamelled tiles and
in good repair. Opposite to it on the western side of the maidan is the
Ala Kapu, a lofty building in the form of an archway overlooking the
maidan and crowned in the fore part by an immense open throne-room
supported by wooden columns, while the hinder part is elevated three
storeys higher. On the north side of the maidan is the entrance gate to
the main bazaar surmounted by the Nekkareh-Khaneh, or drumhouse, where
is blared forth the appalling music saluting the rising and setting sun,
said to have been instituted by Jamshid many thousand years ago. West of
the Chehel Situn palace and conducting N.-S. from the centre of the city
to the great bridge of Allah Verdi Khan is the great avenue nearly a
mile in length called Chahar Bagh, "the four gardens," recalling the
fact that it was originally occupied by four vineyards which Shah Abbas
I. rented at L360 a year and converted into a splendid approach to his
capital.
It was thus described by Lord Curzon of Kedleston in 1880: "Of all the
sights of Isfahan, this in its present state is the most pathetic in
the utter and pitiless decay of its beauty. Let me indicate what it
was and what it is. At the upper extremity a two-storeyed pavilion,[2]
connected by a corridor with the Seraglio of the palace, so as to
enable the ladies of the harem to gaze unobserved upon the merry scene
below, looked out upon the centre of the avenue. Water, conducted in
stone channels, ran down the centre, falling in miniature cascades
from terrace to terrace, and was occasionally collected in great
square or octagonal basins where cross roads cut the avenue. On either
side of the central channel was a row of oriental planes and a paved
pathway for pedestrians. Then occurred a succession of open parterres,
usually planted or sown. Next on either side was a second row of
planes, between which and the flanking walls was a raised causeway for
horsemen. The total breadth is now fifty-two yards. At intervals
corresponding with the successive terraces and basins, arched doorways
with recessed open chambers overhead conducted through these walls
into the various royal or noble gardens that stretched on either side,
and were known as the Gardens of the Throne, of the Nightingale, of
Vines, of Mulberries, Dervishes, &c. Some of these pavilions were
places of public resort and were used as coffee-houses, where when the
business of the day was over, the good burghers of Isfahan assembled
to sip that beverage and inhale their _kalians_ the while; as Fryer
puts it: 'Night drawing on, all the pride of Spahaun was met in the
Chaurbaug and the Grandees were Airing themselves, prancing about with
their numerous Trains, striving to outvie each other in Pomp and
Generosity.' At the bottom, quays lined the banks of the river, and
were bordered with the mansions of the nobility."
Such was the Chahar Bagh in the plenitude of its fame. But now what a
tragical contrast! The channels are empty, their stone borders
crumbled and shattered, the terraces are broken down, the parterres
are unsightly bare patches, the trees, all lopped and pollarded, have
been chipped and hollowed out or cut down for fuel by the soldiery of
the Zil, the side pavilions are abandoned and tumbling to pieces and
the gardens are wildernesses. Two centuries of decay could never make
the Champs Elysees in Paris, the Unter den Linden in Berlin, or
Rotten Row in London, look one half as miserable as does the ruined
avenue of Shah Abbas. It is in itself an epitome of modern Iran."
Towards the upper end of the avenue on its eastern side stands the
medresseh (college) which Shah Hosain built in 1710. It still has a few
students, but is very much out of repair; Lord Curzon spoke of it in
1888 as "one of the stateliest ruins that he saw in Persia." South of
this college the avenue is altogether without trees, and the gardens on
both sides have been turned into barley fields. Among the other notable
buildings of Isfahan must be reckoned its five bridges, all fine
structures, and one of them, the bridge of Allah Verdi Kahn, 388 yds. in
length with a paved roadway of 30 ft. in breadth, is one of the
stateliest bridges in the world, and has suffered little by the march of
decay.
Another striking feature of Isfahan is the line of covered bazaars,
which extends for nearly 3 m. and divides the city from south to north.
The confluence of people in these bazaars is certainly very great, and
gives an exaggerated idea of the populousness of the city, the truth
being that while the inhabitants congregate for business in the bazaars,
the rest of the city is comparatively deserted. When surveyed from a
commanding height within the city, or in the immediate environs, the
enormous extent of mingled garden and building, about 30 m. in circuit,
gives an impression of populousness and busy life, but a closer scrutiny
reveals that the whole scene is nothing more than a gigantic sham. With
the exception of the bazaars and a few parishes there is really no
continuous inhabited area. Whole streets, whole quarters of the city
have fallen into utter ruin and are absolutely deserted, and the
traveller who is bent on visiting some of the remarkable sites in the
northern part of the city or in the western suburbs, such as the
minarets dating from the 12th century, the remains of the famous castle
of Tabarrak built by the Buyid Rukn addaula (d. 976), the ruins of the
old fire temple, the shaking minarets of Guladan, &c., has to pass
through miles of crumbling mud walls and roofless houses. It is believed
indeed that not a twentieth part of the area of the old city is at
present peopled, and the million or 600,000 inhabitants of Chardin's
time (middle of the 17th century) have now dwindled to about 85,000. The
Armenian suburb of Julfa, at any rate, which contained a population of
30,000 souls in the 17th century, has now only 4000, and the Christian
churches, which numbered thirteen and were maintained with splendour,
are now reduced to half a dozen edifices with bare walls and empty
benches. Much improvement has recently taken place in the education of
the young and also in their religious teaching, the wealthy Armenians of
India and Java having liberally contributed to the national schools, and
the Church Missionary Society of London having a church, schools and
hospitals there since 1869.
The people of Isfahan have a very poor reputation in Persia either for
courage or morals. They are regarded as a clever but at the same time
dissolute and disorderly community, whose government requires a strong
hand. The _lutis_ (hooligans) of Isfahan are proverbial as the most
turbulent and rowdy set of vagabonds in Persia. The priesthood of
Isfahan are much respected for their learning and high character, and
the merchants are a very respectable class. The commerce of Isfahan has
greatly fallen off from its former flourishing condition, and it is
doubtful whether the trade of former days can ever be restored.
(A. H.-S.)
_History._--The natural advantages of Isfahan--a genial climate, a
fertile soil and abundance of water for irrigation--must have always
made it a place of importance. In the most ancient cuneiform
documents, referring to a period between 3000 and 2000 B.C., the
province of _Anshan_, which certainly included Isfahan, was the limit
of the geographical knowledge of the Babylonians, typifying the
extreme east, as Syria (or _Martu-ki_) typified the west. The two
provinces of _Anshan_ and _Subarta_, by which we must understand the
country from Isfahan to Shuster, were ruled in those remote ages by
the same king, who undoubtedly belonged to the great Turanian family;
and from this first notice of Anshan down to the 7th century B.C. the
region seems to have remained, more or less, dependent on the
paramount power of Susa. With regard to the eastern frontier of
Anshan, however, ethnic changes were probably in extensive operation
during this interval of twenty centuries. The western Iranians, for
instance, after separating from their eastern brethren on the Oxus, as
early perhaps as 3000 B.C., must have followed the line of the Elburz
mountains, and then bifurcating into two branches must have scattered,
westward into Media and southward towards Persia. The first
substantial settlement of the southern branch would seem then to have
been at Isfahan, where _Jem_, the eponym of the Persian race, is said
to have founded a famous castle, the remains of which were visible as
late as the 10th century A.D. This castle is known in the Zoroastrian
writings as _Jem-gird_, but its proper name was _Saru_ or _Saruk_
(given in the Bundahish as _Sruwa_ or _Srobak_), and it was especially
famous in early Mahommedan history as the building where the ancient
records and tables of the Persians were discovered which proved of so
much use to Albumazar and his contemporaries. A valuable tradition,
proceeding from quite a different source, has also been preserved to
the effect that Jem, who invented the original Persian character,
"dwelt in Assan, a district of Shuster" (see Flugel's _Fihrist_, p.
12, l. 21), which exactly accords with the Assyrian notices of Assan
or Anshan classed as a dependency of Elymais. Now, it is well known
that native legend represented the Persian race to have been held in
bondage for a thousand years, after the reign of Jem, by the foreign
usurper _Zohak_ or _Biverasp_, a period which may well represent the
duration of Elymaean supremacy over the Aryans of Anshan. At the
commencement of the 7th century B.C. Persia and Ansan are still found
in the annals of Sennacherib amongst the tributaries of Elymais,
confederated against Assyria; but shortly afterwards the great Susian
monarchy, which had lasted for full 2000 years, crumbled away under
continued pressure from the west, and the Aryans of Anshan recovered
their independence, founding for the first time a national dynasty,
and establishing their seat of government at Gabae on the site of the
modern city of Isfahan.
The royal city of Gabae was known as a foundation of the Achaemenidae
as late as the time of Strabo, and the inscriptions show that
Achaemenes and his successors did actually rule at Anshan until the
great Cyrus set out on his career of western victory. Whether the
_Kabi_ or _Kavi_ of tradition, the blacksmith of Isfahan, who is said
to have headed the revolt against Zohak, took his name from the town
of Gabae may be open to question; but it is at any rate remarkable
that the national standard of the Persian race, named after the
blacksmith, and supposed to have been first unfurled at this epoch,
retained the title of _Darafsh-a Kavani_ (the banner of Kavi) to the
time of the Arab conquest, and that the men of Isfahan were, moreover,
throughout this long period, always especially charged with its
protection. The provincial name of Anshan or Assan seems to have been
disused in the country after the age of Cyrus, and to have been
replaced by that of Gabene or Gabiane, which alone appears in the
Greek accounts of the wars of Alexander and his successors, and in the
geographical descriptions of Strabo. Gabae or Gavi became gradually
corrupted to _Jai_ during the Sassanian period, and it was thus by the
latter name that the old city of Isfahan was generally known at the
time of the Arab invasion. Subsequently the title of Jai became
replaced by _Sheheristan_ or _Medineh_, "the city" _par excellence_,
while a suburb which had been founded in the immediate vicinity, and
which took the name of _Yahudieh_, or the "Jews' town," from its
original Jewish inhabitants, gradually rose into notice and superseded
the old capital.[3]
_Sheheristan_ and _Yahudieh_ are thus in the early ages of Islam
described as independent cities, the former being the eastern and the
latter the western division of the capital, each surrounded by a
separate wall; but about the middle of the 10th century the famous
Buyid king, known as the _Rukn-addaula_ (_al-Dowleh_), united the two
suburbs and many of the adjoining villages in one general enclosure
which was about 10 m. in circumference. The city, which had now
resumed its old name of Isfahan, continued to flourish till the time
of Timur (A.D. 1387), when in common with so many other cities of the
empire it suffered grievously at the hands of the Tatar invaders.
Timur indeed is said to have erected a _Kelleh Minar_ or "skull tower"
of 70,000 heads at the gate of the city, as a warning to deter other
communities from resisting his arms. The place, however, owing to its
natural advantages, gradually recovered from the effects of this
terrible visitation, and when the Safavid dynasty, who succeeded to
power in the 16th century, transferred their place of residence to it
from Kazvin, it rose rapidly in populousness and wealth. It was under
Shah Abbas the first, the most illustrious sovereign of this house,
that Isfahan attained its greatest prosperity. This monarch adopted
every possible expedient, by stimulating commerce, encouraging arts
and manufactures, and introducing luxurious habits, to attract
visitors to his favourite capital. He built several magnificent
palaces in the richest style of Oriental decoration, planted gardens
and avenues, and distributed amongst them the waters of the Zendeh-rud
in an endless series of reservoirs, fountains and cascades. The baths,
the mosques, the colleges, the bazaars and the caravanserais of the
city received an equal share of his attention, and European artificers
and merchants were largely encouraged to settle in his capital.
