(Γοργίας), of Athens, a rhetorician of the time of Cicero. Young M. Cicero, when at Athens, received instructions from Gorgias in declamation, but his father desired him to dismiss him. (Cic. Fam. 16.21.) It appears from
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Plutarch (Plut. Cic. 24) that Gorgias led a dissolute life, and also corrupted his pupils; and this circumstance was probably the cause of Cicero's aversion to him. Gorgias was the author of several works, viz. 1. Declamations, which are alluded to by Seneca (Controv. 1.4). Some critics are of opinion that the declamations which have come down to us under the name of Gorgias of Leontini, namely, the Ἀπολογία Παλαμήδους and Ἐγκώμιον Ἑλένης, are the productions of our rhetorician. 2. A work on Athenian courtezans (Περὶ τῶν Ἀθήνῃσιν Ἑταιρίδων, Athen. xiii. pp. 567, 583, 596); but it is not quite certain whether the author of this work is the same as our rhetorician. 3. A rhetorical work, entitled Σχῆμα Διονοίας καὶ Λέξεως, in four books. The original work is lost, but a Latin abridgment by Rutilius Lupus is still extant, under the title De Figuris Sententiarum et Elecutionis. This abridgment is divided into two books, although Quintilian (9.2. §§ 102, 106) states that Rutilius Lupus abridged the four books of Gorgias into one; whence we must infer that the division into two books is an arrangement made by one of the subsequent editors of the treatise. (Comp. Ruhnken, Praefat. ad Rutil. Lup. p. x, &c.) [L.S]