Abstract

A correct interpretation of the so-called Isocrates’ praise at the end of Plato’s “Phaedrusµ implies an accurate reconstruction and reconsideration of the polemics between Isocrates, Antisthenes, and Plato. In particular, in Plato’s expression tis philosophia one should consider the second term to have a Isocratean rather than a Platonic meaning. Through this interpretation, new light can be shed on the other expressions and on the other polemical allusions of the passage. The vaticinium ex eventu aims to acknowledge Isocrates’ transition from the field of logography, practiced in his youth, to the more important rhetoric of his maturity.