158 



ISOCRATES ISRAEL. 



times repulsed, ami lost, in the siege, 10,000 men. 

 According to the account, as published at Petersburg, 

 the Turkish garrison were put to death after the sur- 

 rciulrr, and 30,000 men massacred in cold blood. 

 The booty found was immense 230 pieces of cannon, 

 many magazines, powder, bombs, and balls, 345 

 standards, an abundance of provisions, 10,000 horses, 

 &c., to the value, as calculated, of 10,000,000 

 piastres. 



ISOCRATES ; one of the most distinguished 

 Greek orators, born at Athens, 436 B. C. His prin- 

 cipal teachers were Gorgias, Prodicus, and Protago- 

 ras. On account of his weak voice and natural 

 timidity, he was reluctant to speak in public ; but he 

 applied himself with the greatest ardour to instruc- 

 tion in the art of eloquence, and preparing orations 

 for others. He derived a considerable profit from 

 this occupation, as is evident from the fact, that he 

 received a present of twenty talents (about 18,000 

 dollars) for a speech that he wrote for Nicocles, king 

 of Cyprus. In his childhood, he was the companion 

 of Plato, and they remained friends during their 

 whole lives. He had a great veneration for Socrates . 

 After the death of Socrates, which filled his scholars 

 with fear and horror, he alone had the courage to 

 appear in mourning. He gave another proof of his 

 courage, by publicly defending Theramenes, who had 

 been proscribed by the thirty tyrants. This courage, 

 however, seems to have deserted him ; for he never 

 after ventured to appear publicly and take part in the 

 popular assemblies. This was the reason why he 

 never attained to the offices, to which, in Athens, 

 public eloquence afforded the only passport; but 

 eloquence, nevertheless, owed much to his services. 

 He was particularly distinguished for a polished style 

 and a harmonious construction of his sentences. The 

 composition, revision, and repeated polishing of his 

 speeches, occupied so much time, that he published 

 little. His celebrated panegyric on Athens (Pana- 

 thenaicus) employed him ten years. The critics of 

 his time objected to him, that his style was often pro- 

 lix and overloaded with ornament ; that he aimed 

 rather at pleasing the ear than moving the heart ; 

 that he made the sense subservient to the sound, and 

 often used unmeaning expressions and unappropriate 

 figures to round off his periods. As all his speeches 

 were modelled after the same pattern, their sameness 

 excited weariness. His subjects were the most im- 

 portant points of morals and politics. His admoni- 

 tions to princes were so gentle, that they could not 

 be offended by them, and even bestowed favours on 

 the author. He knew how to flatter them in the 

 most delicate manner. A proof of this is afforded by 

 the letter which he wrote, when ninety years of age, 

 to the Macedonian king Philip. Yet his desire for 

 the freedom of Greece was so intense, that he starved 

 himself to death, in his ninety-eighth year, from grief 

 at the unhappy battle of Cheronaea. In Plutarch's 

 time, sixty orations went under his name, not half of 

 which were, however, deemed genuine. Twenty-one 

 now remain, of which the principal are the Panegy- 

 ricus (an oration in which he exhorts the Greeks to 

 concord, and to war against the Persians, edited by 

 Morus and Spohn, Leipsic, 1817, Pinzger and Din- 

 dorf, 1825 and 1826), and the Punathenaicus. Ten 

 letters are also extant. The latest editions of all his 

 orations are those of Lange (Halle, 1803) and of 

 Coray (Paris, 1806, two volumes). Of the older 

 editions, those of H. Wolf, of Henry Stephens, 

 Bekker, and Battie are the best. 



ISOGRAPHY (from the Greek urn, equal, similar, 

 and y0, to write); the imitation of handwriting. 

 As it is too expensive and difficult for many persons 

 to collect autographs (q. v.) of famous persons, it is 

 agreeable to have at least fac-similes or isographs. 



