When the court is already convinced by an argued demonstration of the justice of the case, an appeal to pity or indignation may be overpowering; without such preparation it is nothing but a last resort of weakness. Isaeus, though he uses such appeals, as indeed he wields every weapon of the orator’s armoury, uses them with moderation and discernment, showing in this, as in all his tactics, a sound knowledge of practical utility. § 4. _Speeches_ The ‘Life’ by the Pseudo-Plutarch tells us that sixty-four speeches were attributed to Isaeus, of which fifty were considered genuine. He also composed an _Art of Rhetoric_. We now possess eleven and a considerable fragment of a twelfth, and know the titles of forty-two others. The eleven speeches which are extant all deal directly or indirectly with inheritances. Six of these are connected with διαδικάσιαι—trials to decide who is the righteous claimant—and their titles are as follows:—_On the Estate of Cleonymus_ (Or. i.), date 360-353 B.C.; _On the Estate of Nicostratus_ (Or. iv.), the date is uncertain—the author of the ‘argument’ asserts, with no plausibility, that Isaeus delivered the speech in his own person; _On the Estate of Apollodorus_ (Or. vii.), about 353 B.C.; _On the Estate of Ciron_ (Or. viii.) (_see above_, pp. 108-10), date uncertain, perhaps circa 375 B.C.; _On the Estate of Astyphilus_ (Or. ix.), date perhaps about 369 B.C.; _On the Estate of Aristarchus_, date probably between 377 and 371 B.C. Three speeches deal with prosecutions for false witness in connection with testamentary cases, viz. _On the Estate of Menecles_ (Or. ii.), date about 354 B.C.; _On the Estate of Pyrrhus_ (Or. iii.), of uncertain date; _On the Estate of Philoctemon_ (Or. vi.),—the date of this speech can be fixed with certainty at 364-363 B.C., as we learn from § 14 that it is now fifty-two years since the Athenian expedition sailed to Sicily. Oration v., _On the Estate of Dicaeogenes_, is in an ἐγγύης δίκη, an action to compel Leochares, who was surety for Dicaeogenes in an agreement connected with the will of the latter’s cousin, also named Dicaeogenes, to carry out the contract, since Dicaeogenes, the principal, is a defaulter. The date can only be fixed by the references to the death of the testator, who was killed in battle at Cnidos. There are two engagements which might be referred to, the first in 412 B.C., the second in 394 B.C. Twenty-two years have elapsed between that event and the present trial, so the date is either 390 B.C.—many years earlier than that of any other speech of Isaeus—or 372 B.C. _On the Estate of Hagnias_ (Or. xi.) is in a prosecution of a guardian for ill-treatment of his ward under a will.