[560] Xenoph. Memor. iv, 2, 1. γράμματα πολλὰ συνειλεγμένον ποιητῶν τε καὶ σοφιστῶν τῶν εὐδοκιμωτάτων....
The word σοφιστῶν is here used just in the same sense as τοὺς θησαυροὺς τῶν πάλαι σοφῶν ἀνδρῶν, οὓς ἐκεῖνοι κατέλιπον ἐν βιβλίοις γράψαντες, etc. (Memor. i, 6, 14.) It is used in a different sense in another passage (i, 1, 11), to signify teachers who gave instruction on physical and astronomical subjects, which Sokratês and Xenophon both disapproved.
[561] Isokratês, Orat. v, ad Philipp. sect. 14: see Heindorf’s note on the Euthydemus of Plato, p. 305, C. sect. 79.
[562] Diogen. Laërt. ix, 65. Ἔσπετε νῦν μοι, ὅσοι πολυπράγμονές ἐστε σοφισταί (Diogen. Laërt. viii, 74).
Demetrius of Trœzen numbered Empedoklês as a sophist. Isokratês speaks of Empedoklês, Ion, Alkmæon, Parmenidês, Melissus, Gorgias, all as οἱ παλαιοὶ σοφισταί; all as having taught different περιττολογίας about the elements of the physical world (Isok. de Permut. sect. 288).
[563] Eurip. Med. 289:—
Χρὴ δ᾽ οὔποθ᾽ ὅστις ἀρτίφρων πέφυκ᾽ ἀνὴρ,
Παῖδας περισσῶς ἐκδιδάσκεσθαι σοφούς.
Χωρὶς γὰρ ἄλλης, ἧς ἔχουσιν, ἀργίας,
Φθόνον πρὸς ἀστῶν ἀλφάνουσι δυσμενῆ.