‎LYSIAS & ISOCRATES. ‎
‎The orations of Lysias and Isocrates, translated from the Greek; with some account of their lives; and a discourse on the history, manners, and character of the Greeks, from the conclusion of the Peloponnesian war, to the battle of Chaeronea, by John Gillies, LL.D. ‎

‎London, Edinburgh, Printed for J. Murray, and J. Bell, 1778. ‎

Reference : 140113

‎4to. (XXXVI),CXXXV,(1 blank),498,(1 errata)(1 blank) p.; a portrait of Lysias & of Isocrates. Calf 28 cm (Ref: ESTC Citation No. T106138; Hoffmann 2,490 & 2,575: 'eine gute Übersetzung'; Ebert 10628 & 12573; Moss 2,119: 'faithful and masterly'; Brunet 3,1258: 'Traduction fidèle, et comme telle fort estimée; Graesse 4,315; Ebert 12573; Dict. of British Classicists 2,370/2) (Details: Back ruled gilt and with 5 raised bands. Red morocco shield with gold lettering in the second compartment. Small and fading gilt coat of arms on the boards, within a surrounding banner, on which: 'The Society of writers to the Signet'. (This is a society of Scottish lawyers) Wide margins. Both engravings were made 'ex marmore antiquo in Museo Capitolino'. Edges dyed red) (Condition: Binding scuffed & scratched. Extremities chafed, corners bumped. Joints split but strong. Front hinge cracking. Some insignificant foxing. Old ink inscription on the title reading: 'The Society of Clerks to the Signet') (Note: The speeches of the Athenian orators Lysias (c. 459-380 B.C.) and Isocrates (436-338 B.C.) are of great importance for the understanding of the great political issues of the 4th century. Their speeches provide us with a most valuable insight in, and commentary on the social and political events in Athens. 'Taken separately, their writings are imperfect; when combined, they afford a system of information equally extensive and satisfactory'. (Preface p. pi3 recto). The English translation of 18 speeches of Lysias and 6 of Isocrates by the Scottish classical scholar and ancient historian John Gillies, 1747-1836, is mentioned one of his major contributions to classical scholarship. 'In the long preliminary discourse on the history and private lives and manners of the Greeks during the period 404 to 338 B.C., Gillies specifically adopted Isocrates as his source, partly no doubt because it suited his own strongly monarchist views to do so'. (DBC 2,371) During the conference 'Revolutions and Classics' of the UCL, held in 2016, where scholars examined the manner in which classical texts have been deployed in societies undergoing rapid and radical social change, it was argued by the young independent scholar Sebastian Robins, that it was Gillies' intention to make available to his contemporaries classical texts that he believed bore immediately on the most pressing political questions of the day: the American Revolutionary War, a war which had just begun. This armed conflict between Great Britain and its 13 North American colonies raged from 1775 till 1783, during which the colonies declared in July 1776 independence as the United States of America. The authority of the two Athenian orators, Robins says, overrules and rectifies that of the contemporary Athenian orator Demosthenes, and that of the late antique historian/philosopher Plutarch and others 'on the basis of which some of the most ingenious eighteenth-century writers had raised flattering accounts of Greek virtue and glory. Their speeches, moreover, contain compelling evidence of the violence, prejudice, and corruption of the ancient Greeks and of the shortcomings of ancient republican institutions. Champions of the nascent American republic on both sides of the Atlantic, Gillies declares', ought, on the authority of the speeches he translates, to reassess their faith in the relationship between democracy and virtue, which he assumed, underpinned the Congressional declarion (of 1776). Gillies is best known for his 'History of Ancient Greece' (1786), the first substantial complete survey in English of the whole Greek history to the time of August. It became popular, and was quickly translated into German and French) (Provenance: Stamp of the Scottish 'Society of the writers to the Signet' on the boards) (Collation: pi4, A-C4, D2, a-3r4; B-3R4, 3S2 (portrait after leaf L1 and T3) (Photographs on request) (Heavy book, may require extra shipping costs) ‎