Ambassadors visited his court from many of the first states of Europe,
and factories were permanently established for the merchants of
England, France, Holland, the Hanseatic towns, Spain, Portugal and
Moscow. The celebrated traveller Chardin, who passed a great portion
of his life at Isfahan in the latter half of the 17th century, has
left a detailed and most interesting account of the statistics of the
city at that period. He himself estimated the population at 600,000,
though in popular belief the number exceeded a million. There were
1500 flourishing villages in the immediate neighbourhood; the enceinte
of the city and suburbs was reckoned at 24 m., while the mud walls
surrounding the city itself, probably nearly following the lines of
the Buyid enclosure, measured 20,000 paces. In the interior were
counted 162 mosques, 48 public colleges, 1802 caravanserais, 273 baths
and 12 cemeteries. The adjoining suburb of Julfa was also a most
flourishing place. Originally founded by Shah Abbas the Great, who
transported to this locality 3400 Armenian families from the town of
Julfa on the Arras, the colony increased rapidly under his fostering
care, both in wealth and in numbers, the Christian population being
estimated in 1685 at 30,000 souls. The first blow to the prosperity of
modern Isfahan was given by the Afghan invasion at the beginning of
the 18th century, since which date, although continuing for some time
to be the nominal head of the empire, the city has gradually dwindled
in importance, and now only ranks as a second or third rate provincial
capital. When the Kajar dynasty indeed mounted the throne of Persia at
the end of the 18th century the seat of government was at once
transferred to Teheran, with a view to the support of the royal tribe,
whose chief seat was in the neighbouring province of Mazenderan; and,
although it has often been proposed, from considerations of state
policy in reference to Russia, to re-establish the court at Isfahan,
which is the true centre of Persia, the scheme has never commanded
much attention. At the same time the government of Isfahan, owing to
the wealth of the surrounding districts, has always been much sought
after. Early in the 19th century the post was often conferred upon
some powerful minister of the court, but in later times it has been
usually the apanage of a favourite son or brother of the reigning
sovereign.[4] Fath Ali Shah, who had a particular affection for
Isfahan, died here in 1834, and it became a time-honoured custom for
the monarch on the throne to seek relief from the heat of Teheran by
forming a summer camp at the rich pastures of Ganduman, on the skirts
of Zardeh-Kuh, to the west of Isfahan, for the exercise of his troops
and the health and amusement of his courtiers, but in recent years the
practice has been discontinued. (H. C. R.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] These figures are approximate for the centre of the town north of
the river. The result of astronomical observations taken by the
German expedition for observing the transit of Venus in 1874 and by
Sir O. St John in 1870 on the south bank of the river near, and in
Julfa respectively was 51 deg. 40' 3.45" E., 32 deg. 37' 30" N. The
stone slab commemorating the work of the expedition and placed on
the spot where the observations were taken has been carried off and
now serves as a door plinth of an Armenian house.
[2] This pavilion was the Persian telegraph office of Isfahan for
nearly forty years and was demolished in 1903.
[3] The name of Yahudieh or "Jews' town" is derived by the early Arab
geographers from a colony of Jews who are said to have migrated from
Babylonia to Isfahan shortly after Nebuchadrezzar's conquest of
Jerusalem, but this is pure fable. The Jewish settlement really dates
from the 3rd century A.D. as is shown by a notice in the Armenian
history of Moses of Chorene, lib. iii. cap. 35. The name _Isfahan_
has been generally compared with the Aspadana of Ptolemy in the
extreme north of Persis, and the identification is probably correct.
At any rate the title is of great antiquity being found in the
Bundahish, and being derived in all likelihood from the family name
of the race of _Feridun_, the _Athviyan_ of romance, who were
entitled _Aspiyan_ in Pahlavi, according to the phonetic rules of
that language.
[4] Zill es Sultan, elder brother of Muzafar ed d-n Shah, became
governor-general of the Isfahan province in 1869.
ISHIM, a town of West Siberia, in the government of Tobolsk, 180 m. N.W.
of Omsk, on a river of the same name, tributary, on the left, of the
Irtysh. Pop. (1897) 7161. The town, which was founded in 1630, has
tallow-melting and carries on a large trade in rye and rye flour. The
fair is one of the most important in Siberia, its returns being
estimated at L500,000 annually.
ISHMAEL (a Hebrew name meaning "God hears"), in the Bible, the son of
Abraham by his Egyptian concubine Hagar, and the eponym of a number of
(probably) nomadic tribes living outside Palestine. Hagar in turn
personifies a people found to the east of Gilead (1 Chron. v. 10) and
Petra (Strabo).[1] Through the jealousy of Sarah, Abraham's wife, mother
and son were driven away, and they wandered in the district south of
Beersheba and Kadesh (Gen. xvi. J, xxi. E); see ABRAHAM. It had been
foretold to his mother before his birth that he should be "a wild ass
among men," and that he should dwell "before the face of" (that is, to
the eastward of) his brethren. It is subsequently stated that after
leaving his father's roof he "became an archer,[2] and dwelt in the
wilderness of Paran, and his mother took him a wife out of the land of
Egypt." But the genealogical relations were rather with the Edomites,
Midianites and other peoples of North Arabia and the eastern desert than
with Egypt proper, and this is indicated by the expressions that "they
dwelt from Havilah unto Shur that is east of Egypt, and he settled to
the eastward of his brethren" (see MIZRAIM). Like Jacob, the ancestor of
the Israelites, he had twelve sons (xxv. 12-18, P), of which only a few
have historical associations apart from the biblical records. Nebaioth
and Kedar suggest the Nabataei and Cedrei of Pliny (v. 12). the
first-mentioned of whom were an important Arab people after the time of
Alexander (see NABATAEANS). The names correspond to the Nabaitu and
Kidru of the Assyrian inscriptions occupying the desert east of the
Jordan and Dead Sea, whilst the Massa and Tema lay probably farther
south. Dumah may perhaps be the same as the Domata of Pliny (vi. 32) and
the [Greek: Doumetha] or [Greek: Doumaitha] of Ptolemy (v. 19, 7, viii.
22, 3)--Sennacherib conquered a fortress of "Aribi" named Adumu,--and
Jetur is obviously the Ituraea of classical geographers.[3]
"Ishmael," therefore, is used in a wide sense of the wilder, roving
peoples encircling Canaan from the north-east to the south, related to
but on a lower rank than the "sons" of Isaac. It is practically
identical with the term "Arabia" as used by the Assyrians. Nothing
certain is known of the history of these mixed populations. They arc
represented as warlike nomads and with a certain reputation for wisdom
(Baruch iii. 23). Not improbably they spoke a dialect (or dialects)
akin to Arabic or Aramaic.[4] According to the Mahommedans, Ishmael,
who is recognized as their ancestor, lies buried with his mother in
the Kaaba in Mecca. See further, T. Noldeke, _Ency. Bib., s.v._, and
the articles EDOM, MIDIAN. (S. A. C.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] On Paul's use of the story of Hagar (Gal. iv. 24-26), see _Ency.
Bib._ col. 1934; and H. St J. Thackeray, _Relation of St Paul to
contemporary Jewish Thought_ (London, 1900), pp. 196 sqq.; Hagar
typifies the old Sinaitic covenant, and Sarah represents the new
covenant of freedom from bondage. The treatment of the concubine and
her son in Gen. xvi. compared with ch. xxi. illustrates old Hebrew
customs, on which see further S. A. Cook, _Laws of Moses, &c._
(London, 1903), pp. 116 sqq., 140 sq.
[2] The Ituraean archers were of Jetur, one of the "sons" of Ishmael
(Gen. xxv. 15), and were Roman mercenaries, perhaps even in Great
Britain (_Pal. Expl. Fund, Q.S._, 1909, p. 283).
[3] With Adbeel (Gen. xxv. 13) may be identified Idibi'il (-ba'il) a
tribe employed by Tiglath-Pileser IV. (733 B.C.) to watch the
frontier of Musri (Sinaitic peninsula or N. Arabia?).
[4] This is suggested by the fact that Ashurbanipal (7th century)
mentions as the name of their deity Atar-Samain (i.e. "Ishtar of the
heavens").
ISHPEMING, a city of Marquette county, Michigan, U.S.A., about 15 m. W.
by S. of Marquette, in the N. part of the upper peninsula. Pop. (1890)
11,197; (1900) 13,255, of whom 5970 were foreign-born; (1904) 11,623;
(1910) 12,448. It is served by the Chicago & North Western, the Duluth,
South Shore & Atlantic, and the Lake Superior and Ishpeming railways.
The city is 1400 ft. above sea-level (whence its name, from an Ojibway
Indian word, said to mean "high up"), in the centre of the Marquette
Range iron district, and has seven mines within its limits; the mining
of iron ore is its principal industry. Ishpeming was settled about 1854,
and was incorporated as a city in 1873.
ISHTAR, or ISTAR, the name of the chief goddess of Babylonia and
Assyria, the counterpart of the Phoenician Astarte (q.v.). The meaning
of the name is not known, though it is possible that the underlying stem
is the same as that of Assur (q.v.), which would thus make her the
"leading one" or "chief." At all events it is now generally recognized
that the name is Semitic in its origin. Where the name originated is
likewise uncertain, but the indications point to Erech where we find the
worship of a great mother-goddess independent of any association with a
male counterpart flourishing in the oldest period of Babylonian history.
She appears under various names, among which are Nana, Innanna, Nina and
Anunit. As early as the days of Khammurabi we find these various names
which represented originally different goddesses, though all manifest as
the chief trait the life-giving power united in Ishtar. Even when the
older names are employed it is always the great mother-goddess who is
meant. Ishtar is the one goddess in the pantheon who retains her
independent position despite and throughout all changes that the
Babylonian-Assyrian religion undergoes. In a certain sense she is the
only real goddess in the pantheon, the rest being mere reflections of
the gods with whom they are associated as consorts. Even when Ishtar is
viewed as the consort of some chief--of Marduk occasionally in the
south, of Assur more frequently in the north--the consciousness that she
has a personality of her own apart from this association is never lost
sight of.
We may reasonably assume that the analogy drawn from the process of
reproduction among men and animals led to the conception of a female
deity presiding over the life of the universe. The extension of the
scope of this goddess to life in general--to the growth of plants and
trees from the fructifying seed--was a natural outcome of a fundamental
idea; and so, whether we turn to incantations or hymns, in myths and in
epics, in votive inscriptions and in historical annals, Ishtar is
celebrated and invoked as the great mother, as the mistress of lands, as
clothed in splendour and power--one might almost say as the
personification of life itself.
But there are two aspects to this goddess of life. She brings forth, she
fertilizes the fields, she clothes nature in joy and gladness, but she
also withdraws her favours and when she does so the fields wither, and
men and animals cease to reproduce. In place of life, barrenness and
death ensue. She is thus also a grim goddess, at once cruel and
destructive. We can, therefore, understand that she was also invoked as
a goddess of war and battles and of the chase; and more particularly
among the warlike Assyrians she assumes this aspect. Before the battle
she appears to the army, clad in battle array and armed with bow and
arrow. In myths symbolizing the change of seasons she is portrayed in
this double character, as the life-giving and the life-depriving power.
The most noteworthy of these myths describes her as passing through
seven gates into the nether world. At each gate some of her clothing and
her ornaments are removed until at the last gate she is entirely naked.
While she remains in the nether world as a prisoner--whether voluntary
or involuntary it is hard to say--all fertility ceases on earth, but the
time comes when she again returns to earth, and as she passes each gate
the watchman restores to her what she had left there until she is again
clad in her full splendour, to the joy of mankind and of all nature.
Closely allied with this myth and personifying another view of the
change of seasons is the story of Ishtar's love for Tammuz--symbolizing
the spring time--but as midsummer approaches her husband is slain and,
according to one version, it is for the purpose of saving Tammuz from
the clutches of the goddess of the nether world that she enters upon her
journey to that region.
In all the great centres Ishtar had her temples, bearing such names as
E-anna, "heavenly house," in Erech; E-makh, "great house," in Babylon;
E-mash-mash, "house of offerings," in Nineveh. Of the details of her
cult we as yet know little, but there is no evidence that there were
obscene rites connected with it, though there may have been certain
mysteries introduced at certain centres which might easily impress the
uninitiated as having obscene aspects. She was served by priestesses as
well as by priests, and it would appear that the votaries of Ishtar were
in all cases virgins who, as long as they remained in the service of
Ishtar, were not permitted to marry.
In the astral-theological system, Ishtar becomes the planet Venus, and
the double aspect of the goddess is made to correspond to the
strikingly different phases of Venus in the summer and winter seasons.
On monuments and seal-cylinders she appears frequently with bow and
arrow, though also simply clad in long robes with a crown on her head
and an eight-rayed star as her symbol. Statuettes have been found in
large numbers representing her as naked with her arms folded across
her breast or holding a child. The art thus reflects the popular
conceptions formed of the goddess. Together with Sin, the moon-god,
and Shamash, the sun-god, she is the third figure in a triad
personifying the three great forces of nature--moon, sun and earth, as
the life-force. The doctrine involved illustrates the tendency of the
Babylonian priests to centralize the manifestations of divine power in
the universe, just as the triad Anu, Bel and Ea (q.v.)--the heavens,
the earth and the watery deep--form another illustration of this same
tendency.
Naturally, as a member of a triad, Ishtar is dissociated from any
local limitations, and similarly as the planet Venus--a conception
which is essentially a product of theological speculation--no thought
of any particular locality for her cult is present. It is because her
cult, like that of Sin (q.v.) and Shamash (q.v.), is spread over all
Babylonia and Assyria, that she becomes available for purposes of
theological speculation.
Cf. ASTARTE, ATARGATIS, GREAT MOTHER OF THE GODS, and specially
BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN RELIGION. (M. Ja.)
ISHTIB, or Istib (anc. _Astibon_, Slav. _Shtipliye_ or _Shtip_), a town
of Macedonia, European Turkey, in the vilayet of Kossovo; 45 m. E.S.E.
of Uskub. Pop. (1905) about 10,000. Ishtib is built on a hill at the
confluence of the small river Ishtib with the Bregalnitza, a tributary
of the Vardar. It has a thriving agricultural trade, and possesses
several fine mosques, a number of fountains and a large bazaar. A hill
on the north-west is crowned by the ruins of an old castle.
