[811]. Plat. de Rep. t. vi. p. 286. seq. Cf. Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 331.
[812]. That money was the sole object of the sophists is observed by Isocrates, Hel. Encom. § 4. Elsewhere, with a stroke of sly humour not usual with him, he says, they would sell anything short of immortality for three or four minæ.—Cont. Sophist. § 3, p. 576. See on the whole subject of the Sophists, Hard. Dissert. v. Bibl. Acad. t. iii. p. 240. sqq. Muret. in Arist. Ethic. p. 533. Cressol. Theat. Rhet. v. iii. p. 447.
[813]. Plat. Protag. t. i. p. 163. seq. Bekk.
[814]. At a late period, by a decree of Sophocles, the sophists were driven out of Attica.—Athen. xiii. 92. Cf. Cressol. Theat. Rhet. i. 12. p. 87.
[815]. Muretus considers the word sophist to be synonymous with a teacher of eloquence: “Sophista, id est, dicendi magister;” and, speaking of this same Thrasymachos, cites a passage from Cicero which attributes to him the invention of the rhetorical style. Orat. § 12. Suidas regards Thrasymachos as the first who made use of the period and the colon; and supposes him to have been pupil to Plato and Isocrates, whereas he preceded both.—Muret. Comm. p. 631. seq.
[816]. Hist. Sophist. p. 13.
[817]. Clinton, Fast. Hellen. ii. 28. 65. 67. Geel (Hist. Sophist. p. 14) assumes the seventieth Olympiad as the date of his birth; but as it seems to result from the text of Pausanias that he was still living in 380. B.C. this would extend the duration of his life beyond that assigned to it by any ancient writer.
[818]. Of whom, as Muretus (Comm. p. 631. seq.) observes, no mention occurs save in Plato de Repub. i. § 2. t. i. p. 8. Stallb.
[819]. Var. Hist. i. 23. Diog. Laert. viii. 58.—Mr. Clinton, however, adopts the opinion of Diogenes (Fast. Hell. ii. 365); and, to render it probable, supposes Empedocles to have been a few years older than his pupil.
[820]. Plat. Men. p. 14. g.