The orators have influence; they employ their talents in eloquence to accuse their political enemies.  Often they possess riches, for they are paid for supporting one party or the other:  AEschines is retained by the king of Macedon; Demosthenes accepts fees from the king of Persia.

Some of the orators, instead of delivering their own orations, wrote speeches for others.  When an Athenian citizen had a case at court, he did not desire, as we do, that an advocate plead his case for him; the law required that each speak in person.  He therefore sought an orator and had him compose a speech which he learned by heart and recited before the tribunal.

Other orators travelled through the cities of Greece speaking on subjects which pleased their fancy.  Sometimes they gave lectures, as we should say.

The oldest orators spoke simply, limiting themselves to an account of the facts without oratorical flourishes; on the platform they were almost rigid without loud speaking or gesticulation.  Pericles delivered his orations with a calm air, so quietly, indeed, that no fold of his mantle was disturbed.  When he appeared at the tribune, his head, according to custom, crowned with leaves, he might have been taken, said the people, “for a god of Olympus.”  But the orators who followed wished to move the public.  They assumed an animated style, pacing the tribune in a declamatory and agitated manner.  The people became accustomed to this form of eloquence.  The first time that Demosthenes came to the tribune the assembly shouted with laughter; the orator could not enunciate, he carried himself ill.  He disciplined himself in declamation and gesture and became the favorite of the people.  Later when he was asked what was the first quality of the orator, he replied, “Action, and the second, action, and the third, action.”  Action, that is delivery, was more to the Greeks than the sense of the discourse.

=The Sages.=—­For some centuries there had been, especially among the Greeks of Asia, men who observed and reflected on things.  They were called by a name which signifies at once wise men and scholars.  They busied themselves with physics, astronomy, natural history, for as yet science was not separated from philosophy.  Such were in the seventh century the celebrated Seven Sages of Greece.

=The Sophists.=—­About the time of Pericles there came to Athens men who professed to teach wisdom.  They gathered many pupils and charged fees for their lessons.  Ordinarily they attacked the religion, customs, and institutions of Greek cities, showing that they were not founded on reason.  They concluded that men could not know anything with certainty (which was quite true for their time), that men can know nothing at all, and that nothing is true or false:  “Nothing exists,” said one of them, “and if it did exist, we could not know it.”  These professors of scepticism were called sophists.  Some of them were at the same time orators.