ISIDORE OF ALEXANDRIA,[1] Greek philosopher and one of the last of the
Neoplatonists, lived in Athens and Alexandria towards the end of the 5th
century A.D. He became head of the school in Athens in succession to
Marinus who followed Proclus. His views alienated the chief members of
the school and he was compelled to resign his position to Hegias. He is
known principally as the preceptor of Damascius whose testimony to him
in the _Life of Isidorus_ presents him in a very favourable light as a
man and a thinker. It is generally admitted, however, that he was rather
an enthusiast than a thinker; reasoning with him was subsidiary to
inspiration, and he preferred the theories of Pythagoras and Plato to
the unimaginative logic and the practical ethics of the Stoics and the
Aristotelians. He seems to have given loose rein to a sort of
theosophical speculation and attached great importance to dreams and
waking visions on which he used to expatiate in his public discourses.
Damascius' _Life_ is preserved by Photius in the _Bibliotheca_, and
the fragments are printed in the Didot edition of Diogenes Laertius.
See Agathias, _Hist._ ii. 30; Photius, _Bibliotheca_, 181; and
histories of Neoplatonism.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] With Isidore of Alexandria has been confused an Isidore of Gaza,
mentioned by Photius. Little is known of him except that he was one
of those who accompanied Damascius to the Persian court when
Justinian closed the schools in Athens in 529. Suidas, in speaking of
Isidore of Alexandria, says that Hypatia was his wife, but there is
no means of approximating the dates (see HYPATIA). Suetonius, in his
_Life of Nero_, refers to a Cynic philosopher named Isidore, who is
said to have jested publicly at the expense of Nero.
ISIDORE OF SEVILLE, or ISIDORUS HISPALENSIS (c. 560-636), Spanish
encyclopaedist and historian, was the son of Severianus, a distinguished
native of Cartagena, who came to Seville about the time of the birth of
Isidore. Leander, bishop of Seville, was his elder brother. Left an
orphan while still young, Isidore was educated in a monastery, and soon
distinguished himself in controversies with the Arians. In 599, on the
death of his brother, he was chosen archbishop of Seville, and acquired
high renown by his successful administration of the episcopal office, as
well as by his numerous theological, historical and scientific works. He
founded a school at Seville, and taught in it himself. In the provincial
and national councils he played an important part, notably at Toledo in
610, at Seville in 619 and in 633 at Toledo, which profoundly modified
the organization of the church in Spain. His great work, however, was in
another line. Profoundly versed in the Latin as well as in the Christian
literature, his indefatigable intellectual curiosity led him to condense
and reproduce in encyclopaedic form the fruit of his wide reading. His
works, which include all topics--science, canon law, history or
theology--are unsystematic and largely uncritical, merely reproducing at
second hand the substance of such sources as were available. Yet in
their inadequate way they served to keep alive throughout the dark ages
some little knowledge of the antique culture and learning. The most
elaborate of his writings is the _Originum sive etymologiarum libri XX_.
It was the last of his works, written between 622 and 633, and was
corrected by his friend and disciple Braulion. It is an encyclopaedia of
all the sciences, under the form of an explanation of the terms proper
to each of them. It was one of the capital books of the middle ages.
On the _Libri differentiarum sive de proprietate sermonum_--of which
the first book is a collection of synonyms, and the second of
explanations of metaphysical and religious ideas--see A. Mace's
doctoral dissertation, Rennes, 1900. Mommsen has edited the _Chronica
majora_ or _Chronicon de sex aetatibus_ (from the creation to A.D.
615) and the "Historia Gothorum, Wandalorum, Sueborum," in the
_Monumenta Germaniae historica, auctores antiqitissimi: Chronica
minora II_. The history of the Goths is a historical source of the
first order. The _De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis_ or better _De viris
illustribus_, was a continuation of the work of St Jerome and of
Gennadius (cf. G. von Dzialowski in _Kirchengeschichtliche Studien_,
iv. (1899). Especially interesting is the _De natura rerum ad
Sisebutum regem_, a treatise on astronomy and meteorology, which
contained the sum of physical philosophy during the early middle ages.
The _Regula monachorum_ of Isidore was adopted by many of the
monasteries in Spain during the 7th and 8th centuries. The collection
of canons known as the _Isidoriana_ or _Hispalensis_ is not by him,
and the following, attributed to him, are of doubtful authenticity:
_De ortu ac obitu patrum qui in Scriptura laudibus efferuntur_;
_Allegoriae scripturae sacrae et liber numerorum_; _De ordine
creaturarum_.
The edition of all of Isidore's works by F. Orevalo (Rome, 1797-1803,
7 vols.), reproduced in Migne, _Patrologia Latina_, 81-84, is
carefully edited. See also C. Canal, _San Isidoro, exposicion de sus
obras e indicaciones a cerca de la influencia que han ejercido en la
civilizacion espanola_ (Seville, 1897). A list of monographs is in the
_Bibliographie_ of Ulysse Chevalier.
ISINGLASS (probably a corruption of the Dutch _huisenblas_, Ger.
_Hausenblase_, literally "sturgeon's bladder"), a pure form of
commercial gelatin obtained from the swimming bladder or sound of
several species of fish. The sturgeon is the most valuable, various
species of which, especially _Acipenser stellatus_ (the seuruga), _A.
ruthenus_ (the sterlet) and _A. guldenstadtii_ (the ossetr), flourish in
the Volga and other Russian rivers, in the Caspian and Black Seas, and
in the Arctic Ocean, and yield the "Russian isinglass"; a large fish,
_Silurus parkerii_, and probably some other fish, yield the "Brazilian
isinglass"; other less definitely characterized fish yield the "Penang"
product; while the common cod, the hake and other _Gadidae_ also yield a
variety of isinglass. The sounds, having been removed from the fish and
cleansed, undergo no other preparation than desiccation or drying, an
operation needing much care; but in this process the sounds are
subjected to several different treatments. If the sound be unopened the
product appears in commerce as "pipe," "purse" or "lump isinglass"; if
opened and unfolded, as "leaf" or "honeycomb"; if folded and dried, as
"book," and if rolled out, as "ribbon isinglass." Russian isinglass
generally appears in commerce as leaf, book, and long and short staple;
Brazilian isinglass, from Para and Maranham, as pipe, lump and
honeycomb; the latter product, and also the isinglass of Hudson's Bay,
Penang, Manila, &c., is darker in colour and less soluble than the
Russian product.
The finest isinglass, which comes from the Russian ports of Astrakhan
and Taganrog, is prepared by steeping the sounds in hot water in order
to remove mucus, &c.; they are then cut open and the inner membrane
exposed to the air; after drying, the outer membrane is removed by
rubbing and beating. As imported, isinglass is usually too tough and
hard to be directly used. To increase its availability, the raw material
is sorted, soaked in water till it becomes flexible and then trimmed;
the trimmings are sold as a lower grade. The trimmed sheets are
sometimes passed between steel rollers, which reduce them to the
thickness of paper; it then appears as a transparent ribbon, "shot" like
watered silk. The ribbon is dried, and, if necessary, cut into strips.
The principal use of isinglass is for clarifying wines, beers and other
liquids. This property is the more remarkable since it is not possessed
by ordinary gelatin; it has been ascribed to its fibrous structure,
which forms, as it were, a fine network in the liquid in which it is
disseminated, and thereby mechanically carries down all the minute
particles which occasion the turbidity. The cheaper varieties are more
commonly used; many brewers prefer the Penang product; Russian leaf,
however, is used by some Scottish brewers; and Russian long staple is
used in the Worcestershire cider industry. Of secondary importance is
its use for culinary and confectionery purposes, for example, in making
jellies, stiffening jams, &c. Here it is often replaced by the so-called
"patent isinglass," which is a very pure gelatin, and differs from
natural isinglass by being useless for clarifying liquids. It has few
other applications in the arts. Mixed with gum, it is employed to give a
lustre to ribbons and silk; incorporated with water, Spanish liquorice
and lamp black it forms an Indian ink; a solution, mixed with a little
tincture of benzoin, brushed over sarsenet and allowed to dry, forms the
well-known "court plaster." Another plaster is obtained by adding acetic
acid and a little otto of roses to a solution of fine glue. It also has
valuable agglutinating properties; by dissolving in two parts of pure
alcohol it forms a diamond cement, the solution cooling to a white,
opaque, hard solid; it also dissolves in strong acetic acid to form a
powerful cement, which is especially useful for repairing glass, pottery
and like substances.
ISIS (Egyptian _Ese_), the most famous of the Egyptian goddesses. She
was of human form, in early times distinguished only by the hieroglyph
of her name [symbol] upon her head. Later she commonly wore the horns of
a cow, and the cow was sacred to her; it is doubtful, however, whether
she had any animal representation in early times, nor had she possession
of any considerable locality until a late period, when Philae, Behbet
and other large temples were dedicated to her worship. Yet she was of
great importance in mythology, religion and magic, appearing constantly
in the very ancient Pyramid texts as the devoted sister-wife of Osiris
and mother of Horus. In the divine genealogies she is daughter of Keb
and Nut (earth and sky). She was supreme in magical power, cunning and
knowledge. A legend of the New Kingdom tells how she contrived to learn
the all-powerful hidden name of Re' which he had confided to no one. A
snake which she had fashioned for the purpose stung the god, who sent
for her as a last resort in his unendurable agony; whereupon she
represented to him that nothing but his own mysterious name could
overcome the venom of the snake. Much Egyptian magic turns on the
healing or protection of Horus by Isis, and it is chiefly from magical
texts that the myth of Isis and Osiris as given by Plutarch can be
illustrated. The Metternich stela (XXXth Dynasty), the finest example of
a class of prophylactic stelae generally known by the name of "Horus on
the crocodiles," is inscribed with a long text relating the adventures
of Isis and Horus in the marshes of the Delta. With her sister Nephthys,
Isis is frequently represented as watching the body of Osiris or
mourning his death.
Isis was identified with Demeter by Herodotus, and described as the
goddess who was held to be the greatest by the Egyptians; he states that
she and Osiris, unlike other deities, were worshipped throughout the
land. The importance of Isis had increased greatly since the end of the
New Kingdom. The great temple of Philae was begun under the XXXth
Dynasty; that of Behbet seems to have been built by Ptolemy II. The cult
of Isis spread into Greece with that of Serapis early in the 3rd century
B.C. In Egypt itself Isea, or shrines of Isis, swarmed. At Coptos Isis
became a leading divinity on a par with the early god Min. About 80 B.C.
Sulla founded an Isiac college in Rome, but their altars within the city
were overthrown by the consuls no less than four times in the decade
from 58 to 48 B.C., and the worship of Isis at Rome continued to be
limited or suppressed by a succession of enactments which were enforced
until the reign of Caligula. The Isiac mysteries were a representation
of the chief events in the myth of Isis and Osiris--the murder of
Osiris, the lamentations of Isis and her wanderings, followed by the
triumph of Horus over Seth and the resurrection of the slain
god--accompanied by music and an exposition of the inner meaning of the
spectacle. These were traditional in ancient Egypt, and in their later
development were no doubt affected by the Eleusinian mysteries of
Demeter. They appealed powerfully to the imagination and the religious
sense. The initiated went through rites of purification, and practised a
degree of asceticism; but for many the festival was believed to be an
occasion for dark orgies. Isis nursing the child Horus (Harpokhrates)
was a very common figure in the Deltaic period, and in these later days
was still a favourite representation. The Isis temples discovered at
Pompeii and in Rome show that ancient monuments as well as objects of
small size were brought from Egypt to Italy for dedication to her
worship, but the goddess absorbed the attributes of all female
divinities; she was goddess of the earth and its fruits, of the Nile, of
the sea, of the underworld, of love, healing and magic. From the time of
Vespasian onwards the worship of Isis, always popular with some
sections, had a great vogue throughout the western world, and is not
without traces in Britain. It proved the most successful of the pagan
cults in maintaining itself against Christianity, with which it had not
a little in common, both in doctrine and in emblems. But the destruction
of the Serapeum at Alexandria in A.D. 397 was a fatal blow to the
prestige of the Graeco-Egyptian divinities. The worship of Isis,
however, survived in Italy into the 5th century. At Philae her temple
was frequented by the barbarous Nobatae and Blemmyes until the middle of
the 6th century, when the last remaining shrine of Isis was finally
closed.
See G. Lafaye, art. "Isis" in Daremberg et Saglio, _Dictionnaire des
antiquites_ (1900); _id. Hist. du culte des divinites d'Alexandrie
hors de l'Egypte_ (1883); Meyer and Drexler, art. "Isis" in Roscher's
_Lexicon der griech. und rom. Mythologie_ (1891-1892) (very
elaborate); E. A. W. Budge, _Gods of the Egyptians_, vol. ii. ch.
xiii.; Ad. Rusch, _De Serapide et Iside in Graecia cultis_
(dissertation) (Berlin, 1906). (The author especially collects the
evidence from Greek inscriptions earlier than the Roman conquest; he
contends that the mysteries of Isis were not equated with the
Eleusinian mysteries.) (F. Ll. G.)