An interesting work was completed in the year 1830, 

 called Isographie dcs Hommes celebres (Paris), con- 

 taining several hundred fac-simile copies of autograph 

 letters and signatures. Some years ago, Mr Thane 

 published a work under the title British Autography, 

 containing a collection of portraits of celebrated Eng- 

 lish characters, with the fac-simile of their autographs 

 under each ; and Mr Nichols is publishing another 

 work of the kind. It lias been often asserted, that 

 some judgment could be formed of a man's charac- 

 ter from his handwriting, and there exists a small 

 French publication L'Art dejuger les Hommes par 

 Icur Ecriturea new reason for authors to be thank- 

 ful for the invention of printing. 



1SOUARD, NICOLO. See Nicolo. 



ISPAHAN, ISFAHAN, or SPAHAWN (ancient- 

 ly Aspadona); a city of Persia, in Irak, formerly the 

 capital of the whole country; 260 miles N. E. Bassora; 

 Ion. 51 50' E. ; lat. 32 25' N. The population 

 was formerly estimated by some travellers, probably 

 with much exaggeration, at 1,100,000. Chardin, in 

 1686, stated it at 600,000. According to Olivier, it 

 was reduced, in 1796, to 50,000. In 1800, it was 

 stated at 100,000. Morier stated it in 1808. 

 from Persian authorities, at 400,000 ; but, in his 

 second journey, at 60,000. Kinnier states it at 

 200,000. According to Chardin, the walls were 

 twenty-four miles in circuit, and contained 162 

 mosques, forty-eight colleges, 1802 caravansaries, 

 and 273 public baths. A great part of the city is at 

 present a mass of ruins, with here and there an inhabit- 

 ed house. It is situated on the river Zenderout. Un- 

 der the caliphs of Bagdad, it became the capital of 

 the province of Irak. Being situated in the centre 

 of the empire, and surrounded by the most fertile 

 territories, it soon became a place of great popula- 

 tion, wealth and trade. In 1387, it was taken by 

 Timur Bee, and the citizens were given up to indis- 

 criminate massacre, and 70,000 are said to have per- 

 ished. Shah Abbas made it the seat of his empire, 

 and spared no cost in embellishing it with the most 

 splendid edifices. In 1722, it was taken by the 

 Afghans; but, in 1727, it was retaken by Nadir Shah, 

 since which it has not been a royal residence. The 

 great palace built by Shah Abbas, is said to have 

 been five miles in circuit, a great part of which space, 

 however, was laid out in ten gardens, adorned with 

 summer houses and other elegant structures. The 

 walls and buildings of this palace remain nearly en- 

 tire, but it has been stripped of nearly all its costly 

 furniture, and every thing valuable that could be re- 

 moved. The square called Meyden was equally dis- 

 tinguished, one third of a mile in length, formerly 

 encircled by a canal, bordered with plane trees ; but 

 all vestiges of both are now obliterated. Another 

 remarkable object is the Chaur Baug (four gardens), 

 a name given to an avenue of more than a mile, 

 reaching from the Meyden to the mountains east of 

 Ispahan, composed of four rows of large and beauti- 

 ful plane trees, with canals and basins to receive the 

 waters of the Zenderout. There are several hand- 

 some bridges in the city, and the mosques display 

 great magnificence. The private buildings have a 

 mean appearance, built of bricks dried in the sun, 

 but within they are handsome and convenient. The 

 streets are narrow, winding, irregular, unpaved, and 

 very dusty. When Ispahan was in its prosperity, its 

 suburbs were distinguished for their extent and 

 beauty. The principal one, Julfa, is now reduced 

 from 12,000 to 600 families Armenians, Circassians 

 and Georgians. The manufactures of the city are 

 still extensive, and it is famous for its gold brocade. It 

 is also the emporium of the inland commerce of Persia. 



ISRAEL and ISRAELITES. See Jacob and 

 Hebrews. 



