Gorgias (ca. 480-ca. 376 BC) was a Greek sophist and rhetorician. He believed that prose should rival poetry as a vehicle of persuasive and lofty expression and made important contributions to the development of epideictic, or ceremonial, oratory.

Gorgias was born in Leontini on the island of Sicily and is said to have lived more than 100 years. He went to Athens in 427 B.C. at the head of a delegation from his native city and caused a great stir with his new rhetorical style. His fame became immense throughout the Greek world, and according to Isocrates, his pupil, he was able to make a handsome fortune through the fees he charged. Noteworthy among the honors he received were invitations to deliver a funeral oration at Athens and to speak on Hellenic unity at Olympia. He was permitted to have a golden statue of himself erected at Delphi. Although he...