The master, having some acquaintance with the
officers who opened the court, got his young pupil a seat where he
could hear the orators without being seen. Callistratus had great
success, and his abilities were extremely admired. Demosthenes was
fired with a spirit of emulation. When he saw with what distinction
the orator was conducted home, and complimented by the people, he was
struck still more with the power of that commanding eloquence which
could carry all before it. From this time, therefore, he bade adieu to
the other studies and exercises in which boys are engaged, and applied
himself with great assiduity to declaiming, in hopes of being one day
numbered among the orators. Isaeus was the man he made use of as his
preceptor in eloquence, though Isocrates then taught it; whether it was
that the loss of his father incapacitated him to pay the sum of ten
_minae_, which was that rhetorician's usual price, or whether he
preferred the keen and subtle manner of Isaeus as more fit for public
use.
Hermippus says he met with an account in certain anonymous memoirs that
Demosthenes likewise studied under Plato, and received great assistance
from him in preparing to speak in public.
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