ISKELIB, the chief town of a _Caza_ (governed by a _kaimakam_) in the
vilayet of Angora in Asia Minor, altitude 2460 ft., near the left bank
of the Kizil Irmak (anc. _Halys_), 100 m. in an air-line N.E. of Angora
and 60 S.E. of Kastamuni (to which vilayet it belonged till 1894). Pop.
10,600 (Cuinet, _La Turquie d'Asie_, 1894). It lies several miles off
the road, now abandoned by wheeled traffic, between Changra and Amasia
in a picturesque _cul de sac_ amongst wooded hills, at the foot of a
limestone rock crowned by the ruins of an ancient fortress now filled
with houses (photograph in Anderson, _Studia Pontica_, p. 4). Its
ancient name is uncertain. Near the town (on S.) are saline springs,
whence salt is extracted.
ISLA, JOSE FRANCISCO DE (1703-1781), Spanish satirist, was born at
Villavidanes (Leon) on the 24th of March 1703. He joined the Jesuits in
1719, was banished from Spain with his brethren in 1767, and settled at
Bologna, where he died on the 2nd of November 1781. His earliest
publication, a _Carta de un residente en Roma_ (1725), is a panegyric of
trifling interest, and _La Juventud triunfante_ (1727) was written in
collaboration with Luis de Lovada. Isla's gifts were first shown in his
_Triunfo del amor y de la lealtad: Dia Grande de Navarra_, a satirical
description of the ceremonies at Pamplona in honour of Ferdinand VI.'s
accession; its sly humour so far escaped the victims that they thanked
the writer for his appreciation of their local efforts, but the true
significance of the work was discovered shortly afterwards, and the
protests were so violent that Isla was transferred by his superiors to
another district. He gained a great reputation as an effective preacher,
and his posthumous _Sermones morales_ (1792-1793) justify his fame in
this respect. But his position in the history of Spanish literature is
due to his _Historia del famoso predicador fray Gerundio de Campazas,
alias Zotes_ (1758), a novel which wittily caricatures the bombastic
eloquence of pulpit orators in Spain. Owing to the protests of the
Dominicans and other regulars, the book was prohibited in 1760, but the
second part was issued surreptitiously in 1768. He translated _Gil
Blas_, adopting more or less seriously Voltaire's unfounded suggestion
that Le Sage plagiarized from Espinel's _Marcos de Obregon_, and other
Spanish books; the text appeared in 1783, and in 1828 was greatly
modified by Evaristo Pena y Martin, whose arrangement is still widely
read.
See Policarpo Mingote y Tarrazona, _Varones ilustres de la provincia
de Leon_ (Leon, 1880), pp. 185-215; Bernard Gaudeau, _Les Precheurs
burlesques en Espagne au XVIII^e siecle_ (Paris, 1891); V. Cian, _L'
Immigrazione dei Gesuiti spagnuoli letterati in Italia_ (Torino,
1895). (J. F.-K.)
ISLAM, an Arabic word meaning "pious submission to the will of God," the
name of the religion of the orthodox Mahommedans, and hence used,
generically, for the whole body of Mahommedan peoples. _Salama_, from
which the word is derived appears in _salaam_, "peace be with you," the
greeting of the East, and in Moslem, and means to be "free" or "secure."
(See MAHOMMEDAN RELIGION, &c.)
ISLAMABAD, a town of India in the state of Kashmir, on the north bank of
the Jhelum. Pop. (1901) 9390. The town crowns the summit of a long low
ridge, extending from the mountains eastward. It is the second town in
Kashmir, and was originally the capital of the valley, but is now
decaying. It contains an old summer palace, overshadowed by plane trees,
with numerous springs, and a fine mosque and shrine. Below the town is a
reservoir containing a spring of clear water called the _Anant Nag_,
slightly sulphurous, from which volumes of gas continually arise; the
water swarms with sacred fish. There are manufactures of Kashmir shawls,
also of chintzes, cotton and woollen goods.
ISLAND (O.E. _ieg_ = isle, + land[1]), in physical geography, a term
generally definable as a piece of land surrounded by water. Islands may
be divided into two main classes, continental and oceanic. The former
are such as would result from the submergence of a coastal range, or a
coastal highland, until the mountain bases were cut off from the
mainland while their summits remained above water. The island may have
been formed by the sea cutting through the landward end of a peninsula,
or by the eating back of a bay or estuary until a portion of the
mainland is detached and becomes surrounded by water. In all cases where
the continental islands occur, they are connected with the mainland by a
continental shelf, and their structure is essentially that of the
mainland. The islands off the west coast of Scotland and the Isles of
Man and Wight have this relation to Britain, while Britain and Ireland
have a similar relation to the continent of Europe. The north-east coast
of Australia furnishes similar examples, but in addition to these in
that locality there are true oceanic islands near the mainland, formed
by the growth of the Great Barrier coral reef. Oceanic islands are due
to various causes. It is a question whether the numberless islands of
the Malay Archipelago should be regarded as continental or oceanic, but
there is no doubt that the South Sea islands scattered over a portion of
the Pacific belong to the oceanic group. The ocean floor is by no means
a level plain, but rises and falls in mounds, eminences and basins
towards the surface. When this configuration is emphasized in any
particular oceanic area, so that a peak rises above the surface, an
oceanic island is produced. Submarine volcanic activity may also raise
material above sea-level, or the buckling of the ocean-bed by earth
movements may have a similar result. Coral islands (see ATOLL) are
oceanic islands, and are frequently clustered upon plateaux where the
sea is of no great depth, or appear singly as the crown of some isolated
peak that rises from deep water.
Island life contains many features of peculiar interest. The sea forms a
barrier to some forms of life but acts as a carrier to other colonizing
forms that frequently develop new features in their isolated
surroundings where the struggle for existence is greater or less than
before. When a sea barrier has existed for a very long time there is a
marked difference between the fauna and flora even of adjacent islands.
In Bali and Borneo, for example, the flora and fauna are Asiatic, while
in Lombok and Celebes they are Australian, though the Bali Straits are
very narrow. In Java and Sumatra, though belonging to the same group,
there are marked developments of bird life, the peacock being found in
Java and the Argus pheasant in Sumatra, having become too specialized to
migrate. The Cocos, Keeling Islands and Christmas Island in the Indian
Ocean have been colonized by few animal forms, chiefly sea-birds and
insects, while they are clothed with abundant vegetation, the seeds of
which have been carried by currents and by other means, but the variety
of plants is by no means so great as on the mainland. Island life,
therefore, is a sure indication of the origin of the island, which may
be one of the remnants of a shattered or dissected continent, or may
have arisen independently from the sea and become afterwards colonized
by drift.
The word "island" is sometimes used for a piece of land cut off by the
tide or surrounded by marsh (e.g. Hayling Island).
FOOTNOTE:
[1] The O.E. _ieg_, _ig_, still appearing in local names, e.g.
Anglesey, Battersea, is cognate with Norw. _oy_, Icel. _ey_, and the
first part of Ger. _Eiland_, &c.; it is referred to the original
Teut. _ahwia_, a place in water, _ahwa_, water, cf. Lat. _aqua_; the
same word is seen in English "eyot," "ait," an islet in a river. The
spelling "island," accepted before 1700, is due to a false connexion
with "isle," Fr. _ile_, Lat. _insula_.
ISLAY, the southernmost island of the Inner Hebrides, Argyllshire,
Scotland, 16 m. W. of Kintyre and 3/4 m. S.W. of Jura, from which it is
separated by the Sound of Islay. Pop. (1901) 6857; area, 150,400 acres;
maximum breadth 19 m. and maximum length 25 m. The sea-lochs Gruinart
and Indaal cut into it so deeply as almost to convert the western
portion into a separate island. It is rich and productive, and has been
called the "Queen of the Hebrides." The surface generally is regular,
the highest summits being Ben Bheigeir (1609 ft.) and Sgorr nam
Faoileann (1407 ft.). There are several freshwater lakes and streams,
which provide good fishing. Islay was the ancient seat of the "lord of
the Isles," the first to adopt that title being John Macdonald of Isle
of Islay, who died about 1386; but the Macdonalds were ultimately ousted
by their rivals, the Campbells, about 1616. Islay House, the ancient
seat of the Campbells of Islay, stands at the head of Loch Indaal. The
island was formerly occupied by small crofters and tacksmen, but since
1831 it has been gradually developed into large sheep and arable farms
and considerable business is done in stock-raising. Dairy-farming is
largely followed, and oats, barley and various green crops are raised.
The chief difficulty in the way of reclamation is the great area of peat
(60 sq. m.), which, at its present rate of consumption, is calculated to
last 1500 years. The island contains several whisky distilleries,
producing about 400,000 gallons annually. Slate and marble are quarried,
and there is a little mining of iron, lead and silver. At Bowmore, the
chief town, there is a considerable shipping trade. Port Ellen, the
principal village, has a quay with lighthouse, a fishery and a
golf-course. Port Askaig is the ferry station for Faolin on Jura.
Regular communication with the Clyde is maintained by steamers, and a
cable was laid between Lagavulin and Kintyre in 1871.
ISLES OF THE BLEST, or FORTUNATE ISLANDS (Gr. [Greek: ai ton makaron
nesoi]: Lat., Fortunatae Insulae), in Greek mythology a group of islands
near the edge of the Western Ocean, peopled not by the dead, but by
mortals upon whom the gods had conferred immortality. Like the islands
of the Phaeacians in Homer (_Od._ viii.) or the Celtic Avalon and St
Brendan's island, the Isles of the Blest are represented as a land of
perpetual summer and abundance of all good things. No reference is made
to them by Homer, who speaks instead of the Elysian Plain (_Od._ iv. and
ix.), but they are mentioned by Hesiod (_Works and Days_, 168) and
Pindar (_Ol._ ii.). A very old tradition suggests that the idea of such
an earthly paradise was a reminiscence of some unrecorded voyage to
Madeira and the Canaries, which are sometimes named Fortunatae Insulae
by medieval map-makers. (See ATLANTIS.)
ISLINGTON (in Domesday and later documents _Iseldon_, _Isendon_ and in
the 16th century _Hisselton_), a northern metropolitan borough of
London, England, bounded E. by Stoke Newington and Hackney, S. by
Shoreditch and Finsbury, and W. by St Pancras, and extending N. to the
boundary of the county of London. Pop. (1901) 334,991. The name is
commonly applied to the southern part of the borough, which, however,
includes the districts of Holloway in the north, Highbury in the east,
part of Kingsland in the south-east, and Barnsbury and Canonbury in the
south-central portion. The districts included preserve the names of
ancient manors, and in Canonbury, which belonged as early as the 13th
century to the priory of St Bartholomew, Smithfield, traces of the old
manor house remain. The fields and places of entertainment in Islington
were favourite places of resort for the citizens of London in the 17th
century and later; the modern Ball's Pond Road recalls the sport of
duck-hunting practised here and on other ponds in the parish, and the
popularity of the place was increased by the discovery of chalybeate
wells. At Copenhagen Fields, now covered by the great cattle market
(1855) adjoining Caledonian Road, a great meeting of labourers was held
in 1834. They were suspected of intending to impose their views on
parliament by violence, but a display of military force held them in
check. The most noteworthy modern institutions in Islington are the
Agricultural Hall, Liverpool Road, erected in 1862, and used for cattle
and horse shows and other exhibitions; Pentonville Prison, Caledonian
Road (1842), a vast pile of buildings radiating from a centre, and
Holloway Prison. The borough has only some 40 acres of public grounds,
the principal of which is Highbury Fields. Among its institutions are
the Great Northern Central Hospital, Holloway, the London Fever
Hospital, the Northern Polytechnic, and the London School of Divinity,
St John's Hall Highbury. Islington is a suffragan bishopric in the
diocese of London. The parliamentary borough of Islington has north,
south, east and west divisions, each returning one member. The borough
council consists of a mayor, 10 aldermen and 60 councillors. Area,
3091.5 acres.
ISLIP, a township of Suffolk county, New York, U.S.A., in the central
part of the S. side of Long Island. Pop. (1905, state census) 13,721;
(1910) 18,346. The township is 16 m. long from E. to W., and 8 m. wide
in its widest part. It is bounded on the S. by the Atlantic Ocean;
between the ocean and the Great South Bay, here 5-7 m. wide, is a long
narrow strip of beach, called Fire Island, at the W. end of which is
Fire Island Inlet. The "Island" beach and the Inlet, both very dangerous
for shipping, are protected by the Fire Island Lighthouse, the Fire
Island Lightship, and a Life Saving Station near the Lighthouse and
another at Point o' Woods. Near the Lighthouse there are a United States
Wireless Telegraph Station and a station of the Western Union Telegraph
Company, which announces to New York incoming steamships; and a little
farther E., on the site formerly occupied by the Surf House, a
well-known resort for hay-fever patients, is a state park. Along the
"Island" beach there is excellent surf-bathing. The township is served
by two parallel branches of the Long Island railroad about 4 m. apart.
