Plato 8.7 The Outlook in 399 BC
When Socrates died in 399 BC, the world that he had known was passing away. The middle of the fifth century BC presented a world of endless optimism, of growing democracy, spreading knowledge, expanding horizons. At the end of the same century, Athenian democracy had overreached and been decisively defeated by old-fashioned, hide-bound Spartan oligarchy, based (even more than the Athenian system) on repressive government by elites and oppression of subject peoples. With democracy under attack, the heyday of the sophists was over. Of the older generation of sophists, Protagoras was dead and Gorgias superannuated (he lived to an age of 105 or older), but still teaching in Thessaly. The culture war between the sophists and the Socratics continued, but the future was anything but clear.
Some sophists had sided with the conservative and reactionary forces. Antiphon of Rhamnous (who might be identical to Antiphon the Sophist, champion of the might-makes-right philosophy)[23] was put on trial for his support of the earlier oligarchy in Athens and executed. Critias was both a sophist and the most violent and villainous of the Thirty Tyrants. He had been killed in the uprising against the Thirty and buried without honors during the overthrow of the oligarchy. Thrasymachus, whom Plato portrays as another might-makes-right sophist, is not heard of in this period.
What would the intellectual world be without itinerant sophists and with Socrates dead, the victim of political persecution? Socrates had been a target of the Thirty Tyrants, but he was, in the end, executed by the democracy — to the eternal shame of Athenian ideals.
The ideals of the sophist were not dead. In Athens two of Gorgias’ home-grown pupils were still active: Isocrates and Polycrates the Sophist. Isocrates, who was nine years older the Plato and about 37 when Socrates died, was a student and friend of Theramenes the moderate conservative. Born into wealth as the son of a man who owned a flute factory, he received a good education. His family lost their fortune in the Peloponnesian War, so that he was forced to earn a living. He had a weak voice and no stage presence, so he could never compete as an orator. He was, however, a gifted composer who in the 390s supported himself as a speechwriter for others. Around 390 he set up a school of oratory in Athens, which became very successful and lucrative. He also wrote pamphlets in the form of virtual speeches, becoming in effect a social and political commentator. In this way sophistic values became institutionalized in Athens in the absence of wandering sophists.
Polycrates would make his name by attacking Socrates posthumously. We shall meet him again, along with Isocrates.
What would become of Socrates and his personal mission to bring self-awareness and conscience to the people of Athens? His ardent followers were keeping alive his name and his mission. But the Socratic movement was beginning to fragment from its earliest days. Each follower had his own version of Socrates, and there was a danger that, despite their best efforts to bring their master back to life, the Socratics would produce only quarreling sects rather than a unified vision of his legacy. Perhaps Socrates’ glorious quest for virtue and goodness would be for naught.
[23]. See Pendrick 2002.
