Plato’s Gorgias is firmly set in the cultural and political climate of Athens in the late fifth and early fourth centuries BCE, the nadir of what is often called the “Classical Period” (479-323 BCE). The dialogue debates issues that were of great interest at the time, including the nature of oratory and the social responsibility of politicians. In the Gorgias, as in many of Plato’s dialogues, oratory is construed in opposition to true philosophy (philosophia), a notion first popularized by Plato himself in his writings. Whereas philosophy seeks knowledge of the truth, oratory is concerned merely with dominating the masses through persuasion and manipulation.

Plato’s disapproval of oratory is connected to his broader disapproval of sophistry. The sophists were itinerant intellectuals who taught their pupils how to speak effectively (oratory) alongside other arts deemed important in public and intellectual life. For their instruction, they typically charged a fee. Plato presented the sophists as predatory and dishonest teachers who attracted clients by overturning everything that was traditional and noble, and even today the sophists of ancient Greece are commonly seen through Plato’s eyes. The sophists themselves, however, seem to have regarded their service as the instilling of “excellence” or “virtue” (arete) in their pupils.