On the main (northern) division are the villages of Brentwood (first
settled as Modern Times, a quasi free-love community), which now has the
Convent and School of St Joseph and a large private sanitarium; Central
Islip, the seat of the Central Islip State Hospital for the Insane; and
Ronkonkoma, on the edge of a lake of the same name (with no visible
outlet or inlet and suffering remarkable changes in area). On the S.
division of the Long Island railroad are the villages of Bay Shore (to
the W. of which is West Islip); Oakdale; West Sayville, originally a
Dutch settlement; Sayville and Bayport. The "South Country Road" of
crushed clam or oyster shells runs through these villages, which are
famous for oyster and clam fisheries. About one-half of the present
township was patented in 1684, 1686, 1688 and 1697 by William Nicolls
(1657-1723), the son of Matthias Nicolls, who came from Islip in
Oxfordshire, England; this large estate (on either side of the
Connetquot or Great river) was kept intact until 1786; the W. part of
Islip was mostly included in the Moubray patent of 1708; and the
township was incorporated in 1710.
ISLY, the name of a small river on the Moroccan-Algerian frontier, a
sub-tributary of the Tafna, famous as the scene of the greatest victory
of the French army in the Algerian wars. The intervention of Morocco on
the side of Abd-el-Kader led at once to the bombardment of Tangier by
the French fleet under the prince de Joinville, and the advance of the
French army of General Bugeaud (1844). The enemy, 45,000 strong, was
found to be encamped on the Isly river near Kudiat-el-Khodra. Bugeaud
disposed of some 6500 infantry and 1500 cavalry, with a few pieces of
artillery. In his own words, the formation adopted was "a boar's head."
With the army were Lamoriciere, Pelissier and other officers destined to
achieve distinction. On the 14th of August the "boar's head" crossed the
river about 9 m. to the N.W. of Kudiat and advanced upon the Moorish
camp; it was immediately attacked on all sides by great masses of
cavalry; but the volleys of the steady French infantry broke the force
of every charge, and at the right moment the French cavalry in two
bodies, each of the strength of a brigade, broke out and charged. One
brigade stormed the Moorish camp (near Kudiat) in the face of artillery
fire, the other sustained a desperate conflict on the right wing with a
large body of Moorish horse which had not charged; and only the arrival
of infantry put an end to the resistance in this quarter. A general
rally of the Moorish forces was followed by another action in which
they endeavoured to retake the camp. Bugeaud's forces, which had
originally faced S. when crossing the river, had now changed direction
until they faced almost W. Near Kudiat-el-Khodra the Moors had rallied
in considerable force, and prepared to retake their camp. The French,
however, continued to attack in perfect combination, and after a
stubborn resistance the Moors once more gave way. For this great
victory, which was quickly followed by proposals of peace, Bugeaud was
made duc d'Isly.
ISMAIL (1830-1895), khedive of Egypt, was born at Cairo on the 31st of
December 1830, being the second of the three sons of Ibrahim and
grandson of Mehemet Ali. After receiving a European education at Paris,
where he attended the Ecole d'Etat-Major, he returned home, and on the
death of his elder brother became heir to his uncle, Said Mohammed, the
Vali of Egypt. Said, who apparently conceived his own safety to lie in
ridding himself as much as possible of the presence of his nephew,
employed him in the next few years on missions abroad, notably to the
pope, the emperor Napoleon III. and the sultan of Turkey. In 1861 he was
despatched at the head of an army of 14,000 to quell an insurrection in
the Sudan, and this he successfully accomplished. On the death of Said,
on 18th January 1863, Ismail was proclaimed viceroy without opposition.
Being of an Orientally extravagant disposition, he found with
considerable gratification that the Egyptian revenue was vastly
increased by the rise in the value of cotton which resulted from the
American Civil War, the Egyptian crop being worth about L25,000,000
instead of L5,000,000. Besides acquiring luxurious tastes in his
sojourns abroad, Ismail had discovered that the civilized nations of
Europe made a free use of their credit for raising loans. He proceeded
at once to apply this idea to his own country by transferring his
private debts to the state and launching out on a grand scale of
expenditure. Egypt was in his eyes the ruler's estate which was to be
exploited for his benefit and his renown. His own position had to be
strengthened, and the country provided with institutions after European
models. To these objects Ismail applied himself with energy and
cleverness, but without any stint of expense. During the 'sixties and
'seventies Egypt became the happy hunting-ground of self-seeking
financiers, to whose schemes Ismail fell an easy and a willing prey. In
1866-1867 he obtained from the sultan of Turkey, in exchange for an
increase in the tribute, firmans giving him the title of khedive, and
changing the law of succession to direct descent from father to son; and
in 1873 he obtained a new firman making him to a large extent
independent. He projected vast schemes of internal reform, remodelling
the customs system and the post office, stimulating commercial progress,
creating a sugar industry, introducing European improvements into Cairo
and Alexandria, building palaces, entertaining lavishly and maintaining
an opera and a theatre. It has been calculated that, of the total amount
of debt incurred by Ismail for his projects, about 10% may have been
sunk in works of permanent utility--always excluding the Suez Canal.
Meanwhile the opening of the Canal had given him opportunities for
asserting himself in foreign courts. On his accession he refused to
ratify the concessions to the Canal company made by Said, and the
question was referred in 1864 to the arbitration of Napoleon III., who
awarded L3,800,000 to the company as compensation for the losses they
would incur by the changes which Ismail insisted upon in the original
grant. Ismail then used every available means, by his own undoubted
powers of fascination and by judicious expenditure, to bring his
personality before the foreign sovereigns and public, and he had no
little success. He was made G.C.B. in 1867, and in the same year visited
Paris and London, where he was received by Queen Victoria and welcomed
by the lord mayor; and in 1869 he again paid a visit to England. The
result was that the opening of the Canal in November 1869 enabled him to
claim to rank among European sovereigns, and to give and receive royal
honours: this excited the jealousy of the sultan, but Ismail was clever
enough to pacify his overlord. In 1876 the old system of consular
jurisdiction for foreigners was modified, and the system of mixed courts
introduced, by which European and native judges sat together to try all
civil cases without respect of nationality. In all these years Ismail
had governed with _eclat_ and profusion, spending, borrowing, raising
the taxes on the fellahin and combining his policy of independence with
dazzling visions of Egyptian aggrandizement. In 1874 he annexed Darfur,
and was only prevented from extending his dominion into Abyssinia by the
superior fighting power of the Abyssinians. But at length the inevitable
financial crisis came. A national debt of over one hundred millions
sterling (as opposed to three millions when he became viceroy) had been
incurred by the khedive, whose fundamental idea of liquidating his
borrowings was to borrow at increased interest. The bond-holders became
restive. Judgments were given against the khedive in the international
tribunals. When he could raise no more loans he sold his Suez Canal
shares (in 1875) to Great Britain for L3,976,582; and this was
immediately followed by the beginning of foreign intervention. In
December 1875 Mr Stephen Cave was sent out by the British government to
inquire into the finances of Egypt, and in April 1876 his report was
published, advising that in view of the waste and extravagance it was
necessary for foreign Powers to interfere in order to restore credit.
The result was the establishment of the Caisse de la Dette. In October
Mr (afterwards Lord) Goschen and M. Joubert made a further
investigation, which resulted in the establishment of Anglo-French
control. A further commission of inquiry by Major Baring (afterwards
Lord Cromer) and others in 1878 culminated in Ismail making over his
estates to the nation and accepting the position of a constitutional
sovereign, with Nubar as premier, Mr (afterwards Sir Charles) Rivers
Wilson as finance minister, and M. de Blignieres as minister of public
works. Ismail professed to be quite pleased. "Egypt," he said, "is no
longer in Africa; it is part of Europe." The new regime, however, only
lasted six months, and then Ismail dismissed his ministers, an occasion
being deliberately prepared by his getting Arabi (q.v.) to foment a
military _pronunciamiento_. England and France took the matter
seriously, and insisted (May 1879) on the reinstatement of the British
and French ministers; but the situation was no longer a possible one;
the tribunals were still giving judgments for debt against the
government, and when Germany and Austria showed signs of intending to
enforce execution, the governments of Great Britain and France perceived
that the only chance of setting matters straight was to get rid of
Ismail altogether. He was first advised to abdicate, and a few days
afterwards (26th June), as he did not take the hint, he received a
telegram from the sultan (who had not forgotten the earlier history of
Mehemet Ali's dynasty), addressed to him as ex-khedive, and informing
him that his son Tewfik was his successor. He at once left Egypt for
Naples, but eventually was permitted by the sultan to retire to his
palace of Emirghian on the Bosporus. There he remained, more or less a
state prisoner, till his death on the 2nd of March 1895. Ismail was a
man of undoubted ability and remarkable powers. But beneath a veneer of
French manners and education he remained throughout a thorough Oriental,
though without any of the moral earnestness which characterizes the
better side of Mahommedanism. Some of his ambitions were not unworthy,
and though his attitude towards western civilization was essentially
cynical, he undoubtedly helped to make the Egyptian upper classes
realize the value of European education. Moreover, spendthrift as he
was, it needed--as is pointed out in Milner's _England in Egypt_--a
series of unfortunate conditions to render his personality as pernicious
to his country as it actually became. "It needed a nation of submissive
slaves, not only bereft of any vestige of liberal institutions, but
devoid of the slightest spark of the spirit of liberty. It needed a
bureaucracy which it would have been hard to equal for its combination
of cowardice and corruption. It needed the whole gang of
swindlers--mostly European--by whom Ismail was surrounded." It was his
early encouragement of Arabi, and his introduction of swarms of foreign
concession-hunters, which precipitated the "national movement" that led
to British occupation. His greatest title to remembrance in history must
be that he made European intervention in Egypt compulsory. (H. Ch.)
ISMAIL HADJI MAULVI-MOHAMMED (1781-1831), Mussulman reformer, was born
at Pholah near Delhi. In co-operation with Syed Ahmed he attempted to
free Indian Mahommedanism from the influence of the native early Indian
faiths. The two men travelled extensively for many years and visited
Mecca. In the Wahhabite movement they found much that was akin to their
own views, and on returning to India preached the new doctrine of a pure
Islam, and gathered many adherents. The official Mahommedan leaders,
however, regarded their propaganda with disfavour, and the dispute led
to the reformers being interdicted by the British government in 1827.
The little company then moved to Punjab where, aided by an Afghan chief,
they declared war on the Sikhs and made Peshawar the capital of the
theocratic community which they wished to establish (1829). Deserted by
the Afghans they had to leave Peshawar, and Ismail Hadji fell in battle
against the Sikhs amid the Pakhli mountains (1831). The movement
survived him, and some adherents are still found in the mountains of the
north-west frontier.
Ismail's book _Taqouaiyat el Iman_ was published in Hindustani and
translated in the _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, xiii. 1852.
ISMAILIA, a town of Lower Egypt, the central station on the Suez Canal,
on the N.W. shore of Lake Timsa, about 50 m. from the Mediterranean and
the Red Sea, and 93 m. N.E. of Cairo by rail. Pop. (1907) 10,373. It was
laid out in 1863, in connexion with the construction of the canal, and
is named after the khedive Ismail. It is divided into two quarters by
the road leading from the landing-place to the railway station, and has
numerous public offices, warehouses and other buildings, including a
palace of the khedive, used as a hospital during the British military
operations in 1882, but subsequently allowed to fall into a dilapidated
condition. The broad macadamized streets and regular squares bordered
with trees give the town an attractive appearance; and it has the
advantage, a rare one in Egypt, of being surrounded on three sides by
flourishing gardens. The Quai Mehemet Ali, which lies along the canal
for upwards of a mile, contains the chalet occupied by Ferdinand de
Lesseps during the building of the canal. At the end of the quay are the
works for supplying Port Said with water. On the other side of the lake
are the so-called Quarries of the Hyenas, from which the building
material for the town was obtained.
ISMAY, THOMAS HENRY (1837-1899), British shipowner, was born at
Maryport, Cumberland, on the 7th of January 1837. He received his
education at Croft House School, Carlisle, and at the age of sixteen was
apprenticed to Messrs Imrie & Tomlinson, shipowners and brokers, of
Liverpool. He then travelled for a time, visiting the ports of South
America, and on returning to Liverpool started in business for himself.
