A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

2. A sophist and rhetorician, was a native of Assyria. In his youth he gave himself up to sensual pleasures and debauchery; but after attaining the age of manhood, he changed his mode of life, and became a person of very respectable and sober habits. He must have lived for some time at Rome in the life of Pliny the younger, who speaks of him (Epist. 2.3; comp. Juvenal, 3.74, with the Scholiast) in terms of the highest praise. He seems to have enjoyed a very great reputation as a declaimer, and to have been particularly strong in extempore speaking. None of his productions have come down to us. Philostratus (Vit. Soph. 1.20) has dedicated a whole chapter to his biography, but relates only some anecdotes of him, and adds a few remarks on the character of his orations. (Comp. Anonym. Ἰσαίου γένος, p. 261, in Westermann's Vitarum Script. Graeci Minor.)

[L.S]