PANEGYRIC: Composition of demonstrative and advisory speech. The greatness of Athens, the achievements of the city in times of peace and war. The need for pan-Hellenic unity so that the fight against the barbarians can be possible, with leadership shared between Athens and Sparta.
DEMOCRITUS: After the conditions shaped by the Peace of Philip, Isocrates calls upon the king of Macedon, Philip, to unite the Greeks in the fight against the Persians under his leadership.
Isocrates was born in 436 BC in the deme of Erchia, to the east of Athens (modern Spata), and died in 338 BC, after the Battle of Chaeronea between the Macedonians and the Greeks of southern Greece. His father had a workshop for making flutes and therefore the financial means to ensure his son's education, who was fortunate to attend lessons alongside the sophists Protagoras, Prodicus, and Gorgias, as well as next to the great philosopher of Athens, Socrates, who had a significant influence on shaping his gentle and prudent character, in whom he recognized great virtues and a bright future, as reflected in the Platonic dialogue "Phaedrus".