In 1867 he took over the White Star line of Australian clippers, and in
1868, perceiving the great future which was open to steam navigation,
established, in conjunction with William Imrie, the Oceanic Steam
Navigation Company, which has since become famous as the White Star
Line. While continuing the Australian service, the firm determined to
engage in the American trade, and to that end ordered from Messrs
Harland & Wolff, of Belfast, the first _Oceanic_ (3807 tons), which was
launched in 1870. This vessel may fairly be said to have marked an era
in North Atlantic travel. The same is true of the successive types of
steamer which Ismay, with the co-operation of the Belfast shipbuilding
firm, subsequently provided for the American trade. To Ismay is mainly
due the credit of the arrangement by which some of the fastest ships of
the British mercantile marine are held at the disposal of the government
in case of war. The origin of this plan dates from the Russo-Turkish
war, when there seemed a likelihood of England being involved in
hostilities with Russia, and when, therefore, Ismay offered the
admiralty the use of the White Star fleet. In 1892 he retired from
partnership in the firm of Ismay, Imrie and Co., though he retained the
chairmanship of the White Star Company. He served on several important
committees and was a member of the royal commission in 1888 on army and
navy administration. He was always most generous in his contributions
to charities for the relief of sailors, and in 1887 he contributed
L20,000 towards a pension fund for Liverpool sailors. He died at
Birkenhead on the 23rd of November 1899.
ISMID, or ISNIKMID (anc. _Nicomedia_), the chief town of the Khoja Ili
sanjak of Constantinople, in Asia Minor, situated on rising ground near
the head of the gulf of Ismid. The sanjak has an area of 4650 sq. m. and
a population of 225,000 (Moslems 131,000). It is an agricultural
district, producing cocoons and tobacco, and there are large forests of
oak, beech and fir. Near Yalova there are hot mineral springs, much
frequented in summer. The town is connected by the lines of the
Anatolian railway company with Haidar Pasha, the western terminus, and
with Angora, Konia and Smyrna. It contains a fine 16th-century mosque,
built by the celebrated architect Sinan. Pop. 20,000 (Moslems 9500,
Christians 8000, Jews, 2500). As the seat of a mutessarif, a Greek
metropolitan and an Armenian archbishop, Ismid retains somewhat of its
ancient dignity, but the material condition of the town is little in
keeping with its rank. The head of the gulf of Ismid is gradually
silting up. The dockyard was closed in 1879, and the port of Ismid is
now at Darinje, 3(3/4) m. distant, where the Anatolian Railway Company
have established their workshops and have built docks and a quay.
ISNARD, MAXIMIN (1758-1825), French revolutionist, was a dealer in
perfumery at Draguignan when he was elected deputy for the department of
the Var to the Legislative Assembly, where he joined the Girondists.
Attacking the court, and the "Austrian committee" in the Tuileries, he
demanded the disbandment of the king's bodyguard, and reproached Louis
XVI. for infidelity to the constitution. But on the 20th of June 1792,
when the crowd invaded the palace, he was one of the deputies who went
to place themselves beside the king to protect him. After the 10th of
August 1792 he was sent to the army of the North to justify the
insurrection. Re-elected to the Convention, he voted the death of Louis
XVI. and was a member of the Committee of General Defence when it was
organized on the 4th of January 1793. The committee, consisting of 25
members, proved unwieldy, and on the 4th of April Isnard presented, on
behalf of the Girondist majority, the report recommending a smaller
committee of nine, which two days later was established as the Committee
of Public Safety. On the 25th of May, Isnard was presiding at the
Convention when a deputation of the commune of Paris came to demand that
J. R. Hebert should be set at liberty, and he made the famous reply: "If
by these insurrections, continually renewed, it should happen that the
principle of national representation should suffer, I declare to you in
the name of France that soon people will search the banks of the Seine
to see if Paris has ever existed." On the 2nd of June 1793 he offered
his resignation as representative of the people, but was not comprised
in the decree by which the Convention determined upon the arrest of
twenty-nine Girondists. On the 3rd of October, however, his arrest was
decreed along with that of several other Girondist deputies who had left
the Convention and were fomenting civil war in the departments. He
escaped, and on the 8th of March 1795 was recalled to the Convention,
where he supported all the measures of reaction. He was elected deputy
for the Var to the Council of Five Hundred, where he played a very
insignificant role. In 1797 he retired to Draguignan. In 1800 he
published a pamphlet _De l'immortalite de l'ame_, in which he praised
Catholicism; in 1804 _Reflexions relatives au senatus-consulte du 28
floreal an XII._, which is an enthusiastic apology for the Empire. Upon
the restoration he professed such royalist sentiments that he was not
disturbed, in spite of the law of 1816 proscribing regicide ex-members
of the Convention.
See F. A. Aulard, _Les Orateurs de la Legislative et de la Convention_
(Paris, 2nd ed., 1906).
ISOBAR (from Gr. [Greek: isos], equal, and [Greek: baros], weight), a
line upon a meteorological map or pressure chart connecting points where
the atmospheric pressure is the same at sea-level, or upon the earth's
surface. A general pressure map will indicate, by these lines, the
average pressure for any month or season over large areas. The daily
weather charts for more confined regions indicate the presence of a
cyclonic or anticyclonic system by means of lines, which connect all
places having the same barometric pressure at the same time. It is to be
noted that isobaric lines are the intersections of inclined isobaric
surfaces with the surface of the earth.
ISOCLINIC LINES (Gr. [Greek: isos], equal, and [Greek: klinein], to
bend), lines connecting those parts of the earth's surface where the
magnetic inclination is the same in amount. (See MAGNETISM,
TERRESTRIAL.)
ISOCRATES (436-338 B.C.), Attic orator, was the son of Theodorus, an
Athenian citizen of the deme of Erchia--the same in which, about 431
B.C., Xenophon was born--who was sufficiently wealthy to have served the
state as choregus. The fact that he possessed slaves skilled in the
trade of flute-making perhaps lends point to a passage in which his son
is mentioned by the comic poet Strattis.[1] Several popular "sophists"
are named as teachers of the young Isocrates. Like other sons of
prosperous parents, he may have been trained in such grammatical
subtleties as were taught by Protagoras or Prodicus, and initiated by
Theramenes into the florid rhetoric of Gorgias, with whom at a later
time (about 390 B.C.) he was in personal intercourse. He tells us that
his father had been careful to provide for him the best education which
Athens could afford. A fact of greater interest is disclosed by Plato's
_Phaedrus_ (278 E). "Isocrates is still young, Phaedrus," says the
Socrates of that dialogue, "but I do not mind telling you what I
prophesy of him.... It would not surprise me if, as years go on, he
should make all his predecessors seem like children in the kind of
oratory to which he is now addressing himself, or if--supposing this
should not content him--some divine impulse should lead him to greater
things. My dear Phaedrus, a certain philosophy is inborn in him." This
conversation is dramatically supposed to take place about 410 B.C. It is
unnecessary to discuss here the date at which the _Phaedrus_ was
actually composed. From the passage just cited it is at least clear that
there had been a time--while Isocrates could still be called "young"--at
which Plato had formed a high estimate of his powers.
Isocrates took no active part in the public life of Athens; he was not
fitted, as he tells us, for the contests of the popular assembly or of
the law-courts. He lacked strength of voice--a fatal defect in the
ecclesia, when an audience of many thousands was to be addressed in the
open air; he was also deficient in "boldness." He was, in short, the
physical opposite of the successful Athenian demagogue in the generation
after that of Pericles; by temperament as well as taste he was more in
sympathy with the sedate decorum of an older school. Two ancient
biographers have, however, preserved a story which, if true, would show
that this lack of voice and nerve did not involve any want of moral
courage. During the rule of the Thirty Tyrants, Critias denounced
Theramenes, who sprang for safety to the sacred hearth of the council
chamber. Isocrates alone, it is said, dared at that moment to plead for
the life of his friend.[2] Whatever may be the worth of the story, it
would scarcely have connected itself with the name of a man to whose
traditional character it was repugnant. While the Thirty were still in
power, Isocrates withdrew from Athens to Chios.[3] He has mentioned
that, in the course of the Peloponnesian War--doubtless in the troubles
which attended on its close--he lost the whole of that private fortune
which had enabled his father to serve the state, and that he then
adopted the profession of a teacher. The proscription of the "art of
words" by the Thirty would thus have given him a special motive for
withdrawing from Athens. He returned thither, apparently, either soon
before or soon after the restoration of the democracy in 403 B.C.
For ten years from this date he was occupied--at least occasionally--as
a writer of speeches for the Athenian law-courts. Six of these speeches
are extant. The earliest (_Or._ xxi.) may be referred to 403 B.C.; the
latest (_Or._ xix.) to 394-393 B.C. This was a department of his own
work which Isocrates afterwards preferred to ignore. Nowhere, indeed,
does he say that he had not written forensic speeches. But he frequently
uses a tone from which that inference might be drawn. He loves to
contrast such petty concerns as engage the forensic writer with those
larger and nobler themes which are treated by the politician. This helps
to explain how it could be asserted--by his adopted son, Aphareus--that
he had written nothing for the law-courts. Whether the assertion was due
to false shame or merely to ignorance, Dionysius of Halicarnassus
decisively disposes of it. Aristotle had, indeed, he says, exaggerated
the number of forensic speeches written by Isocrates; but some of those
which bore his name were unquestionably genuine, as was attested by one
of the orator's own pupils, Cephisodorus. The real vocation of Isocrates
was discovered from the moment that he devoted himself to the work of
teaching and writing. The instruction which Isocrates undertook to
impart was based on rhetorical composition, but it was by no means
merely rhetorical. That "inborn philosophy," of which Plato recognized
the germ, still shows itself. In many of his works--notably in the
_Panegyricus_--we see a really remarkable power of grasping a complex
subject, of articulating it distinctly, of treating it, not merely with
effect but luminously, at once in its widest bearings and in its most
intricate details. Young men could learn more from Isocrates than the
graces of style; nor would his success have been what it was if his
skill had been confined to the art of expression.
It was about 392 B.C.--when he was forty-four--that he opened his school
at Athens near the Lyceum. In 339 B.C. he describes himself as revising
the _Panathenaicus_ with some of his pupils; he was then ninety-seven.
The celebrity enjoyed by the school of Isocrates is strikingly attested
by ancient writers. Cicero describes it as that school in which the
eloquence of all Greece was trained and perfected: its disciples were
"brilliant in pageant or in battle,"[4] foremost among the accomplished
writers or powerful debaters of their time. The phrase of Cicero is
neither vague nor exaggerated. Among the literary pupils of Isocrates
might be named the historians Ephorus and Theopompus, the Attic
archaelogist Androtion, and Isocrates of Apollonia, who succeeded his
master in the school. Among the practical orators we have, in the
forensic kind, Isaeus; in the political, Leodamas of Acharnae, Lycurgus
and Hypereides. Hermippus of Smyrna (mentioned by Athenaeus) wrote a
monograph on the "Disciples of Isocrates." And scanty as are now the
sources for such a catalogue, a modern scholar[5] has still been able to
recover forty-one names. At the time when the school of Isocrates was in
the zenith of its fame it drew disciples, not only from the shores and
islands of the Aegean, but from the cities of Sicily and the distant
colonies of the Euxine. As became the image of its master's spirit, it
was truly Panhellenic. When Mausolus, prince of Caria, died in 351 B.C.,
his widow Artemisia instituted a contest of panegyrical eloquence in
honour of his memory. Among all the competitors there was not one--if
tradition may be trusted--who had not been the pupil of Isocrates.
Meanwhile the teacher who had won this great reputation had also been
active as a public writer. The most interesting and most characteristic
works of Isocrates are those in which he deals with the public questions
of his own day. The influence which he thus exercised throughout Hellas
might be compared to that of an earnest political essayist gifted with a
popular and attractive style. And Isocrates had a dominant idea which
gained strength with his years, until its realization had become, we
might say, the main purpose of his life. This idea was the invasion of
Asia by the united forces of Greece. The Greek cities were at feud with
each other, and were severally torn by intestine faction. Political
morality was become a rare and a somewhat despised distinction. Men who
were notoriously ready to sell their cities for their private gain were,
as Demosthenes says, rather admired than otherwise.[6] The social
condition of Greece was becoming very unhappy. The wealth of the country
had ceased to grow; the gulf between rich and poor was becoming wider;
party strife was constantly adding to the number of homeless paupers;
and Greece was full of men who were ready to take service with any
captain of mercenaries, or, failing that, with any leader of
desperadoes. Isocrates draws a vivid and terrible picture of these
evils. The cure for them, he firmly believed, was to unite the Greeks in
a cause which would excite a generous enthusiasm. Now was the time, he
thought, for that enterprise in which Xenophon's comrades had virtually
succeeded, when the headlong rashness of young Cyrus threw away their
reward with his own life.[7] The Persian empire was unsound to the
core--witness the retreat of the Ten Thousand: let united Greece attack
it and it must go down at the first onset. Then new wealth would flow
into Greece; and the hungry pariahs of Greek society would be drafted
into fertile homes beyond the Aegean.
