Finally, Pericles,See Isoc. 8.126. because he was both a good leader of the people and an excellent orator, so adorned the city with temples, monuments, and other objects of beauty, that even today visitors who come to Athens think her worthy of ruling not only the Hellenes, but all the world; and, more than this, he stored away in the Acropolis a sum of not less than ten thousand talents.

And of these men who carried out such great enterprises not one neglected the art of discourse; nay, so much more did they apply their minds to eloquence than to other things, that Solon was named one of the seven sophistsThe term “sophists” here is equivalent to “wise men” ( SOFOI/). The list of the “Seven Sages” varied, but Solon was always included. and was given the title which is now dishonored and on trial here; and Pericles studied under two of the sophists, Anaxagoras of ClazomenaeFor the relation of Pericles to Anaxagoras see Plut. Per. and Damon,See Plat. Lach. 180d. the latter in his day reputed to be the wisest among the Athenians.

Could one, then, show more clearly than by these examples that the powers of eloquence do not turn men into evil-doers? No, but, on the other hand, those who are evil from their birth, like my accuser, will, I doubt not, continue to the end indulging their depravity both in words and in deeds.