A bright vision; but where was the power whose spell was first to unite
discordant Greece, and, having united it, to direct its strength against
Asia? That was the problem. The first attempt of Isocrates to solve it
is set forth in his splendid _Panegyricus_ (380 B.C.). Let Athens and
Sparta lay aside their jealousies. Let them assume, jointly, a
leadership which might be difficult for either, but which would be
assured to both. That eloquent pleading failed. The next hope was to
find some one man equal to the task. Jason of Pherae, Dionysius I. of
Syracuse, Archidamus III., son of Agesilaus--each in turn rose as a
possible leader of Greece before the imagination of the old man who was
still young in his enthusiastic hope, and one after another they failed
him. But now a greater than any of these was appearing on the Hellenic
horizon, and to this new luminary the eyes of Isocrates were turned with
eager anticipation. Who could lead united Greece against Asia so fitly
as the veritable representative of the Heracleidae, the royal descendant
of the Argive line--a king of half-barbarians it is true, but by race,
as in spirit, a pure Hellene--Philip of Macedon? We can still read the
words in which this fond faith clothed itself; the ardent appeal of
Isocrates to Philip is extant; and another letter shows that the belief
of Isocrates in Philip lasted at any rate down to the eve of
Chaeronea.[8] Whether it survived that event is a doubtful point. The
popular account of the orator's death ascribed it to the mental shock
which he received from the news of Philip's victory. He was at Athens,
in the palaestra of Hippocrates, when the tidings came. He repeated
three verses in which Euripides names three foreign Conquerors of
Greece--Danaus, Pelops, Cadmus--and four days later he died of voluntary
starvation. Milton (perhaps thinking of Eli) seems to conceive the death
of Isocrates as instantaneous:--
"As that dishonest victory
At Chaeronea, fatal to liberty,
Killed with report that old man eloquent."
Now the third of the letters which bears the name of Isocrates is
addressed to Philip, and appears to congratulate him on his victory at
Chaeronea, as being an event which will enable him to assume the
leadership of Greece in a war against Persia. Is the letter genuine?
There is no evidence, external or internal, against its authenticity,
except its supposed inconsistency with the views of Isocrates and with
the tradition of his suicide. As to his views, those who have studied
them in his own writings will be disposed to question whether he would
have regarded Philip's victory at Chaeronea as an irreparable disaster
for Greece. Undoubtedly he would have deplored the conflict between
Philip and Athens; but he would have divided the blame between the
combatants. And, with his old belief in Philip, he would probably have
hoped, even after Chaeronea, that the new position won by Philip would
eventually prove compatible with the independence of the Greek cities,
while it would certainly promote the project on which, as he was
profoundly convinced, the ultimate welfare of Greece depended,--a
Panhellenic expedition against Persia. As to the tradition of his
suicide, the only rational mode of reconciling it with that letter is to
suppose that Isocrates destroyed himself, not because Philip had
conquered, but because, after that event, he saw Athens still resolved
to resist. We should be rather disposed to ask how much weight is to be
given to the tradition. The earliest authority for it--Dionysius of
Halicarnassus in the age of Augustus--may have had older sources;
granting, however, that these may have remounted even to the end of the
4th century B.C., that would not prove much. Suppose that
Isocrates--being then ninety-eight and an invalid--had happened to die
from natural causes a few days after the battle of Chaeronea. Nothing
could have originated more easily than a story that he killed himself
from intense chagrin. Every one knew that Isocrates had believed in
Philip; and most people would have thought that Chaeronea was a crushing
refutation of that belief. Once started, the legend would have been sure
to live, not merely because it was picturesque, but also because it
served to accentuate the contrast between the false prophet and the
true--between Isocrates and Demosthenes; and Demosthenes was very justly
the national idol of the age which followed the loss of Greek
independence.[9]
Isocrates is said to have taught his Athenian pupils gratuitously, and
to have taken money only from aliens; but, as might have been expected,
the fame of his school exposed him to attacks on the ground of his
gains, which his enemies studiously exaggerated. After the financial
reform of 378 B.C. he was one of those 1200 richest citizens who
constituted the twenty unions ([Greek: symmoriai]) for the assessment of
the war-tax ([Greek: eisphora]). He had discharged several public
services ([Greek: leitourgiai]); in particular, he had thrice served as
trierarch. He married Plathane, the widow of the "sophist" Hippias of
Elis, and then adopted her son Aphareus, afterwards eminent as a
rhetorician and a tragic poet. In 355 B.C. he had his first and only
lawsuit. A certain Megaclides (introduced into the speech under the
fictitious name of Lysimachus) challenged him to undertake the
trierarchy or exchange properties. This was the lawsuit which suggested
the form of the discourse which he calls the _Antidosis_ ("exchange of
properties"--353 B.C.)--his defence of his professional life.
He was buried on a rising ground near the Cynosarges--a temenos of
Heracles, with a gymnasion, on the east side of Athens, outside the
Diomeian gate. His tomb was surmounted by a column some 45 ft. high,
crowned with the figure of a siren, the symbol of persuasion and of
death. A tablet of stone, near the column, represented a group of which
Gorgias was the centre; his pupil Isocrates stood at his side. Aphareus
erected a statue to his adopted father near the Olympieum. Timotheus,
the illustrious son of Conon, dedicated another in the temple of
Eleusis.
It was a wonderful century which the life of one man had thus all but
spanned. Isocrates had reached early manhood when the long struggle of
the Peloponnesian War--begun in his childhood--ended with the overthrow
of Athens. The middle period of his career was passed under the
supremacy of Sparta. His more advanced age saw that brief ascendancy
which the genius of Epameinondas secured to Thebes. And he lived to urge
on Philip of Macedon a greater enterprise than any which the Hellenic
world could offer. His early promise had won a glowing tribute from
Plato, and the rhetoric of his maturity furnished matter to the analysis
of Aristotle; he had composed his imaginary picture of that Hellenic
host which should move through Asia in a pageant of sacred triumph, just
as Xenophon was publishing his plain narrative of the retreat of the Ten
Thousand; and, in the next generation, his literary eloquence was still
demonstrating the weakness of Persia when Demosthenes was striving to
make men feel the deadly peril of Greece. This long life has an element
of pathos not unlike that of Greek tragedy; a power above man was
compelling events in a direction which Isocrates could not see; but his
own agency was the ally of that power, though in a sense which he knew
not; his vision was of Greece triumphant over Asia, while he was the
unconscious prophet of an age in which Asia should be transformed by the
diffusion of Hellenism.[10]
His character should be viewed in both its main aspects--the political
and the literary.
With regard to the first, two questions have to be asked: (1) How far
were the political views of Isocrates peculiar to himself, and
different from those of the clearest minds contemporary with him? (2)
How far were those views falsified by the event?
1. The whole tone of Greek thought in that age had taken a bent
towards monarchy in some form. This tendency may be traced alike in
the practical common sense of Xenophon and in the lofty idealism of
Plato. There could be no better instance of it than a well-known
passage in the _Politics_ of Aristotle. He is speaking of the gifts
which meet in the Greek race--a race warlike, like the Europeans, but
more subtle--keen, like the Asiatics, but braver. Here, he says, is a
race which "might rule all men, if it were brought under a single
government."[11] It is unnecessary to suppose a special allusion to
Alexander; but it is probable that Aristotle had in his mind a
possible union of the Greek cities under a strong constitutional
monarchy. His advice to Alexander (as reported by Plutarch) was to
treat the Greeks in the spirit of a leader ([Greek: hegemonikos]) and
the barbarians in the spirit of a master ([Greek: despotikos]).[12]
Aristotle conceived the central power as political and permanent;
Isocrates conceived it as, in the first place, military, having for
its immediate aim the conduct of an expedition against Asia. The
general views of Isocrates as to the largest good possible for the
Greek race were thus in accord with the prevailing tendency of the
best Greek thought in that age.
2. The vision of the Greek race "brought under one polity" was not,
indeed, fulfilled in the sense of Aristotle or of Isocrates. But the
invasion of Asia by Alexander, as captain-general of Greece, became
the event which actually opened new and larger destinies to the Greek
race. The old political life of the Greek cities was worn out; in the
new fields which were now opened, the empire of Greek civilization
entered on a career of world-wide conquest, until Greece became to
East and West more than all that Athens had been to Greece. Athens,
Sparta, Thebes, ceased indeed to be the chief centres of Greek life;
but the mission of the Greek mind could scarcely have been
accomplished with such expansive and penetrating power if its
influence had not radiated over the East from Pergamum, Antioch and
Alexandria.
Panhellenic politics had the foremost interest for Isocrates. But in
two of his works--the oration _On the Peace_ and the _Areopagiticus_
(both of 355 B.C.)--he deals specially with the politics of Athens.
The speech _On the Peace_ relates chiefly to foreign affairs. It is an
eloquent appeal to his fellow-citizens to abandon the dream of
supremacy, and to treat their allies as equals, not as subjects. The
fervid orator personifies that empire, that false mistress which has
lured Athens, then Sparta, then Athens once more, to the verge of
destruction. "Is she not worthy of detestation?" Leadership passes
into empire; empire begets insolence; insolence brings ruin. The
_Areopagiticus_ breathes a kindred spirit in regard to home policy.
Athenian life had lost its old tone. Apathy to public interests,
dissolute frivolity, tawdry display and real poverty--these are the
features on which Isocrates dwells. With this picture he contrasts the
elder democracy of Solon and Cleisthenes, and, as a first step towards
reform, would restore to the Areopagus its general censorship of
morals. It is here, and here alone--in his comments on Athenian
affairs at home and abroad--that we can distinctly recognize the man
to whom the Athens of Pericles was something more than a tradition. We
are carried back to the age in which his long life began. We find it
difficult to realize that the voice to which we listen is the same
which we hear in the letter to Philip.
Turning from the political to the literary aspect of his work, we are
at once upon ground where the question of his merits will now provoke
comparatively little controversy. Perhaps the most serious prejudice
with which his reputation has had to contend in modern times has been
due to an accident of verbal usage. He repeatedly describes that art
which he professed to teach as his [Greek: philosophia]. His use of
this word--joined to the fact that in a few passages he appears to
allude slightingly to Plato or to the Socratics--has exposed him to a
groundless imputation. It cannot be too distinctly understood that,
when Isocrates speaks of his [Greek: philosophia], he means simply his
theory or method of "culture"--to use the only modern term which is
really equivalent in latitude to the Greek word as then current.[13]
The [Greek: philosophia], or practical culture, of Isocrates was not
in conflict, because it had nothing in common, with the Socratic or
Platonic philosophy. The personal influence of Socrates may, indeed,
be traced in his work. He constantly desires to make his teaching bear
on the practical life. His maxims of homely moral wisdom frequently
recall Xenophon's _Memorabilia_. But there the relation ends. Plato
alludes to Isocrates in perhaps three places. The glowing prophecy in
the _Phaedrus_ has been quoted; in the _Gorgias_ a phrase of Isocrates
is wittily parodied; and in the _Euthydemus_ Isocrates is probably
meant by the person who dwells "on the borderland between philosophy
and statesmanship."[14] The writings of Isocrates contain a few more
or less distinct allusions to Plato's doctrines or works, to the
general effect that they are barren of practical result.[15] But
Isocrates nowhere assails Plato's philosophy as such. When he declares
"knowledge" ([Greek: episteme]) to be unattainable, he means an exact
"knowledge" of the contingencies which may arise in practical life.
"Since it is impossible for human nature to acquire any science
([Greek: epistemen]) by which we should know what to do or to say, in
the next resort I deem those wise who, as a rule, can hit what is best
by their opinions" ([Greek: doxas]).[16]
Isocrates should be compared with the practical teachers of his day.
In his essay _Against the Sophists_, and in his speech on the
_Antidosis_, which belong respectively to the beginning and the close
of his professional career, he has clearly marked the points which
distinguish him from "the sophists of the herd" ([Greek: agelaioi
sophistai]). First, then, he claims, and justly, greater breadth of
view. The ordinary teacher confined himself to the narrow scope of
local interests--training the young citizen to plead in the Athenian
law courts, or to speak on Athenian affairs in the ecclesia. Isocrates
sought to enlarge the mental horizon of his disciples by accustoming
them to deal with subjects which were not merely Athenian, but, in his
own phrase, Hellenic. Secondly, though he did not claim to have found
a philosophical basis for morals, it has been well said of him that
"he reflects the human spirit always on its nobler side,"[17] and
that, in an age of corrupt and impudent selfishness, he always strove
to raise the minds of his hearers into a higher and purer air.
Thirdly, his method of teaching was thorough. Technical exposition
came first. The learner was then required to apply the rules in actual
composition, which the master revised. The ordinary teachers of
rhetoric (as Aristotle says) employed their pupils in committing model
pieces to memory, but neglected to train the learner's own faculty
through his own efforts. Lastly, Isocrates stands apart from most
writers of that day in his steady effort to produce results of
permanent value. While rhetorical skill was largely engaged in the
intermittent journalism of political pamphlets, Isocrates set a higher
ambition before his school. His own essays on contemporary questions
received that finished form which has preserved them to this day. The
impulse to solid and lasting work, communicated by the example of the
master, was seen in such monuments as the _Atthis_ of Androtion, the
_Hellenics_ of Theopompus and the _Philippica_ of Ephorus.
In one of his letters to Atticus, Cicero says that he has used "all
the fragrant essences of Isocrates, and all the little stores of his
disciples."[18] The phrase has a point of which the writer himself was
perhaps scarcely conscious: the style of Isocrates had come to Cicero
through the school of Rhodes; and the Rhodian imitators had more of
Asiatic splendour than of Attic elegance. But, with this allowance
made, the passage may serve to indicate the real place of Isocrates in
the history of literary style. The old Greek critics consider him as
representing what they call the "smooth" or "florid" mode of
composition ([Greek: glaphyra, anthera harmonia]) as distinguished
from the "harsh" ([Greek: austera]) style of Antiphon and the perfect
"mean" ([Greek: mese]) of Demosthenes. Tried by a modern standard, the
language of Isocrates is certainly not "florid." The only sense in
which he merits the epithet is that (especially in his earlier work)
he delights in elaborate antitheses. Isocrates is an "orator" in the
larger sense of the Greek word _rhetor_; but his real distinction
consists in the fact that he was the first Greek who gave an artistic
finish to literary rhetoric. The practical oratory of the day had
already two clearly separated branches--the forensic, represented by
Isaeus, and the deliberative, in which Callistratus was the forerunner
of Demosthenes. Meanwhile Isocrates was giving form and rhythm to a
standard literary prose. Through the influence of his school, this
normal prose style was transmitted--with the addition of some florid
embellishments--to the first generation of Romans who studied rhetoric
in the Greek schools. The distinctive feature in the composition of
Isocrates is his structure of the periodic sentence. This, with him,
is no longer rigid or monotonous, as with Antiphon--no longer terse
and compact, as with Lysias--but ample, luxuriant, unfolding itself
(to use a Greek critic's image) like the soft beauties of a winding
river. Isocrates was the first Greek who worked out the idea of a
prose rhythm. He saw clearly both its powers and its limits; poetry
has its strict rhythms and precise metres; prose has its metres and
rhythms, not bound by a rigid framework, yet capable of being brought
under certain general laws which a good ear can recognize, and which a
speaker or writer may apply in the most various combinations. This
fundamental idea of prose rhythm, or number, is that which the style
of Isocrates has imparted to the style of Cicero. When Quintilian (x.
1. 108) says, somewhat hyperbolically, that Cicero has artistically
reproduced (_effinxisse_) "the force of Demosthenes, the wealth of
Plato, the charm of Isocrates," he means principally this smooth and
harmonious rhythm. Cicero himself expressly recognizes this original
and distinctive merit of Isocrates.[19] Thus, through Rome, and
especially through Cicero, the influence of Isocrates, as the founder
of a literary prose, has passed into the literatures of modern Europe.
It is to the eloquence of the preacher that we may perhaps look for
the nearest modern analogue of that kind in which Isocrates
excelled--especially, perhaps, to that of the great French preachers.
Isocrates was one of the three Greek authors, Demosthenes and Plato
being the others, who contributed most to form the style of Bossuet.
WORKS.--The extant works of Isocrates consist of twenty-one speeches
or discourses and nine letters.[20] Among these, the six forensic
speeches represent the first period of his literary life--belonging to
the years 403-393 B.C. All six concern private causes. They may be
classed as follows: 1. _Action for Assault_ ([Greek: dike aikias]),
Or. xx., _Against Lochites_, 394 B.C. 2. _Claim to an Inheritance_
([Greek: epidikasia]), Or. xix., _Aegineticus_, end of 394 or early in
393 B.C. 3. _Actions to Recover a Deposit_: (1) Or. xxi., _Against
Euthynus_, 403 B.C.; (2) Or. xvii., _Trapeziticus_, end of 394 or
early in 393 B.C. 4. _Action for Damage_ ([Greek: dike blabes]), Or.
xvi., _Concerning the Team of Horses_, 397 B.C. 5. _Special Plea_
([Greek: paragraphe]), Or. xviii., _Against Callimachus_, 402 B.C. Two
of these have been regarded as spurious by G. E. Benseler, viz. Or.
xxi., on account of the frequent hiatus and the short compact periods,
and Or. xvii., on the first of these grounds. But we are not warranted
in applying to the early work of Isocrates those canons which his
mature style observed. The genuineness of the speech against Euthynus
is recognized by Philostratus; while the _Trapeziticus_--thrice named
without suspicion by Harpocration--is treated by Dionysius, not only
as authentic, but as the typical forensic work of its author. The
speech against Lochites--where "a man of the people" ([Greek: tou
plethous eis]) is the speaker--exhibits much rhetorical skill. The
speech [Greek: Peri tou zeugous] ("concerning the team of horses") has
a curious interest. An Athenian citizen had complained that Alcibiades
had robbed him of a team of four horses, and sues the statesman's son
and namesake (who is the speaker) for their value. This is not the
only place in which Isocrates has marked his admiration for the genius
of Alcibiades; it appears also in the _Philippus_ and in the
_Busiris_. But, among the forensic speeches, we must, on the whole,
give the palm to the _Aegineticus_--a graphic picture of ordinary
Greek life in the islands of the Aegean. Here--especially in the
narrative--Isocrates makes a near approach to the best manner of
Lysias.
The remaining fifteen orations or discourses do not easily lend
themselves to the ordinary classification under the heads of
"deliberative" and "epideictic." Both terms must be strained; and
neither is strictly applicable to all the pieces which it is required
to cover. The work of Isocrates travelled out of the grooves in which
the rhetorical industry of the age had hitherto moved. His position
among contemporary writers was determined by ideas peculiar to
himself; and his compositions, besides having a style of their own,
are in several instances of a new kind. The only adequate principle of
classification is one which considers them in respect to their
subject-matter. Thus viewed, they form two clearly separated
groups--the scholastic and the political.
_Scholastic Writings._--Under this head we have, first, three letters
or essays of a hortatory character. (1) The letter to the young
Demonicus[21]--once a favourite subject in the schools--contains a
series of precepts neither below nor much above the average practical
morality of Greece. (2) The letter to Nicocles--the young king of the
Cyprian Salamis--sets forth the duty of a monarch to his subjects. (3)
In the third piece, it is Nicocles who speaks, and impresses on the
Salaminians their duty to their king--a piece remarkable as containing
a popular plea for monarchy, composed by a citizen of Athens. These
three letters may be referred to the years 374-372 B.C.
Next may be placed four pieces which are "displays" ([Greek:
epideixeis]) in the proper Greek sense. The _Busiris_ (Or. xi.,
390-391 B.C.) is an attempt to show how the ill-famed king of Egypt
might be praised. The _Encomium on Helen_ (Or. x., 370 B.C.), a piece
greatly superior to the last, contains the celebrated passage on the
power of beauty. These two compositions serve to illustrate their
author's view that "encomia" of the hackneyed type might be elevated
by combining the mythical matter with some topic of practical
interest--as, in the case of _Busiris_, with the institutions of
Egypt, or, in that of Helen, with the reforms of Theseus. The
_Evagoras_ (Or. ix., 365 B.C.?), the earliest known biography, is a
laudatory epitaph on a really able man--the Greek king of the Cyprian
Salamis. A passage of singular interest describes how, under his rule,
the influences of Hellenic civilization had prevailed over the
surrounding barbarism. The _Panathenaicus_ (Or. xii.), intended for
the great Panathenaea of 342 B.C., but not completed till 339 B.C.,
contains a recital of the services rendered by Athens to Greece, but
digresses into personal defence against critics; his last work,
written in extreme old age, it bears the plainest marks of failing
powers.
The third subdivision of the scholastic writings is formed by two most
interesting essays on education--that entitled _Against the Sophists_
(Or. xiii., 391-390 B.C.), and the _Antidosis_ (Or. xv., 353 B.C.).
The first of these is a manifesto put forth by Isocrates at the outset
of his professional career of teaching, in which he seeks to
distinguish his aims from those of other "sophists." These "sophists"
are (1) the "eristics" ([Greek: hoi peri tas eridas]), by whom he
seems to intend the minor Socratics, especially Euclides; (2) the
teachers of practical rhetoric, who had made exaggerated claims for
the efficacy of mere instruction, independently of natural faculty or
experience; (3) the writers of "arts" of rhetoric, who virtually
devoted themselves (as Aristotle also complains) to the lowest, or
forensic, branch of their subject (see also E. Holzner, _Platos
Phaedrus und die Sophistenrede des Isokrates_, Prague, 1894). As this
piece is the prelude to his career, its epilogue is the speech on the
"Antidosis"--so called because it has the form of a speech made in
court in answer to a challenge to undertake the burden of the
trierarchy, or else exchange properties with the challenger. The
discourse "Against the Sophists" had stated what his art was not; this
speech defines what it is. His own account of his [Greek:
philosophia]--"the discipline of discourse" ([Greek: he ton logon
paideia])--has been embodied in the sketch of it given above.
_Political Writings._--These, again, fall into two classes--those
which concern (1) the relations of Greece with Persia, (2) the
internal affairs of Greece. The first class consist of the
_Panegyricus_ (Or. iv., 380 B.C.) and the _Philippus_ (Or. v., 346
B.C.). The _Panegyricus_ takes its name from the fact that it was
given to the Greek public at the time of the Olympic
festivals--probably by means of copies circulated there. The orator
urges that Athens and Sparta should unite in leading the Greeks
against Persia. The feeling of antiquity that this noble discourse is
a masterpiece of careful work finds expression in the tradition that
it had occupied its author for more than ten years. Its excellence is
not merely that of language, but also--and perhaps even more
conspicuously--that of lucid arrangement. The _Philippus_ is an appeal
to the king of Macedon to assume that initiative in the war on Persia
which Isocrates had ceased to expect from any Greek city. In the view
of Demosthenes, Philip was the representative barbarian; in that of
Isocrates, he is the first of Hellenes, and the natural champion of
their cause.
Of those discourses which concern the internal affairs of Greece, two
have already been noticed,--that _On the Peace_ (Or. viii.), and the
_Areopagiticus_ (Or. vii.)--both of 355 B.C.--as dealing respectively
with the foreign and the home affairs of Athens. The _Plataicus_ (Or.
xiv.) is supposed to be spoken by a Plataean before the Athenian
ecclesia in 373 B.C. In that year Plataea had for the second time in
its history been destroyed by Thebes. The oration--an appeal to Athens
to restore the unhappy town--is remarkable both for the power with
which Theban cruelty is denounced, and for the genuine pathos of the
peroration. The _Archidamus_ (Or. vi.) is a speech purporting to be
delivered by Archidamus III., son of Agesilaus, in a debate at Sparta
on conditions of peace offered by Thebes in 366 B.C. It was demanded
that Sparta should recognize the independence of Messene, which had
lately been restored by Epameinondas (370 B.C.). The oration gives
brilliant expression to the feeling which such a demand was calculated
to excite in Spartans who knew the history of their own city. Xenophon
witnesses that the attitude of Sparta on this occasion was actually
such as the _Archidamus_ assumes (_Hellen._ vii. 4. 8-11).
_Letters._--The first letter--to Dionysius I.--is fragmentary; but a
passage in the _Philippus_ leaves no doubt as to its object. Isocrates
was anxious that the ruler of Syracuse should undertake the command of
Greece against Persia. The date is probably 368 B.C. Next in
chronological order stands the letter "To the Children of Jason"
(vi.). Jason, tyrant of Pherae, had been assassinated in 370 B.C.; and
no fewer than three of his successors had shared the same fate.
Isocrates now urges Thebe, the daughter of Jason, and her
half-brothers to set up a popular government. The date is 359 B.C.[22]
The letter to Archidamus III. (ix.)--the same person who is the
imaginary speaker of Oration vi.--urges him to execute the writer's
favourite idea,--"to deliver the Greeks from their feuds, and to crush
barbarian insolence." It is remarkable for a vivid picture of the
state of Greece; the date is about 356 B.C. The letter to Timotheus
(vii., 345 B.C.), ruler of Heraclea on the Euxine, introduces an
Athenian friend who is going thither, and at the same time offers some
good counsels to the benevolent despot. The letter "to the government
of Mytilene" (viii., 350 B.C.) is a petition to a newly established
oligarchy, begging them to permit the return of a democratic exile, a
distinguished musician named Agenor. The first of the two letters to
Philip of Macedon (ii.) remonstrates with him on the personal danger
to which he had recklessly exposed himself, and alludes to his
beneficent intervention in the affairs of Thessaly; the date is
probably the end of 342 B.C. The letter to Alexander (v.), then a boy
of fourteen, is a brief greeting sent along with the last, and
congratulates him on preferring "practical" to "eristic" studies--a
distinction which is explained by the sketch of the author's [Greek:
philosophia], and of his essay "Against the Sophists," given above. It
was just at this time, probably, that Alexander was beginning to
receive the lessons of Aristotle (342 B.C.). The letter to Antipater
(iv.) introduces a friend who wished to enter the military service of
Philip. Antipater was then acting as regent in Macedonia during
Philip's absence in Thrace
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